Doctor -- Please Give Me the Good News First!!!

Yesterday millions of people witnessed the solar eclipse in some way. While I have a great appreciation for the wonders in the skies and on the earth, I'll admit I didn't get carried away with it all until I was at my car dealership for an oil change and the service guys were outside with their welder's mask and they were getting the view of the eclipse perfectly. My service rep called me over to take a look, and indeed it was a sight to behold. I was able to enjoy those moments because I was prompted to get my oil changed and I requested 1 pm. I wasn't even thinking about the eclipse to be honest with you. That was a special little favor from God.

But this little favor from God turned out to be a big favor because after the oil change, tires rotated, multi-point inspection and state inspection done, my service rep came and said "Miss Donna, I've got some bad news. Your front timing cover needs to be replaced which means the engine has to come out and it will be 19 hours of labor at $145/hour totaling $2755." I know my eyes must have become like saucers and he quickly said "But you've got another 1000 miles on your extended warranty so it will only be $50 for the deductible." Whew -- I breathed a sign of great relief. I told him, "Man -- next time, please start with the good news first!" And then I went on to tell him about one of my husband's highly critical surgeries -- it was touch and go as to whether he would survive it. When the surgery was completed after six hours, our neurologist came to the waiting room. He looked spent. I had already made up my mind that if my sweetheart went to heaven during the surgery, I would declare God's faithfulness and based on how the doctor looked, I was bracing myself for the news. The first words out of his mouth were "I'm so sorry that we were unable to get all of the tumor because he had such significant blood loss." I stopped him in almost mid sentence and said, "Doc, first, I need to know, is he alive or not?" To which, he replied, "Oh yes, he's alive and doing well!" Whew -- another sign of relief. I also schooled the doc that day about giving good news first.

My sweetheart underwent needed surgery and my car is going through needed surgery. The sun shined brightly and then, in some places -- it went dark. But the good news was, the sun never stopped shining -- it just appeared to go dark because the moon perfectly aligned between the sun and earth. How's that for our Creator's indescribable brilliance? My Sweetheart was still alive UNTIL our Creator deemed it was his appointed time to leave this planet, and my car will be repaired because of the foresight to buy an extended warranty just in case of potential repairs needed one day.

Everything about this post has to do with our awesome Creator -- He who knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. There are times when something gets in the way and we struggle to see the light of Christ that we know is always there. During those times, it can be easy to be fooled into reacting to the darkness of our circumstances. Our faith calls us to live differently, beyond our senses.

Even during the darkest times, we know by faith that God puts a path before us and calls us to follow. Let's remember to act not only on what we experience with our senses, but at all times and in all circumstances to live by faith. Because He knows our todays -- the dark shadows that may come and the bright sunlight that drives out the darkness -- we can know every day the sun (The Son) is always shining brightly and our Creator has something special up His sovereign sleeves.....so let's just keep our "Son" glasses on and keep our eyes on He Who destroys the darkness.

Like Father.....Like Sons & Daughters

That 3-1/2 to 4 hours between Frisco, TX and Tulsa, OK gives me plenty of time to think about subject matter for my FB posts. This trip back to Tulsa didn't disappoint. As I gazed at the beautiful blue skies with puffy white clouds, the trees, and pastures abundant with cattle -- I thought "Father God -- You are such an awesome Creator!" And, I thought about His magnificent genius in creating you and me -- IN HIS IMAGE (Genesis 1:26)! Now that's something to think about! I don't think that scripture means "look like Him" as much as "act like Him". We should bear the family resemblance.

In Genesis we read that God spoke things into being. He said, "Let there be light" and there was light. He said let there be skies and earth and stars and moon and there were skies and earth and stars and moon. By what He said, things were created.

So, doesn't it make sense that if we’re made in his image and He created with words, we are creators with our words also? Proverbs 18:21 says that “death and life are in the power of the tongue." The example I thought of was a young woman we knew, who was so near and dear to us. She grew up with people telling her she was stupid, that she'd never amount to anything, that she was lazy, and a hopeless case. That resonated within her for years and years. Those people were creators. They created a world of pain, hurt, disappointment, inferiority and rejection in this young woman, but all was not lost. One day, she came into our lives. Immediately we began to create beauty and life as God would. We started speaking into her "You are beautiful, you are worthwhile, you are smart, you are funny, you are valuable, you are precious, you are packed with potential and accomplishment. The more we spoke into her, the more she started believing and becoming all that....and more.

Everyday we have the opportunity to not only CREATE beauty in others by the way we speak to them, but we have the opportunity to CREATE environments conducive to turning darkness to light, animosity to tenderness and kindness, hatred to love and sadness to joy! So, CREATORS!!! Let's CREATE!!! Let's get our "creative" juices flowing and start creating beauty and life with OUR words AND actions! Wouldn't it be great if we could look at OUR creations, and, like God, say, "It is very good!" (Genesis 1:31)