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Priorities with Pooh

8/27/2018

Recently, I was blessed with the opportunity to see the movie Christopher Robin with some of my family. As our family enjoys the Winnie-the-Pooh books, I was not disappointed to see these beloved characters in the movie.

The movie’s premise is that Christopher Robin, no longer a little boy with his animals, but a grown man with a family becomes engrossed in his work at a luggage company. As a crisis threatens the company, Christopher's wife confronts him with the fact that their daughter will not always be a little girl and desires to spend time with him. As seen in the trailer, she tells him, “Your life is happening now, right in front of you.” This challenges him to question his priorities. Where will he place his focus?

All of us can ask ourselves the same questions. Is our writing, work, school, or something else our focus? Are we so caught up in working hard now so that we can “relax” later? Are we willing to sacrifice our schedules in order to help out a younger sibling, friend, parent, or grandparent, so that they can know that we love them? Are we willing to go out of our way so that we can truly know and serve our Lord and Savior?

Jesus promises us in John 14:15-21, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (ESV)

If we love and cherish and put God above all in our lives, He will live with us and care for us!

So press on, my friends! Prayerfully ask God to help you put Him above all in your life!

And in the meantime, enjoy this fun trailer. (Warning: it may pop up ads at the end that are not appropriate or edifying, so do not linger there. 😉)
~paisley

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Admiration = Emulation

8/13/2018

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Taken on Mt. Humphreys in Flagstaff, AZ

There are people or activities in all of our lives that we enjoy, and very often we can know who or what someone admires by how they act. Do they want to play the guitar in a specific style? Do they dress in a certain way? From these observations we can conclude that there must be someone whom they admire who does these things. Now, we must not assume that every person whom we meet that dresses in one particular style is doing it because the admire someone who does the same, but it can be influential for some people.

We all can have this tendency to emulate, but there is a question that I would like to pose to you: are we admiring and emulating Jesus? He gave us the command to emulate Him so that others would see Him through us in John 13:34-35, when He said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (ESV)

If we want to emulate Jesus and proclaim Him to the world through our words and actions, we need to first admire Him. It can be difficult to admire Jesus, but I encourage you to ask Him to develop a love for Him and to delve deep into His word, for He is desiring for you to find Him and to enjoy His presence!
~paisley

"Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.

"Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

"For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

Isaiah 55 (ESV)

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Priorities with Pooh

Admiration = Emulation

Thoughts shared by various Boones

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