PREPARE FOR WHAT'S COMING

Have you ever had anything happen to you that you were totally unprepared for? Have you ever seen or heard of something happening to someone else and thought it could happen to you. Unfortunately, many people see something happening to someone else and think it could never happen to them. Well, not me. My grandmother was always thinking about what could happen if you do this and what could happen if you do that and I guess she passed that on down to me. Some people call it worrying but I call it being prepared. I think it’s reckless and irresponsible to begin anything without considering the possible negative outcome. We should never just jump into anything without thinking it out first. We always need to be safety-minded.

Remember my little blue Geo Metro? Well, I have another tale to tell you about it. One day I was going to check all the fluids as I always did once a week. That’s the life of your vehicle. When I pulled the hood release, I felt the cable break and the hood did not unlatch. I finally got it open but it wouldn’t latch back. The safety latch was working but I didn’t trust that enough to drive down the road. I had heard of several people having wrecks from car hoods fly up while going down the road so I put a bungee cord on it to keep the wind from blowing up under the hood.

I thought about what I would do if the hood were to blow up and block my view while driving down the road. I actually pictured it in my mind and planned out a strategy in case it ever happened to me. My plan was to put my head out the window and calmly apply the brakes and slowly and safely get the car off the road without having a wreck.

Then one morning, I was on my way to work, minding my own business, when my windshield suddenly turned blue and shattered. There was no warning like I thought there would be. I didn’t even have time to think about it. It was just there. I immediately put my well-thought-out plan into action. I put my head out the window so I could see the road and began applying the breaks and soon I was safely off the road. Thank God I had thought about what COULD happen before it did. Thank God I was prepared. If not, who knows what might have happened?

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus and his disciples warn us to be prepared for him to return. If we are not prepared when he comes back, we will not see heaven. It’s very important to have a plan. Thankfully, God has a plan for us already. He sent his son to live a sinless life and then die in our place so we could live forever. Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again in order to get into heaven (John 3:1-7). This is something beyond scientific explanation. It’s supernatural. In this process, our sins are washed away, we become a new person with a clean slate, and the Holy Spirit comes to live in our minds and guides us in making the right decisions every day.

Jesus is coming back soon and we need to be prepared. If you can’t say without a doubt that you’re ready, then please talk to God right now and make sure you don’t miss out on heaven. The only alternative is hell, and I’m sure nobody wants that. So be prepared and I’ll see you there.

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STUCK - PART 3

This is part three of a post from two years ago called “Stuck.” In parts 1 and part 2, I shared a few experiences, from when I was younger and got stuck in some bad situations. In part 3, I want to talk about a few other times I was stuck.

My cousins and I were out riding around the old back roads. I always liked going down roads I had never gone down before. We were in a place that is known to flood when it rains a lot. There were sand bars on the road and in the fields left there from times when the river had overflowed into that area.

The road was getting rougher the farther we went, and I didn’t want to mess my car up, so I decided to turn around and head back to more familiar roads. I soon saw a little opening where trucks and tractors entered the field so I drove in to turn around. Well, that did it. The tires quickly sunk into that sand and my car came to a complete stop without me even applying the brake. WE WERE STUCK!

We all got out of the car to see how bad the situation was. It was pretty bad. Just about that time an old car came around the curve and slowly eased up to where we were and came to a stop. There were several shady-looking characters in the car and one of them stuck his head out and asked, “Y’all Need Ne help?”

Now, as far as I know, those men may have been the nicest guys in the world, just out riding around, like we were, but we were just teens and, at the time, most of our experiences with people who drink had not been good ones, so we said, “No Thanks.” They drove on and we started working to get the car unstuck. It wasn’t as bad as we had first thought, so we got it out of the sand, and we were soon on our way.

Another time that comes to mind is a little disturbing to me when I think back on it, but I’ll just go with “desperate times call for desperate measures.” My oldest son wasn’t even two yet. He and I were out just riding around. I came upon an old road that I had been down several years before I started driving. It was once the main road that connected two towns, but it hadn’t been used by the general public in many years. It was mostly used by deer hunters and dune buggy, and ATV riders. It was literally a dirt road.

As I drove down the road I was thinking it was still in pretty good shape. After we had driven for a while, I came around a curve and the road was blocked. A tree had fallen into the road. Even if the tree had not been there, it would have been impossible to continue on because there was a mud hole right where the tree had fallen. I was thinking we will have to turn back, but I noticed a trail bypassing the tree and mud hole. It appeared that several vehicles had left the road and had driven around the base of the tree.

There was a hump all down the side of the road where the road bank was higher than the road itself, so I knew that might be a problem. I was driving a small Toyota car, and it was pretty low to the ground. I knew I would not get over that hump traveling at a slow speed, so I gave it some gas and turned the wheel just as I came upon the detour. Instead of the car going over the hump and around the tree as I had planned, the tire hit the hump and simply slid down it, turning the car back on the road, and into the mud hole, and up under the fallen tree. I WAS STUCK AGAIN!

I tried to reverse the car but it only spun. I had some experience with stuck cars and I was sure it only needed a bit of a push while someone gave it a little gas. I had a dilemma because I had nobody to help me. My son was only a baby and he couldn’t help. He didn’t even know there was anything wrong. He just sat there in his car seat looking around.

We needed to get out of there. We were a long way from the main road and it would be getting dark soon. There was no time to walk out. I don’t remember seeing any light bulb pop up over my head, but I had an idea. I could turn the car on and put it in gear, then I could control the accelerator from under the hood. Then when the car came out of the mud, I could pull the coil wire off and the car would stop. Great idea, right? I wasn’t sure, so I unbuckled the car seat and took it out of the car with my son still buckled in it. Then I put him on the other side of some small trees on a higher level so I could still see him and there would be no way for the car to get anywhere near him just in case things didn’t go as planned.

With the car in gear and the wheels turning backward, I started pushing and it started moving. It was working! Then all of a sudden the hood started closing on me. It was being pushed down as the car was backing under the fallen tree. “No, no, no!” I screamed. I had to kill the car and it was still stuck.

While my son was just sitting quietly in his car seat just watching the action, and I was standing there, totally frustrated and as mad as a hornet, I was wondering why these kinds of things always happen to me. Just then, several people came by on ATVs and a couple of the guys helped me get the car unstuck. I was grateful and I thanked them, then we turned around and headed home.

There are many different ways we can get stuck, both literally and figuratively, but no situation is impossible with God on your side. I don’t remember the exact words I prayed that day, but I’m sure I asked him to tell ME what to do, not to send somebody to help me. I’ve learned, though, that God doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we want him to. He answers them in a way that is best for us. What I tried to do was dumb and dangerous. That was my idea, not God’s. I know he sent those nice people to help us that day, and I’m thankful he did.

We need to learn to wait on the Lord like it says in Psalm 27:14. We need to stay in constant communication with God and develop a close, personal relationship with him so we can hear and know his voice when he talks to us. We don’t need to wait until we get into trouble to talk to him. He has a lot to tell us every day, so we need to be quiet and listen. Prayer is two-way communication with God. It’s the key to a healthy relationship with him. So start using that key today.

Stuck - Part 1

http://teddylynn.blogspot.com/2015/12/stuck.html

Stuck - Part2 

https://teddylynn.blogspot.com/2016/12/stuck-part-2.html

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© 2017 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
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SELF-PITY

Have you ever heard of something called Self-Pity? Have you ever experienced it? Have you ever had a pity party? Webster’s dictionary says self-pity is “a feeling of pity for yourself because you believe you have suffered more that is fair or reasonable.” *

We don’t realize it when we’re feeling sorry for ourselves, but pity parties are very destructive, not only to ourselves but to everyone around us. Here’s why.

Self-pity drains us of our physical energy. It slows us down, and we lose motivation. It affects us emotionally and often leads to depression. It affects us spiritually as well. We don’t have the energy, or the desire to do the things God wants us to do. When we’re focused on ourselves we’re not thinking about others, so our relationships suffer.

I remember a day, several years ago, I started having pains in my chest. I also had trouble breathing. I didn’t know what was going on so it scared me to death. In a few minutes, I began feeling better and in a little while, it was like it never happened. A few days I experienced the same thing again. I thought I was having heart problems, so I went to the doctor. After a thorough examination and a stress test that I thought was going to kill me, I found out it wasn’t my heart at all. I was having anxiety attacks. When I better understood my condition, I was able to deal with it differently and the attacks became less frightening and easier to handle, and soon they were coming less often. Being informed about something helps us to deal with it more effectively.

Self-pity is something that everyone can and should live without. It’s really a tool of the devil. Not just a tool, but a weapon. The sooner we realize that fact, the sooner we can be on our way to deliverance from the oppression of Satan and his evil forces.

If you ever end up in a situation where you’re feeling sorry for yourself and throwing a pity party, here are a few things that will help get you back on the right track.

Think about Jesus and the sacrifice he made so we could be free from the power of sin and oppression. Don’t allow that sacrifice to be for nothing in your life. Both God, and Satan want our allegiance, and contrary to what some believe, we have to choose one or the other. It’s a daily choice, too, not just a one-time thing. Self-pity takes our minds off this fact and puts it on ourselves. Get your mind back on God.

Change your attitude about self-pity. Ask God to help you to stop feeling sorry for yourself. Ask him to make you sick and tired of it. Ask him to deliver you from it. Recognizing where self-pity leads, and what the end results can be, we must refuse to go down that road.

Refuse to dwell on bad thoughts and feelings. That’s a hard one, but once again, the answer is found in God’s word. Philippines 4:8 tells us to think about things that are true, things are honest, things are just, things that are pure, things are lovely, things that are of good report, and things that are worthwhile and worthy of praise.

When we do this, we will not have time for self-pity. We won’t even be thinking about ourselves and our problems when we give it all to Jesus. Kick self-pity to the curb. You know you need to. Just do it. You’ll be glad you did.

* http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-pity

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LAUGHTER IS GOOD MEDICINE

In this life, we all have pain and sorrow. We all have stress from our daily routines of work and other responsibilities. We all have times when we feel down. We all have days when we don’t feel good and days when we’re literally in pain.

The Bible tells us in Proverbs 17:22, that, “A merry heart does good like a medicine.” I’ve found this to be so true.

The word MERRY in this verse means cheerful, and the word HEART is just another word for MIND. So “A cheerful mind does good like a medicine,” or we could say, “being happy is good like medicine.” I like that verse, and it's completely accurate. When I’m feeling bad, and something makes me laugh, I actually feel better.

I don’t sleep well most nights and when I get up in the mornings, I usually don’t feel well at all. One morning when I woke up, I was feeling really, really bad. While I was trying to muster up the strength to get ready for work, I just happened to remember something funny from my childhood. It made me laugh out loud, and it actually made me feel a little better. I want to share that story with you, and maybe you can have a laugh, too.

I think I was around six years old, and my sister was four or five. Our older cousin was at our house visiting for the day. When he would come over he would entertain us with his wild stories. We loved his tall tales so we would listen intently as he tried to amuse us. I don’t know where he was going with this story, though because laughter interrupted his flow. All I remember is what my sister said just as he was getting started.

He said, “If you pull a hair out of your nose you’ll die.” My sister looked at him with her eyes as big as the moon. Then he calmly said, “I pulled a hair out of my nose one time.” Before he could say anything else, my sister gasped, as her eyes got even bigger, and with deep concern in her voice, she said, “Did you die?”

That’s still so funny to me, and no matter how many times it cycles through my memory, it still makes me laugh. I loved my early childhood, and I miss it. We didn’t have much at all, but we didn’t know it. Everything seemed so simple. We had no worries, no cares, and no big responsibilities, but we did have lots of love, and plenty of fun times to remember.

I hope you have plenty of good memories in your past. When you’re feeling bad, or sick, or a little down, try to remember one or two that will make you laugh or at least smile. I promise it’ll make you feel better.

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© 2015 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6