Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 139:23
It’s funny…start something and it just might stick around forever. I make my living helping others do life. I am a teacher/pastor. Each week I prepare a message to share on Sundays. Sometimes, like this week, I will also help someone walk through the “dark valley” as they say goodbye to a loved one. And sometimes, I do special things like speaking on the radio, teaching on Wednesday or at special events. Well, a long time ago, I began using different colors of marking on my notes to help me study.
For no reason in particular it goes something like this. Whenever I use a particular scripture, I highlight that in pink. When I have something that is important, I highlight that in green. An illustration gets highlighted in blue and any notes I hand write merit orange. And then the text in general gets highlighted in yellow. Oh, and then a while back, just to change things up, I added purple to the mix. If nothing else, I can say safely say my notes look something like a rainbow. Amazing, but somehow, it works.
The funny thing is all those years ago when I chose those colors for those parts of my notes, I had no idea that for the rest of teaching life that would be the way it would be. There was no rhyme, no reason to what color I assigned to each part—I just did it. And that made me think. I wonder how many other things are there in my life, that I somehow made a decision to start, to do and now all these years later they are still a part of me. Ring a bell?
For most decisions, it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Hotdog? Ketchup or mustard only? Relish or no relish? By the way, I made the “mustard only” decision about ten years ago and now I can’t imagine eating a hotdog any other way. But then, some decisions we make can lead to hurt and even destruction. Some can damage our character and integrity—robbing us of joy and peace.
Someone said, “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” And it can all start with the simplest thing—like a thought. Need a little help figuring it all out? Well, the Book gives a great prayer for us to pray. It says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Now that’s a good prayer and good advice. You can trust Him…He’s got this. Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 