Well, It's been an interesting couple of days! With snow, car rides, back aches, snow chains, and so much more. It's only been a few days into the New Year, and I can say I've already learned a lot! Firstly, I'm happy to say that I've kept up with my jar of blessings. No, I haven't been able to get a jar yet, I'm waiting for all our Animal Crackers to be eaten so I can use that, but nonetheless, I'm keeping a notebook from day to day of special blessings. Once the Animal Crackers are gone, I'll tear them out, cut them up by day, and stick them in there ;) It has been a special blessing to me, thinking about those blessings at the end of the day. I can recall the great things God has provided, and God has done. It'll be really nice to read them all at the end of the year.
I've also learned that my prayer needs work. Of course I don't think it will ever be perfect, but I am always reminded of how powerful prayer can really be! I think back to the past year, and of course, I prayed whenever I could, but my prayer was always focusing around me. Things I was thankful for, things I needed help with, things that I wanted, etc. etc. Now of course, those things aren't bad to pray for, I think God wants to hear about me too, but I often neglected praying for someone else because I was too busy thinking about myself. So I'm learning to work on that as well.
Thirdly, I have been reminded once again that spending time with God can be such a wonderful thing! This morning, I woke up in a terrible attitude, or in other words, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I decided I would keep my mouth shut so I wouldn't take it out on anyone else, but in my head, and my heart, I couldn't help but complain, get upset, and just flat out have a bad attitude. I woke up later than I wanted to, I didn't get a chance to read or pray like I normally would like to, I was preparing for being stuck in the car for a few hours, and due to my parents hurting their backs, I was preparing for my brother and myself packing up the cars, by ourselves, to head home from a few days in the snow. Anyways, I woke up, got changed and washed up, packed up, had breakfast, and got in the car, but to my dismay, I still had a bad attitude! I don't know exactly what it was from, or why I had it, but it was there. I think the devil was using it to his advantage. As I was in the car, I had a few hours to kill. I could listen to some music, listen to a sermon, take a nap, or read. Of course I normally get queasy when I read in the car, but I thought I would give it a try again. I knew I wasn't able to read before, due to waking up late, so I decided I would use the time I had to spend a little time with God. I think it was a good choice! I have been working on reading through different books at a time, and while I am in Deuteronomy, I took a little hiatus from that to work on reading through Hebrews. Today I was in Hebrews 12. Because I had so much time to read, I used the time I had. I read through each verse, slowly, contemplating it, thinking about what it meant, reading the study portion of my Bible to see what they thought, and reading it over, and over, and over. After I read through Hebrews 12, I remembered a chapter, a friend recommended to me. I had read it before, but I can always get something new from the Bible, so I read it again. I then read in Romans 9. I did the same thing, I read each verse, over, and over, and over. I contemplated it, thought about it, and studied it. I ended up reading for almost an hour!!!! Now, I don't say all that to toot my own horn, That's the only time I've ever read that long, but I say all that to say, it was such a refreshing experience! I read things I had never noticed before, I thought about things I had never thought of before, God had given me peace, and my bad attitude was gone! It seemed all bad thoughts went away, all complaining went away, and after thinking for so long, I now have a new idea for another blog post :) We are so priveleged to own a copy of God's word. It's taken some work to put together, but after some effort, time, and inspiration from God, 40 men put together a great letter from Him! There are so many people in the world who have never even seen a page, never heard the name of God, and many will die without doing so, but in this great country we live in, we have the freedom, and privelege of owning several copies of that Bible in our own home. Today was special for me because I could take that great letter, and spend some time with God. I hope to continue to spend time with Him every day.
Not only can we hear from Him, but He allows us to talk to Him as well. We can come to Him anytime, about anything, anywhere, and we can tell him our needs, wants, cares, worries, and the prayers of others too. I own a very special purity ring. It was a Christmas present a few years ago from my parents. I've made a promise to myself, my future wife (whoever it may be), and most importantly to God, that I will stay pure until the night of my marriage. For me, it's a symbol of that promise to myself, and others around me who see it. Anyways, I hardly ever take it off for the fear of losing it. As we were playing in the snow the other night, I took off my gloves, and was brushing some snow off my jacket sleeve. Sadly, my ring went flying! Due to my eyesight, I wasn't able to see exactly where it landed, not to mention, it was dark, and the sun had gone down. I got down to look in the little light that I had, but I couldn't find it. There was nobody nearby either because they were walking the dog down the street, or they were inside, so I called to somebody, but nobody answered. I would've run to get someone to help me, but I didn't want to move because I knew the generic area it was in. That's when I decided to pray. I knew if anyone could help me find it, it would be God. He cares about every little sparrow, every little hair, and every little grain of sand, (Matthew 10:29-31; Luke 12:6-7) so why not my special ring too! I prayed, and asked if it was His will, He would help me find it. As I finished praying, I pulled out my cellphone for a little extra light, I squatted down to try and find it once again, and the very first place I looked, right in between my feet, there it was, lying in the snow.
As I said before, I say none of this to boast about myself, I would be the first to tell you, I am far from perfect. Of course, I try and spend as much time with God as I can, but that doesn't make me any better than anyone else either! I as well know that there wasn't really a main point behind today's blog post, and for all I know, it may not make sense to anybody, but for me, I have learned a lot already in the New Year, and I'm here to say, with the many blessings of life, with reading the Bible, with praying, and with so much more, God has been good! We serve a great God, and while I may have been rambling on a little bit, I look forward to what's in store for the rest of this year!
I still have that good idea for a blog post, but I will save that for another day. I will hopefully write again very soon! Have a great evening!
~Daniel~ :)
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