Well, Do you know what is the most commonly stolen food in the world? Alcohol; Chocalate: Cheese; Soda? Make a guess & we'll find out tomorrow.
Well VBS is over, Parker's arm is set & the decorations for VBS are cleaned up, and many children are going back to school soon. Can you believe that summer is almost over?
Here's the answer to the question that keeps you up nights. What do you call a crate of ducks? yeah you guessed it; A box of quackers. Oh do you feel better now? That is what you call a web of deceit, feet that's is. Ha!
Thursday 8/3
Eccl. 2:17 "So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless - like chasing the wind."
Growing up in the Ozark mountains I had never experienced "dust devils" like we have out here on the High Sierra countryside. Have you ever stood still as a dust devil comes toward you & then passes by you? Talk about a rush. The wind try's to swoop you off your feet, while the various particles of dust, sand, even grain particles surround you. If you decide to do this, better close your eyes, cause all those particles will get in your eyes.
Well, you may be asking, What does a dust devil have to do with this verse? Well, to me that is the experience I feel when I am thinking of chasing the wind.
For a minute in time; the wind surrounds you, almost blowing you off your feet. For an instant you feel powerless, inconsiquential. I think that this is what Solomon felt for the moment in time that he faced while delving into his reasoning mind.
Have you ever been building a sand castle on the beach, with a mote, huge pillars, large steeples, you worked on it for quite a long time forgetting the force of the ocean & its tide was making its way up to your creation. Suddenly a wave washes up to your creation & everything crumbles, and by the time a few waves make their way onto your castle it is like your castle was never in existence. Maybe just before that wave rushed in someone took a picture & that is the only thing left of your magnificent creation, a memory.
This feeling you had when standing back and taking in the huge effort of that sand castle being built, of its grandeur. Sometimes, when we look at life, in this way, we can sense the feeling that Solomon was referring to here in this verse.
Now if you would think about this dilemma for a minute, we all face the temporary forces of our world. We dust, sweep, mop, wash off the flat surfaces in our home & what seems only moments, they return to disorder. This mindset could cause us to a experience a feeling of despair, Right?
If we look at life through these lenses, we can easily fall into an attitude of despair. Just the other day while babysitting my grand children, we built a tent, wall of pillows, covered with various blankets, we built a variable castle, we told stories of incidents in the past, even reflected on some stories from the Bible. We ate some special food delights, drank juice from our sippy cups, laughed about the events we had enjoyed in the past - (through pictures on my ipad and a picture device we have in our living room).
Now we can look at these pictures in despair or delight, the difference is our outlook. We can allow these viewpoints to cause us to wonder over these memories, or we can sorrow after these times being gone. Its all up to us.
So Go With God for He can turn these memories to joy. In the same way when we sing songs of worship at church we can joy in the works that our Father has brought into our lives, or we can just impatiently suffer through this time. Its all up to our outlook.
When I was a young boy, my grandmother would tell us stories of her childhood, in the darkness, lights turned off, and we would be enthralled with these long gone accounts of her childhhood. We never got tired of hearing those stories, in fact the next week we would beg for her to tell the same story over again. In fact, right now I can run the wonder of those stories through my mind. In fact last time I was babysitting my grandchildren I told one of those stories to them, and they wanted to hear more, more, more. Ha!
This is the very solution for us when we are struggling with todays struggles, reflect back on the many wonderful times that our Father reached into our lives through many wonderful blessings. He brought these through wonderful people, events, even miracles that He showered on us. Take a minute & remember some of those works of wonders that He graciously brought into your life. Take the time to tell someone else in your life of His blessings that our wonderful Father showered on you.
Psa. 139:17 "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them."
Chocolate