It's A Good Day When You Find A Dollar In Your Pocket

“It’s A Good Day When You Find A Dollar In Your Pocket”

            “It’s a good day when you find a dollar in your pocket.”  Those were the wise and excited words of my son as we got out of the car after church Sunday.  While he may have been displeased that he was forced to wear clothes without holes to church, he was indeed very jubilant that a $1.00 bill mysteriously appeared in his pants pocket.  Considering that was roughly 20 percent of his net worth I imagine it was indeed a good day for him!  Considering he wanted to buy a bag of Cheetos with twenty percent of his net worth reminded me I still have a lot of parenting left to do.

            Regardless, seeing his face and the excitement from this ‘blessing’ made me ponder how I often miss the blessings that come my way.  There was true joy on his face from this dollar.  It made me think, what blessings have come my way and how have I responded to them?  He really taught me something in that 45-second exchange. 

James 1:17 reminds us:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Philippians 4:19 declares:

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

What an amazing blessing it is to know that all good gifts come from God and that He will certainly meet all of our needs.  I encourage you to ponder the blessings of God today and express true gratitude to Him for those blessings.

Smell His Breath

“Smell His Breath!”

If you live in Eastern South Carolina you have been like my family the past week and attempting to survive the great blizzard of 2018 (1.5 inches of snow) that shut us down for five days.  The city lost water, schools were closed and just as everyone was ready to get back to normalcy after the Christmas season we were halted in our tracks by a monumental blizzard!

It was during one of those days that my wonderful wife gave instructions to our three children to “hurry up and brush your teeth because the water is going out!”  An hour or so later our hygiene-disabled twelve-year-old was asked if he brushed his teeth.  He replied, “Yes, but without water or toothpaste!”  Don’t ask, just go with it!  Immediately, my wife belted out “Gross!” and then the dreaded words came out,  “Reeves smell his breath…”  I immediately thought, “Why me? You are the one who asked him to brush his teeth!”  Thankfully I kept that thought to myself (until now), and went with another thought that came to me.  The thought, “This is the job of a Dad.”  You see, as dads we are above all else called to die to self and serve our families.  The rest of the home feeds off of the tone we set.  If I am lazy and lethargic my home will be lazy and lethargic.  If I am angry and short with others then my kids will be angry and short with others.  As the dad I set the tone.  Sometimes this is really good like when I set the tone that we are going to watch football all day, and other times this is bad like when I have to smell the twelve-year-old’s breath after ‘brushing’ without toothpaste and water.  Either way, dads, recognize that you are the leader in your home and earnestly strive to set the tone which will bring blessing and strength to your family.

Broken House Keys and Integrity

Do you see the broken key in the picture above?  This is what I found as I was frantically trying to open the front door over the Christmas season?  When I finally realized that my key was broken and would not work I immediately knew who and what happened to it.
A few days earlier one of my children came barreling into my room asking for my keys to unlock the back door.  I graciously gave the keys and that was the end of it...so I thought.  Obviously during that fateful moment my house key suffered an excruciating decapitation and was no more!
Realizing what had transpired a few days prior I immediately went to my child and asked "Did you do this?"  Sheepishly she replied, 'yes' and immediately became concerned over the punishment that would be handed down.  She was fully expecting a severe punishment which is why she did not tell me of the broken key when it happened.
Her concern was, "I broke Dad's key.  I'm in big trouble!"  What she failed to realize is the broken key was no big deal.  Broken keys can be remedied, but living without integrity is disastrous beyond repair.  Not telling dad about the broken key is lying and lying is the worst!
My wife and I have been working with all of our children, but especially this particular child on always being "tirelessly committed" to the truth.  By hiding the broken key and hoping Dad would not find it she lived without integrity.  She knows that is the worst of all the things she can do. We talk about it often in our home.  We were able to have a healthy and redeeming conversation with her about what the broken key represented.
It made me ponder, however, what areas of my life am I attempting to act as if the key is not broken?  Plainly stated, where am I acting without integrity?  As we start 2018 I think this is something worth examining.
Proverbs 11:3 states, "The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity."
Proverbs 28:6 states, "Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose way is perverse."

Those verses are sobering truths.  I encourage you to take some time and consider where you need to quit attempting to deceive yourself and others and face the fact the key is broken.  Failing to do so could destroy you!

As always, if you have a question please email me at reeves.cannon@sandhurst.net.

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