Give It Up

3/16/99

My five-year-old daughter has a favorite dress. It is a spring dress that she wears all year long. She even tried to wear it to the Christmas program for church. One day she was walking upstairs and I told her that the dress is getting too small, this would be one of the last times she would be able to wear it. She turned to me to say, "These stairs are really old."

It is like any of us, we would rather change the subject than give something up we really like. Giving things up and changing is difficult, especially things we are attached to, like a child giving up a bottle, a pacifier, or a blanket. We as adults can know on a better level why things have to change or why we have to give something up like smoking or other things, but it doesn't make it easier. We can know something on one level but to really understand is different. We tend to think if it is hard, it is bad, or if it is easy, well...that is better. Hard is good sometimes it helps us grow and mature as adults and Christians.

If we learn to change instead of going with the flow, our lives will be richer and more fulfilling. We will be more satisfied with ourselves. Life will be just a bit easier.

Jeremiah 7:5 and 7
If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.