Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Thank God for peanut butter

Tomorrow my wife and I will celebrate our 37th anniversary.  We began dating in 1976 and so as I tell people she has tolerated me for over 40 years.  Wow. When I think about 40 years and 4 kids and 4 grandkids, 3 addresses and all of the ups and downs throughout the years it almost seems surreal.
But the reality is that my wife and I are getting older and there is nothing we can do about it.

Now I know that that may sound a bit morbid or even rather melancholy, but if I am anything I am a pragmatist. There is a reality to life and we have to choose often between the glass being half empty and the glass being half full.

The great thing about having a personal relationship with Jesus is that our glass is not just half filled, but as the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 23:5  my cup "overflows."  It is easy to focus on the negative.  In a marriage it is easy to focus on the shortcoming of the other person (while ignoring your own). It is easy to reflect only on the low or the traumatic or the heartbreaking times.  And sometimes you just have to keep reminding yourself that your cup overflows.

A long time ago, I was part owner of a small construction company, and unlike the general contractors you see on HGTV we had to do a lot of the work ourselves.  It was a hot July day with almost no air and the humidity had to be near 90 percent.  That day we had scheduled ourselves to take a roller and smear tar on the foundation of the house that we were building.  Most of the foundation was well below grade (ground level) and so it involved a bucket of tar a roller and being in the  dug out space between the foundation and the ground.  It was hot, dirty and miserable.  The mosquitoes attacked at will.  To make matters worse my partner got hung up on another job and being in the days before cell phones were common, I had no Idea where he was.  I began to complain.  I complained about the heat. I complained about the bugs and the dirt and the old station wagon I was driving. I complained about the peanut butter and jelly that economic reasons forced me to bring in my lunch.  And then the song, "Butterfly Kisses" came on the radio. If you are not familiar with that song it came out in the late 1990s and it is about a father whose daughter is getting married that day ad he is recounting how wonderful it has been to have her as a daughter.  I still cry if I hear that song today.

Instantly I was convicted as I thought about my own daughter and my family and how blessed I was to have such great kids and a great wife. And you know that station wagon was old, but it ran like a top.  And you know peanut butter and jelly isn't all that bad. Suddenly the heat and the bugs and the humidity didn't seem quite as bad. You see my cup was running over but I had been too blinded by the immediacy of my circumstances to see it.

We need to be thankful for God's provision even in the difficult times.  Psalm 107:1 (NIV) "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." Don't forget how god has blessed you. He blesses because He loves us. He doesn't always bless us exactly the way we would like, but he knows our needs better than we do.  Stop focusing on the negative and consider the blessings. Thank God everyday for what he has provided.  Even the peanut butter.

For more information on how to have a relationship with God and His Son Jesus Christ contact us at www.lifepointealliance.org.

Pastor Jeff

If you live in the Pittsburgh Area join us for worship at 11:00 on Sunday mornings.  Also be sure to follow us on Facebook.

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