You Choose!

“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”
―Joshua 24:15, NIV

Years ago, I walked past the room of my special-needs daughter and overheard her talking to her make-believe friend.

"Leave my ear alone", she said. "Quit trying to get the Lord out. I want Him in there."

I’ll never know the scenario being painted in her head, but her words went straight to my heart. Her conversation speaks of our relentless struggle with good and evil as we live out our days on the earth. At times, it’s as if we have an angel on one shoulder pleading with us and a demon on the other taunting us while we wrestle with which voice to obey.

At a specific point in time, believers make a conscious decision to follow Christ. But choosing to follow Christ is not simply a one-time decree, it’s a daily resolve―a moment by moment determination to invite Him into every aspect of our lives. The choices we make are crucial.

Satan unremittingly says, “Get the Lord out,” but he doesn’t make us do it. That decision is uniquely ours. 

I pray you will choose as my daughter did, to “want Him in there.”

Keep your sunny-side up!
Starr

AND SHE SCORES!!!!
No need to frantically chase the ball.
Just wait till it comes to you and drop it in.

Photo: Ashley receives some pre-game advice for Special Olympics basketball. 

A Different Drummer

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions,

perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Let him step to the music which he hears,

however measured or far away."

― Henry David Thoreau―

"None of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" ―1 Corinthians 4:6-7, ESV

The video below simply makes my heart sing.

Kudos to Waxahachie High School's exhibition of true school spirit ―the spirit of inclusion. The pride on this young man's face is almost more than I can stand.

Be still my heart!

 

Also, note the thrill of the drummer with the glasses just to the right of the one with Down syndrome. His joy seems to equal that of the young man with DS.

Helping someone shine in the face of affliction has a way of lifting one's own spirit.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." ―Philippians 2:3-4, NIV

Now it's your turn to "get down."

Is there something you can do today to include someone who marches to the beat of a different drummer? If so, strike up the band and step to the beat any way you please.

Please leave a comment.

Keep your sunny-side up!
Starr

Photo taken of our daughter, Ashley, in the late '70's