Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
Stop and reflect. Are you just growing old...or are you also growing up? As you "number your days" do you count just years—the grinding measurement of minutes—or can you find marks of wisdom...character traits that were not there when you were younger?
Please don't forget—God has decided to let you live this long. Your old age is not a mistake...nor an oversight...nor an afterthought. Isn't it about time you cooled your tongue and softened your smile with a refreshing drink from the water of God's oasis? You've been thirsty a long, long time.
So it is with resentment. Allowed to fester through neglect, the toxic fumes of hatred foam to a boil within the steam room of the soul. Pressure mounts to a maddening magnitude. By then it's only a matter of time.
If you've stopped thinking and started going through unexamined motions, you've really stopped living and started existing.
"Self-praise," says an ancient adage, "smells bad." In other words, it stinks up the works. Regardless of how we prepare it, garnish it with little extras, slice and serve it up on our finest silver piece, the odour remains.
How about you and me committing ourselves to a life like this...a life that amounts to something...rather than nothing.
Goal-setting and achieving are important, especially if we are in need of being motivated. Moving in the right direction is a great way to break the mould of mediocrity. It's helpful to ask, "What do I want to do?"
Eight words were brashly smeared across the dashboard of the speedboat tied up at Gulf Shores, Alabama. They reflected the flash and flair of its owner whose fast life was often publicized in sporting news across America.
John Gardner once pointed out that, by their mid-30, most people have stopped acquiring new skills and new attitudes in any aspect of their lives. Does that jolt you? Stop and think, you who are over 30.
Your mind is a muscle. It needs to be stretched to stay sharp. It needs to be prodded and pushed to perform. Let it get idle and lazy on you, and that muscle will become a pitiful mass of flab in an incredibly brief period of time.
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