so angry

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

- James 1:19 (NLT)

 

Not that I would ever admit this, but I have a very quick temper.

It is not something I am proud of, but sometimes I feel myself going from zero to angry in 2.5 seconds.

My husband tells me that I do not have a good poker face, (he’s absolutely correct) so when I am mad, you can tell.

Being slow to speak does not mean the way you speak; it means how quickly.

Your reaction to a situation can make or break your reputation, and that reputation can sometimes cost you - a raise or promotion that was in your grasp can be quickly ripped away if you react poorly.

Listen.

Consider.

It’s good to remember that “listen” and “silent” are made of the same six letters.

These words of advice will serve those who practice them well – unfortunately, it is rare that I am one of those.

Our tendencies are to listen with the intent of speaking our mind as quickly as possible, but the art of listening can bridge the gap of many misunderstandings.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood, and you will do well in the affairs of life.

Oh – and note to self:  keep that temper in check.

 

#dailybreadbykitty

Daily Inspiration from the Bible

sick people need a doctor

Jesus heard that. So he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a doctor. Sick people do. I have not come to get those who think they are right with God to follow me. I have come to get sinners to follow me.”

- Mark 2:17 (NIRV)

 

Have you ever gone to the doctor for no reason at all?

You didn’t need a check-up or a follow-up, you weren’t sick or injured, just decided to pop in on the doctor.

Of course not.
Most people avoid going to the doctor when they are healthy because only sick people need doctors.
There were some folks that decided to watch Jesus’ every move, hoping to catch Him doing wrong.
When He was sharing a meal with people that these folks considered bad, they called him out.
They wanted to know why a man like Jesus would hang around with the likes of sinners.
Jesus told them that He was there to bring everyone to God, and that included those people that other folks looked down on.
We all need Jesus – hey, isn’t that a song reference? 
Boy howdy it is! 
The artist Terrian released “Honestly, We Just Need Jesus” in 2024, I love this song, here are some of the lyrics:
I got a front row seat to the madness

I pick up my phone every morning out of habit

I've been fiendin' for the drama, yeah, I said it

I'm addicted to the rush, need a medic

When I take a step back, I can see it

All the pain, all the fear we've been feeling

Losing sight of the thing that we're needing

That we're needing

Honestly, I think we just need Jesus

Honestly, I think we just need Jesus

Have we all gone mad? Have we lost our minds?

What used to be wrong, we say that it's right

Honestly, I think we just need Jesus

Take a good long look in the mirror

Search my heart and soul, make it clearer

Help me take Your love, trade the bitter

Leave it in the dust, help me leave it in the dust, Lord

We've been preaching, we've been drinking in the vanity (vanity)

Now it's got us questioning our sanity

And we wonder how we get all this anxiety

It's clear to me

Honestly, I think we just need Jesus (Jesus)

Honestly, I think we just need Jesus (Jesus)

Have we all gone mad? Have we lost our minds?

What used to be wrong, we say that it's right

Honestly, I think we just need Jesus . . .
Whoa nellie! 
There is not even one of us on earth that are perfect enough to get to Heaven without Him.
We may not need a doctor when we aren’t sick, but we all need Jesus. 

#dailybreadbykitty

Daily Inspiration from the Bible

waves

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

- James 1:6 (NKJV)

 

How do you still believe there is a God with all the crazy that is going on in the world?

I have been asked that more often than I can even count, and my answer remains the same.

How can I not believe in Him?
Back in 2004 the band Casting Crowns released “Who Am I”, I want you to take a quick look at some of the lyrics:
Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name?

Would care to feel my hurt?

Who am I, that the bright and morning star would choose to light the way

For my ever wandering heart?

Not because of who I am

But because of what you've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who you are

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean)

A vapor in the wind

Still you hear me when I'm calling

Lord, you catch me when I'm falling

And you've told me who I am

I am yours, I am yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin would look on me with love

And watch me rise again

Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea would call out through the rain

And calm the storm in me?

Not because of who I am

But because of what you've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who you are

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean)

A vapor in the wind

Still you hear me when I'm calling

Lord, you catch me when I'm falling

And you've told me who I am (I am)

I am yours

It isn’t God that is causing turmoil and unrest in our society, folks, it is society!

We are tossed around like crazy, being blown in every direction possible.

We are taught that if we aren’t rich or famous we are nothing.
We teach our children that they have to be superstars on a sports team or get perfect grades.
Society is teaching us to hate and be angry and that we all deserve to have whatever we want no matter the cost.

And when that doesn’t happen for us, well, we must be nothing.
We doubt our very reason to exist. 
My God created us. 

You, me, the guy down the street, we are His.
He hears us, cares for us, loves us. 
When we doubt Him, we are the wave tossed in the ocean, when we call on Him, He catches us.
He has caught me more than I have ever deserved. 
Now, ask me again how I can still believe. 

   

#dailybreadbykitty

Daily Inspiration from the Bible

don’t give up

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

- Galatians 6:9 (NLT)

 

Sometimes life just gets overwhelming.
Work, family, traffic, everything just seems to be pitted against us, absolutely nothing is going right.

There are a lot of verses in the Bible about perseverance, and not giving up, stories about the things that others have endured.
And there is real life. 
When we are so far down the rabbit hole that we feel like we can’t even see the sun anymore, it feels like no amount of Bible verses will help.
Those who have been reading my writing for a while know that one thing I like to do is compare different versions of the Bible.
The EXB (Expanded Bible) (yeah, I didn’t know this was a thing either) translates this verse We must not become ·tired [or discouraged] of doing good. We will receive our harvest of eternal life ·at the right [or in due] time if we do not give up.
Still, not very helpful. 
There is a poem I remember my mother had taped to the refrigerator, written by Edgar Albert Guest but often attributed to John Greenleaf Whittier (why do poets have three names?):
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

when the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

when the funds are low and the debts are high,

and you want to smile but you have to sigh,

when care is pressing you down a bit - rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns.

As everyone of us sometimes learns.

And many a fellow turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow - you may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than it seems to a faint and faltering man;

Often the struggler has given up when he might have captured the victor's cup;

and he learned too late when the night came down,

how close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out - the silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

and when you never can tell how close you are,

it may be near when it seems afar;

so stick to the fight when you're hardest hit - it's when things seem worst, you must not quit.

HMMM

According to the interwebs, it's all about perseverance, tenacity, determination, and will-power to not to give up - especially when the things are going wrong.

It’s hard.
No matter what verses or poems you read, no matter who you talk to, life is hard.
Let me say that again: Life. Is. Hard. 

Not giving up can be a full-time job piled on top of everything else going on.
I guess that I am just here to say the same thing – don’t give up. 
Tomorrow things may not be as bad. 
It may not be better tomorrow – but there are a million tomorrows as long as you don’t give up today.

   

#dailybreadbykitty

Daily Inspiration from the Bible

 

glad for trouble

We are glad for our troubles also. We know that troubles help us learn not to give up. When we have learned not to give up, it shows we have stood the test. When we have stood the test, it gives us hope.

- Romans 5:3-4 (NLV)

 

It’s all good.

We hear that a lot, don’t we?

I often look at different versions of a verse when choosing for my “daily bread”. 
The New King James version reads: And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And the New Living Translation says: We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
The words “problems and trials” and “troubles” and “we have stood the test” but “perseverance” is huge, and it is not a synonym for “endurance”.

OK – back to the verse.

It is all good.

We really go through some craziness in this life, but somehow, it all works out, we keep going.

Everything we go through that threatens to take us down, God is going to work something good out of it.

No, I don’t always understand it.

What “good” can come out of someone dying?

What “good” can come out of losing a job, a home, a marriage?

I don’t have the answer, but I do know that if we hang in there and trust God, we will find out.

And as we hang in there, we learn things like patience, character, and above all, hope.

Without hope, we have nothing.

   

#dailybreadbykitty

Daily Inspiration from the Bible

 

can”t always get what you want

Beware! Don’t always be wishing for what you don’t have. For real life and real living are not related to how rich we are.

- Luke 12:15 (TLB)

 

I have often asked my friends with children how old their kids were when they let them have cell phones.
It’s an odd question and it is usually followed up with a reason why that age was chosen, even I justify why we gave our youngest a phone 4 years earlier than his siblings.
I hear my granddaughter begging her mom for something because all her friends have one, and I am reminded of this verse, and our own human need for “stuff”.
I’m sure that we have all felt that if we could just have a little more of something, we’d be happy – like a little nicer house or a little newer car.

Sometimes it feels that our happiness in linked to our possessions, and we need to get out of that mindset sooner rather than later.

Remember that God will provide us with everything we need, and what we have is enough right now.

When Israel left Egypt, God provided manna every day, more than enough to feed everyone, and He told the people to gather only what they needed for that day, to trust that He would provide. 

In the parable of the rich fool, Jesus gives two brothers fighting over their inheritance a strong warning about thinking that their possessions can give their life worth and ultimate value.

The New King James version of this verse reads: And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

Greed grips our hearts when we place material things (or anything) in the place of God and His ultimate approval and blessings in our life.

Don’t be greedy, nice things are nice, but they are just things.

Things go away, God Is forever.

Life doesn’t come down to what you own, but how you use it in glorifying God.

All our “stuff” won’t matter the day we meet our Savior face to face.

   

#dailybreadbykitty

Daily Inspiration from the Bible

sin versus grace

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

- Romans 5:20 (NIV)

 

A little twist today, I saw a saying on social media “be careful what you tolerate. . .  You are teaching people how to treat you.”

Whoa nellie!
When I first read this verse, it was the second half that hit me the hardest - where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

Then as I was researching the verse, I found the Message translation:  All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

Grace wins.

God's grace—giving good to us when we have earned bad—cannot be overwhelmed by our own sinfulness.

The more we sin, the more grace God gives.
Now, if we think heavy on this, we are supposed to be like Jesus, so that means that we need to give grace too.

The purpose of the law was to expose sin, making people more aware of their need for God's grace through Jesus Christ.
If we need Jesus, doesn’t everyone? 
Especially that person that continues to goad you and be the thorn in your side, that finds two wrongs for every right that you do?
If it is hard for us to show grace, should we consider the things we do, and still God shows us grace?

No matter how much someone sins, God’s grace is greater, and it is available to everyone.

#dailybreadbykitty

Daily Inspiration from the Bible