If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a
tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion
is worthless.

James 1:26, New International Version

My scripture of the day today. I think God is trying to remind me gently! I need to be reminded, often and not always gently. My friend Sherry covered her ears like a kid and made noise when I started to say something not so nice about someone. It made me laugh, but I got the point. Our preacher Terrell would really like Sherry, he says that is exactly what we should do-actually he said to say, "In the name of Jesus, SHUT UP!" It is hard to rein the tongue. It is hard to bring your thoughts captive to God. If we were not thinking it so often, it would not come out so often. I am stuggling!! It isn't until you really start to become conscious of a sin do you realize how pervasive it is!! I said it, I am pervaded. Some of you already knew. Some of you admit it of yourselves. For some of you, God isn't dealing with you yet. Never fear, he will.

So lately, with all this conviction, plus the work we are doing with Billy's trailor, makes me really think alot. Our life here is so brief and so full of opportunity for kingdom good. Why are we sooooo busy with other stuff? Why are we so caught up in the mundane that we forget people are important to God. Ever walk up on a group of people and hang your head to avoid eye contact? Would it be so hard for me to seek to make eye contact and smile? Greet someone that I know with a big smile and say "Good to see you!" When people have done that to me it bolsters me immediately. I feel worthy. We are all worthy. Why don't we seek to make each other feel worthy?

Other things this death thing has taught me?
*Your laundry is still not finished, even if you are dead.

*Keeping clothes that don't fit or are out of style is really pointless.

*Having too much of anything is pointless.

*Someone else will go through all of your personal items someday.

*People will judge you by the STUFF you keep.

*Don't keep food that is out-of-date.

*Doing nice things for other people feels good.

*Be involved with your family, even if you don't approve of their lifestyle. They may pass on and you will have tons of regret.

*Never live with someone without being married. When they die you are left with less than nothing. You will be uprooted from your home and really have no rights. Someone else will pack up your things and even though they will do everything to avoid it, your privacy will be invaded.


These are things I will remember always. I want to leave a legacy. I hope my legacy is that I was loving and cared about people. I hope I put more importance on people and not "stuff". I never would have thought I would take all of this so personally. I really thought we would just go and clean out his stuff, take it to the Salvation Army and deliver her stuff to her and be done with it. It is, instead, reshaping who I am. God knew I needed to be reshaped and is using whatever it takes to do it. I am learning alot about who I am by seeing who Billy was. We all tend to overlook our faults and see the good in ourselves. We procrastinate the changes we need to make in our own lives, but really think others should go ahead and make their changes. How funny is that. It reminds me of a short poem.

I would diet if I could
Find a plan that's proven true.
But most importantly of all,
I would diet if I were you.

So easy to see the "fat" on others bodies and overlook our "fat" that we can do something about. This is both literal and figurative!

I am trying not to procrastinate my changes anymore. My Sunday school class is doing our spiritual inventory and this is so timely (God is good!)(If only I can find my book-but that is another post) I also have a copy of a fearless moral inventory that I found in some of Billy's rehab stuff. It was just a worksheet with no personal stuff on it. I plan to do it for myself and I will share the worksheet with you. It was a really awesome page. There is also a list of character defects that I want to go through for myself. 12 step programs are really awesome. Everyone should do the steps, they are totally biblical.

Hi, My name is Janice and I am a sinner.