Late Night Thoughts

The picture is of Mr. Tom & Pastor Bert and I can't get it where I want it so~~

I can't sleep, my mind is going 50 miles an hour and I wanted to tell my story. It's not a daily log like usual so bear with me~~

We got up this morning and went to Sunday School and Church. With Austin safely ensconced with Grammy and Ms Diane in the Nursery - I attended Sunday school for the not-to-manieth- timeas-an-adult. Mr Tom, our SS Teacher, is helping us thru the book of Acts. Helping to follow Paul thru his ministry. I've always been good at geography but the Bible Geography was always way beyond me. As I sat there and listened to Mr. Tom and others - a light bulb came on. I was actually seeing the Book come to life instead of trying to read it literally - alone. Alone I haven't been able to make connections between the Books and Personalities and got utterly lost when trying to track who was where and who actually wrote what. Thank you Mr. Tom.

And then Pastor Bert started his Message. It was on Chapter 3 of James. All about the power of tongues. He told of times in life where loose tongues cost lives. And times when the power of the tongue has had the ability to hurt many people. He also talked of the power of the tongue in changing lives. Making them better. Using the power of the tongue to Bring the Word to others. I got rather into my own head as Pastor talked. God has given us the power of choice. We can use that choice for everything in our lives. I made a choice many years ago to allow my children to attend a fair. They didn't "need" to go. They had never been away from me for the 5 days they were to be gone. I made myself believe that I trusted the person that was going to be "watching" them. They wanted to go soooooo bad. I smothered my selfish instincts and told myself that they were bored, wanted to see their friends, they hadn't missed a fair in years, it was the near the end of summer and they deserved a treat for being so good and understanding with all the work and college classes that I was occupied with. All that stuff. The power of the tongue (in my case voice in my head). I justified (to myself) letting them go. And I made the wrong choice. It was a life-changing choice. I never saw my son again. God was trying to tell me - I had to work so hard at justifying it. If it was something that was supposed to happen - God wouldn't have made me work so hard to justify it to myself. Listening to that voice - the one in my head - cost me my son, hurt my daughter, destroyed my mother. It's not only the tongues that wag - it is the voices in our heads. God gave us the power of choice - he also gave us reasoning powers and our conscience - which is Him - to help us to make the Choices according to his will.

Pastor Bert was right on target - the tongue is the most powerful organ in the body. It can also be used to pass the Word. Tell the world about God and Jesus. Use that tongue to be kind to someone today. For no reason - just find one person out of your circle to be kind to. And let it be said that the voice of God asked you to do it.

Now that I've emptied mind, pardon me Pastor if this wasn't the message that you were sharing. I may have gotten lost in myself. On a more humerous note: I will miss hearing your messages for the next few weeks but we will attend Church with our family in Spring Valley. I assure you, it is a totally different style- very effective and I really do enjoy the differences for short periods and love it when I can return "home" to the heart of Faith Baptist.