A wise man heeds commands, but a prating fool will be overthrown.

Again I am reminded that our governing officials are there only on our command and due to our desires.  We have given our government willingly the right to ensure our safety and well being as a people but only on the contingency of them listening to us and keeping our interests at the forefront of their agenda.  They are to heed us and vote according to our wishes not decide that they know better than those who elected them and to follow an agenda of their own.   I have a feeling a few fools are going to be overthrown this year for ignoring what the people who elected them wanted.

Lord, thank you for the timely reminder of what power we as a people have.  I pray that you guide me and the rest of your people to be wise ourselves in making the choices regarding the candidates we are given.  I also ask that you look after those candidates that they may make wise and just decisions.

The memory of the just will be blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.

There are names that we just will not name our children due to what it has come to mean.  Adolf for example was a perfectly common German name.  It is no longer so due to the evil that is associated with it.  In time that might change as new names with new horrors associated with them will be brought to the forefront, but as the Bible said, the names of the wicked rot.  We see this in our own lives on a smaller scale.  There are names that we do not like, not so much for their sound or their meaning but for the associates we have with them of people that have not been kind to us or who have hurt us in some way.

Lord, I will try to ensure that my name is one that is blessed.  I will strive to be kind and loving to others so that when people think of my name there is only good associated with it, and I am able to spread that blessing to others around me.  I’d like for my name to stay a good one.

No one is like you, Oh Lord, great you are, great and mighty is your name.

When I think of how great and mighty you are Lord, my heart swells and I feel small and insignificant.  I am nothing important and there is little I can do compared to you.   Oddly enough knowing that I am insignificant does not make me feel badly about myself.  I am no one special and yet you care.  There is nothing more that I could ask for that is greater than that.  You care for me.

Lord, I am humbled and thankful for your love.  Your majesty and power are beyond my comprehension and even though I feel small, I feel loved and protected in your grace.   There are no words big enough to express how that makes me feel.

Sovereignty over every man is in the hand of God, who imparts his majesty to the ruler.

It is election time again and I am loathed to turn on the TV or radio for all the political ads and nastiness that ensues.  It is good to be reminded that my Sovereign is not any man, but is God.  He grants us our rights and in turn we allow a few of those rights to rest in our leaders so that we may hopefully live in peace and harmony.  It is no man’s place or right to stand over another except though the hand of God who allows us to subjugate ourselves for the good of society

Our forefather’s said it best:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

We consent only though the hand of God, and it is best that we remember that.

The slack hand impoverishes, but the hand of the diligent enriches.

This year I put in a garden.  I tilled the earth and I planted seeds.  I worked diligently for most of the summer.  I made sure it was well watered, and I harvested a wonderful array of vegetables from it, until mid-August when I became much less diligent and slacked off.  I didn’t weed as often.  I didn’t water as often.  I didn’t harvest as often and other things came in and ate what little bit my garden was producing.  My garden clearly suffered for my neglect.  It went from abundant and beautiful to sparse and pathetic looking all because I stopped enriching it.  I plan on another garden next summer, and I plan on working more like I did at the beginning of the summer to enrich and watch it grow.  I now know what a difference my labor means in my harvest.

All things we put our time and effort into are like my garden.  The enrichment might not be as clear and tangible as my garden was, but we all know, that when we are not diligent when we do not give our best and full heart and attention to something, it suffers for it.  Even if the result is close to what would have happened with our best efforts, it impoverishes us as a person to not do everything in our power to be diligent.  We are worth too much to allow ourselves to be cheapened when we can prevent it.

Lord, today I will work to be more diligent in all that I do.  I know that sometimes going that extra mile may seem to be not worth the effort and that sometimes ‘good enough’ might be honestly good enough, but the cost to me is much higher than I am willing to pay.

Go on your way, behold I am sending you like lambs among wolves.

I often forget that I am but a lamb in this world.  I feel strong and confident.  I feel like I can tackle almost anything.  I don’t realize how vulnerable I am to the attacks of the wolves.  I forget to guard my heart, mind and most importantly my soul from barrage of ungodly things I encounter every day.

I think it is because the wolves of today are very much in sheep’s clothing.  They are subtle and often innocuous in their approach.  Often their arguments appear reasoned in nature and are done in the guise of equality and tolerance of others.  Compassion and empathy are taken and twisted into acceptance of things that we know are not right and are not holy.  These gentle bites at my soul still tare and rip at me just as lethally as if the wolves came with gnashing teeth and barred fangs.

Lord, help me to see that I am vulnerable and weak compared to all the wolves surrounding me.  Help me to call on you to strengthen and guard me so that I don’t allow the wolves to get close enough to cause hurt and pain to my precious soul.  Let me notice the little subtle attacks and not just the more violent ones.

Ill-gotten treasures profit nothing, but virtue saves from death.

There is nothing that I have ever gained in a dishonest way that I have not paid for in spades later.  Even if I gain in the short term, there is always a price to be paid.  It could be sleepless nights filled with worry.  It could be just a nagging feeling that I can’t seem to get rid of; or it could be something more concrete like a loss of faith in me from someone I have been dishonest with where I have to work hard to regain trust, or a completely broken friendship that I can’t gain back.

But when I approach my life with virtue, I have never regretted it.  It might be harder at first.  It might take longer to do and I might have to sacrifice immediate gains, but I have never been hurt from it.  I sleep well, and my relationships have always been strengthened for it, and most importantly I am able to look at myself in the mirror and like what I see.

Lord, I will do my best to live virtuously.  I won’t take the easy way to gain things.  I thank you for that little nagging voice that tells me when I am doing wrong, even if it can sometimes cost me a comfortable night of sleep.  I know it is just your way of guiding me back to the path that is best for me.

Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees.

I am not a senator or a congress woman or even someone in local government with the power to enact statutes or write decrees, so how does this even apply to me?  It doesn’t right?  But it does.  I elect those people who are in the position to make statutes and decrees and I can elect those that will promote a godly life.

I am constantly told that to be a good and tolerant person I must subscribe to the idea that things are never good or evil but that there is moral relativity when it comes to right and wrong, but that is not what God says.  There is a right.  There is a wrong.  There is good and evil and I have every right to vote according to those beliefs that I hold dear and are defined by my God.

It is in fact my duty to do so, or woe to me for allowing those who do not enact just statutes and do write oppressive decrees to be in the position of power that they are in.  Now that does not mean that I am judgmental or unkind to those who do not do as the Lord sees fit, but it means that I do as I have always been taught:  Love the sinner and not the sin;  take the stand for what is good in this world and don’t let evil go idly by.

Vote.  Stand.  Believe.

Exodus 9:30

But you and your servants, I know, do not yet fear the Lord God

Normally when you think of fear, you don’t think of it as a positive thing.  As a parent though, I know that a healthy dose of fear is a good thing.  Fear can help you to be cautious when it is warranted.  It can keep you safe from dangerous situations.  It is a tool for our survival.

Fear of God is also a good thing.  It helps us to follow his path, even when we don’t necessarily know the reason for it.  I may not always see the danger, but fear of God can keep me safe when I think I know better.

Lord, help me to have a healthy dose of fear in my life.  I may not always know why things are dangerous to me, but I know that you do and I am grateful for the care that you have given me to keep myself safe even if it is from myself.

“Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”

My faith.  If that is all that it takes than maybe I will be okay.  Than again there are times when that little doubting voice creeps in and it just doesn’t seem that my faith is as solid as it should be.  I never lose my faith entirely but that little voice, at times it can be brutal.

Lord, help me to keep my faith strong and unshakable.  I know that at times doubt will make itself apparent, but please let me remember that all things are done according to my faith.