Every year the school I attended hosted a talent contest. It had categories that ranged from model car building to singing and just about everything in between. One year a friend and I decided we would enter the singing contest. We would bring our own rendition of the national anthem. We found an empty class room and started belting out the anthem.

We were doing a bang up job of singing (poorly mind you) when a student appeared at the door wondering exactly what was going on. His teacher had sent him from the adjacent room to see if we could tone it down a little! We had both forgotten how thin the walls where and how our voices would carry into the surrounding class rooms.

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I could easily title this devotional part 2 from yesterdays writing.

If I have faith in the Lord’s plan for my life, then I see everything through His eyes. What trouble could come my way that it would not be part of where He is taking me on our journey together and not be for my ultimate good?

A person of faith has to be the devils biggest enemies. Honestly, if I trust in the Lord, whom shall I fear? Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation– whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life– of whom shall I be afraid?

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On our way home from a recent trip, I was expressing to Joanne that I felt we needed a building to house our equipment. Later that afternoon, she found a place not far from the house for sale. We rode by the property and looked at it from the fence, it appeared to be the perfect building that would fit all of our needs. The criteria, it must have at least 13 foot high doors and be 40 feet deep for the big motorhome to fit inside. From the fence it looked like it would work.

I contacted the realtor and asked about the property. He said the bank had just dropped the price $19,000. I asked about the door height, he was uncertain. We set up a time to see the property after returning from our next event. Our minds raced with the possibilities of what we could do if we could purchase this place. My fleece was the height of the doors, if it was under 13 feet, then it simply would not work. The minimum clearance for the big motorhome is 12 feet 6 inches.

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“Faith is believing in what you can’t see, following a voice you can’t prove you heard and living by principles that God says are true but don’t make sense in this world.” I can’t remember exactly where I found this particular quote, however, it does a great job of expressing who I am at my core and what I stand on as I walk through life each day.

I remember a discussion on the passage in James (James 2:14-26) about faith and good deeds with a group of elders at church many years ago. When asked what I thought the scripture meant, I explained good deeds where an outward expression of your faith in a loving God. They all looked at me and said no, that’s not it at all. I honestly don’t remember what their explanation was, all I recall is it seemed very ‘religious’.

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“Can you choose to forgive her”, where my words to a man I was counseling as I spoke with him about his relationship with his wife. He was mad and hurt and wanted restitution, restoration and for her to suffer as much as he had during their separation.

There is a spirit of bitterness we like to harbor in life. It seems completely ridiculous that a person would want to be miserable, yet so many folks choose to be that way. I use to be really bad about holding a grudge against people. I never did anything to impact them, other than be mad and have ugly thoughts about them. It only impacted me and those around me. Now just how dumb does all of that sound…very!

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