Wherever you are

Wednesday, May 21

, 2014 Wherever you are

—be all there Matthew 18:2-

3 (NKJV) Then Jesus called a

little child to Him, set him in

the midst ofthem, 3 and said, “Assuredly, 

I say to you,unless you are converted and 

become as little children, you will by no means enter

the kingdom of heaven.Why not be happy—

at least most of the time. Of course,there will be times when

happiness is pretty much impossible. A few

years ago when my sister died, the pain and

grief were so severe, I did not have it in me to

be happy during that sad season of the soul.

However,and thankfully, those days are the

exception,not the norm.So why allow little things to 

rob you of your happiness?One characteristic

I have observed about happy people is that they live

 in the moment.They do not allow the past (even a few minutes

earlier) to rob them of the opportunity to be

happy now. In addition, they do not allow the

future—what might happen to rob them of

happy moments right now.I’ve seen this modeled

 in my own home all my life. My dad—

at 80 years of age—amazes

me. My dad can be happy at the drop of a hat

,and he will drop the hat. I’ve observed him

going through extremely difficult seasons of life

,but at any given moment,he is happily involved

in being happy. My wife of 35+ years is the

same. We can be going through a difficult time

when the pressure is on and the stakes

are high,and she will insist on having a good belly

laugh about something. I’ll be tempted to be

sad and depressed,but I have trouble doing so

because she’s joyfully singing. The secret?

She and dad both have the wonderful capacity

to live in the moment.

Continues on Thursday

Thursday,May 22, 2014

Wherever you are–Be all there

Continued from Wednesday:

I’m getting better at this

since I’ve become a grand-

parent. The world can be

falling apart,and all my

grandchildren want is a cookie

and a hug—right now. I’ve

learned to join in: nothing

breeds happiness like sharing

a cookie and stealing a little

“papa sugar” while giving a

“bear hug”.Perhaps that is why Jesus

said we had to be like little

children if we hoped to enter

into the kingdom of heaven;

there is no one better at living

in the now than children.

In the interest of full

disclosure, I am not where my

father and wife are in practicing

this principle. I am prone to

allow the backwash of

yesterday and the incoming

tide of tomorrow rob me of

happiness of the moment—but

I’m getting better; it’s a choice.

Let us make that choice

today.Let’s choose to be happy

today by living in the moment

—yesterday’s gone,and

tomorrow may never come;

we’d better take advantage of

right now; it’s all we really have.

Bottom line, wherever we

are, let’s be all there–happily.

By Pastor Kemp( Fort Mill Church of God)