We must be careful of the words we speak...

They reach out much farther than our fist!

 - E. L. Ingram

Your fist can only go as far as my nose...but your words...Oohhhhh...they can go in all directions.  They can go forward just like a sword...right into my heart.  They can go upward...God can hear them.  They can go sideways...depending upon who else was standing by and heard them and were also hurt because of them.   They can go downward and cause turmoil and stress in the very bowels of my being.  They can go backward and come forward from my past...to haunt me in my future.  Your words and mine...they can be very, very powerful!

Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

A FATHER'S INTROSPECT

He placed his little hand in mine

Looked up at me so tall;

I knew that I must 'measure up'...

Or we'd both surely fall!

Before he even walked, I thought,

"What shall this child be?"

It took no time to realize...

That it depends on God and me.

I must be careful how I walk

Throughout my life on earth;

I want to present him back to God...

As pure...as at his birth.

©Edna L. Ingram, 09/13/2008

Dedication: To Bobby Ingram who did his 'fathering job' well with our little boy and girl.

STRANGE CUSTOMS

©1982, Edna L. Ingram

*Note:  Until 1949 the ideal length for women's feet, in these countries, was 4 inches. Countries that used to do this proceedure on their little girls, for the most part, have quit this painful custom...unfortunately we have not quit ours and our nation is showing it!

Jesus gave some 'hard' sayings at times to the world.   This one He told His disciples seems very hard indeed.  

Matthew 10:37  "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me."

But when we get into His Word, we can soon find out that He does not require more of us than He or His Father required of Themselves! When Jesus hung dying on the cross, did He not put Himself second to our great needs and did not God put us first....even before His beloved Son? 

Utterly awesome and amazing, is what it is!

When that begins to register with us, it doesn't seem so hard to begin putting Him first...before our jobs, recreation and even before our family and all those we love so dearly.