Why are Christians continually praising God you may ask?

Because when we share the love of God and we see a light go on deep within the hearts of the lost, we rejoice in the goodness of God. When tears flow as someone recognizes the consequences of their sin and pleads for forgiveness from God, we rejoice with joy unspeakable! When we witness the floodgates of love open on a heart that, for the first time, truly senses the Love of God for them, and we watch as their whole countenance changes from mourning into dancing our hearts shout, Praise Him!

When the Holy Spirit turns hardened pride into true humility, our hearts sing, great is the Lord! When the vicious sinner repents and believes Christ blood has washed away his guilt, we sing of the goodness of the Lord forever! As God calls the hurting the outcast, the downtrodden and as we witness His miracles of restoration and healing, we shout and our hearts gush with praises and joy!

  When I saw this photo of a dancer's feet, it reminded me of Paul, when he said to Timothy, "Do your best to come to me quickly." 
I couldn't help but think to myself, "how often do I do my best: truly do my best at anything? 

The following link takes you to a child of about five, repairing a car. It is amazing to see what good parenting can accomplish. You will be amazed. Just click on "Great parenting."

 Great parenting

  The following piece by Arthur Benson is about retirement, and if you are not near that age it may not interest you, but if you are, oh! it is bliss. I always hoped my retirement years would be my most spiritually productive years, and it has turned out to be true. But, not without the strong temptation to spend my time like the guy in the photo; but by the continual prompting of the Holy Spirit, He has led me into productive work. Be that as it may, the pace is different and there is much in this piece I relate to.

  When I read the quote below, I then went to Facebook and saw this picture of my Great Granddaughter enjoying her third day of life; I immediately thought that life truly is a matter of "Large issues and great hope."

  "When one is brought near to many people, and one asks oneself in a chilly discomfort, what is the use of it all, living thus in hard and futile habits, on dull and conventional lines; and then again one is suddenly confronted by some personality, rich in hope and greatness, touching the simplest acts of life, with an unearthly light, making them gracious and beautiful, and revealing them as the symbols of some pure and high mystery. Sometimes this is revealed by a word, sometimes by a glance; perfectly virtuous, capable, successful people may miss it; humble simple, quiet people may have it. One cannot analyze it or describe it, but one has instantaneously a sense that life is a thing of large issues and great hope." Arthur Benson.

During a sickness, Arthur Benson was visited by a man he admired and respected. Here is what took place ---

"I said something to him about being ready to depart -- and then added that I was waiting hopefully to see the joys of Paradise, the glory of the saints in light. He looked at me rather fixedly, and said, "I don't know why you should say that, and why you should expect to take so much pleasure in the beauty of heaven, when you have taken so little trouble to see anything of the beauty of earth;" and then he left: and I reflected that I had always been doing my work in a dull humdrum way, in the same place all my life; and I determined that if I got well, I would go about and see something of the glory that is revealed to us, and not expect only the glory that shall be revealed to us." 

  "The greatest object in the universe, says a certain philosopher, is a good man struggling with adversity"; yet there is still a greater, which is the good man that comes to relieve it. Oliver Goldsmith.

 
Religion finds the love of happiness and the principle of duty separated in us; and its mission --- its masterpiece --- is to reunite them." Vinet.

I really like this quote: so practical. Life is a complicated affair and our self-love is so intense we need continual direction toward our duties or our lives and the lives of those we love can soon unravel. God's ways, His masterpiece, is balance. 

 

  I met a thirtyish woman at the jail last night. She asked me how I thought she could make Christmas a time for her 10 year old daughter that would focus on Christ and not so much on commercialism. After giving her a few pointers I felt led to push deeper, and on doing so, I found out she had been mercilessly abused for her entire lifetime: she couldn't remember a time when she wasn't, not even a month. Her father an alcoholic and left her and her 4 siblings in the care of her mother who is diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, on further conversation she told me her mother has always told her that she sold her soul to the devil and now she is missing and she was certain she would be found dead. This woman has a 5-month-old baby and a girl of 10. Her life has been one continual trauma, and of course she turned to drugs to cope with this web of madness. She started with alcohol and then to Meth and now by the grace of God she has been arrested and getting some degree of help. What a nightmare, what a tragedy, a tragedy that I see lived out by so many. She spoke with intelligence and clarity as well as candor. But of course her posture was upright and rigid, her voice was somewhat mechanical, although she spoke with determination and faith that by the grace of God she is going to overcome addiction. My heart cries for her, and I sat in amazement that this young woman could have endured all the terror and still stand fighting, for her kids and herself. On the outside, one would never imagine the demonic battles she is fighting within, with all her might. Please join me in prayer for her: her name is Kayla.

This photo moves me so. Such a sad, hopeless expression. Failed dreams, love: leaving only sorrow deep within her eyes. The signs of life without hope. How many in our culture wear this expression. Too many....

  "I stood once upon the deck of a ship watching a shoal of porpoises following us and racing round us: every now and then the brown, sleek, shining bodies of the great creatures rose from the blue waves and entered them again with a soft plunge. Our life is like that: we rise for an instant into the light of life, we fall again beneath the waves; but all the while the soul pursues her real track unseen and unsuspected, as the gliding sea-beast cuts the green ocean twilight, or wanders among the rocks and hidden slopes fringed with the branching ribbons, the delicate tangles of spring-fed groves." Benson.

  "But if we are indeed desirous to do better, to grow in grace, and yet feel ourselves terribly weak and light-minded, what practical steps can we take to the goal that we see far off? The one thing that we can do in moments of insight is to undertake some little responsibility which we shall be ashamed to discard. We can look round our circle, and it will be strange if we cannot find at least one person whom we can help; and the best part of assuming such a responsibility is that it tends to grow and ramify; but in any case there is surely one person whom we can relieve, or encourage, or listen to, or make happier; if we can find the strength to come forward, to lead such a one to depend upon us, we shall have little inclination to desert or play false one whom we have encouraged to trust us. And thus we can take our first trembling step out of the mire." Arthur Benson.

I chose this picture because it is such a vivid example of Benson's thoughts. If we pull one little chick out of the flock, and care for it in some way; we will find ourselves becoming attached to that single chick more than all the others, and find ourselves willing to sacrifice for it far more than we ever imagined.