Laurel Dairies: See you in the New Year....

Laurel Dairies: See you in the New Year....: To all that were part of making 2014 a significant year for me, I thank you! For friends, acquaintances and those we may not have been clos...

See you in the New Year....

To all that were part of making 2014 a significant year for me, I thank you! For friends, acquaintances and those we may not have been close to that we lost in 2014, you are truly missed and will always be remembered.
 
As we countdown to 2015, looking back to 2014, there were sad times, happy moments, challenges, opportunities etc. but in all of it I owe my gratitude to the Almighty God, without Him I will not have made it this far.

 
For the angels he brought my way through loving friends, family and colleagues at work and church to support and love me. I appreciate and thank you all from the depth of my heart. 

The New Year is only hours away and may it give me the strength to face the challenges of life and courage to adjust the sail so as to take every situation to my stride.
 
Thank you all for being a part of my 2014 and see you soon in 2015. xoxo
 
Happy New Year!!!

Thought for Today!

Think about this today.....

Time is a Gift

Culled from Everyday Answers by Joyce Meyer - posted September 9, 2014        

 

To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.

—Ecclesiastes 3:1

 

Time is a resource God gives us, and we must use our time to be fruitful. One of the phrases we should avoid, both verbally and in our attitudes, is: “I just have a little time to kill.” Time is not a commodity to kill or to “pass”; it is a gift to steward. If you are like I am, you like to be productive with every minute. In my daily life, I make a diligent effort to keep everything on schedule. Sometimes that gets me in trouble because circumstances sometimes cause me to fall behind, and then I have to rush. I do not like to hurry, so I am learning to put a little more margin in my life—to allow more time between appointments and scheduled activities—and that relieves a good bit of frustration.

There are times when you do not have enough minutes or hours to go complete a task or do something you want to do, but it’s too early to do the next thing you need to do. When you have five, ten, or fifteen minutes, don’t just “kill” your time. Use it to bear fruit. Keep a book or a Bible with you and use those few minutes to read something. Listen to a worship music or part of a sermon. Pray. Make a few phone calls. Write someone a note of encouragement. When you have a few minutes, make them count.

To me, one of the worst things that can happen to people is to grow old and look back upon their lives and realize they never took time to do what they thought they were supposed to do or what they wanted to do. I do not want you to look back in your latter years and think you wasted your life or feel you never really did anything worthwhile. No matter what your age is today, it is not too late to start right now using your time to bear fruit.

 

Love Yourself Today: Lord, help me today to use wisely the gift of time You have given me.

Love Yourself, Laugh At Yourself

 

Culled from Everyday Answers by Joyce Meyer - posted August 22, 2014

“You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself.”
—Ethel Barrymore

Many of us take our personal faults and mistakes too seriously. We spend too much time opposing ourselves, being our own worst enemies. We often judge ourselves more strictly than we judge others and we focus on our faults far too intensely. Of course, there are times when situations are grave and there are circumstances that require us to be serious. We should always be serious about our sin and want to improve. But many of the little, everyday things we treat as monumental are really not so terribly important. So give yourself a break!
God knew every flaw and weakness you would have and every mistake you would make when He called you into relationship with Himself. Nothing about you surprises Him. Sometimes people think God extends salvation to us and then sits in heaven, saying: “Oh no. Now what am I going to do? I didn't know he was going to do that!”
God knows—and has always known—everything about you. He knows what you will think, do, and say every day for the rest of your life on earth. He also knows how He will help you, teach you, correct you, encourage you, and give you grace for all your faults and failures. He is always for you, never against you, no matter what you do. This truth should set you free to lighten up, enjoy being who God made you to be, and have a laugh at your own self. 

You are who you are. You do what you do, and it’s not always perfect. In fact, sometimes you really mess up! That’s part of being human. But if you also love God, have a heart to change, and ask Him to help you, then you can relax. God is working on you, changing you every day, helping you grow. God is not mad at you! Enjoy Him, and enjoy yourself even though you are not perfected yet.
 
Love Yourself Today: Don’t be so serious all the time. As often as possible, have a good laugh!

Our Responsibility—God's Responsibility

Culled from Everyday Answers by Joyce Meyer - June 5, 2013

So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble. —Matthew 6:34

Every believer has the responsibility to live right—to be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer. Motivated by the reverential fear of the Lord, we can learn to live carefully and begin to make a difference in the world we live in. You and I need to be careful about what we allow into our spirits and how we live our lives. Proverbs 4:23 says to guard our heart with all diligence because out of it flows the issues of life. I believe we should have a careful attitude about how we live—not a casual or a careless one. We need to be careful about what we watch, what we listen to, what we think about, and who our friends are.
I’m not saying we need to live according to the strict and demanding dictates of man. Some would say we must not wear makeup or that we must wear colorless clothing from our necks to our ankles. That is nothing more than legalistic bondage to a bunch of rules and regulations. I had a very ­legalistic relationship with God for years and was miserable, so the last thing I want to do is teach legalism. What I am saying is that we shouldn’t compromise. We should recognize our responsibility as Christians to live our lives in such a way that unbelievers will be attracted to God by our behavior.
James 4:17 says, “…any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to him it is sin.” In other words, if we are convicted that something is wrong, then we must not do it—even if we see a hundred other people doing it and getting by with it. They may seem to be getting by with it, but sooner or later, we will all reap what we sow.
We know that worry and anxiety are not characteristics of a godly Christian. Yet still, many Christians worry. You can choose to worry, or you can reject worry and choose to live with joy and peace. Most people don’t want to hear that message, and they seem to find an odd comfort in thinking that worrying is beyond their control. It is not. Worry is a sin against God.
As long as I’ve been in the church, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone make that statement. But it is sin. It is calling God a liar. It is saying that God is not sufficiently able to take care of you and provide for your needs.
Faith says, “God can do it.” Worry says, “God isn’t able to help me.”
When you worry, you not only call God a liar, but you have also allowed the devil to fill your mind with anxious thoughts. The more you focus on the problems, the larger they become. You start to fret and may even end up in despair.
Think of the words of the great apostle: “I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency]” (Philippians 4:13). Or think of the words from the psalmist: “Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5).
Jesus told His disciples not to be anxious and, as quoted above, not to worry about tomorrow. But He did more than teach those words; He lived them out: “And Jesus replied to him, Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have lodging places, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). That wasn’t a complaint but a simple fact of life. Jesus trusted His Father’s provision for Him even when He didn’t know where He would sleep or what He would eat.
Jesus taught that we are not to worry about anything in life. He wasn’t speaking about planning and thinking ahead. He was saying that some people never act because fear holds them back. They can always tell you ten things that can go wrong with every plan. Jesus wants us to live a stress-free life. If you are worrying about what might happen, you’re hindering God from working in your life.
I heard about a couple whose daughter was diagnosed with a serious illness that wasn’t covered by insurance. The parents were struggling to pay all the medical bills. Not knowing what else to do, they both went into their bedroom for a lengthy time of prayer. Afterward the husband said, “It was really quite simple. I am God’s servant. My responsibility is to serve my Master. His responsibility is to take care of me.”
The next day, the doctors told them that their daughter was eligible to be part of an experimental surgery and all expenses would be paid. The wife smiled and said, “God is responsible, isn’t He?” What a testimony to their faith and trust in God who remains faithful and responsible at all times and in all things. God is no respecter of persons. What He does for one, He will do for another (see Romans 2:11). I encourage you to stop worrying and start trusting in Him.

Lord God, I know that worry is a sin against You. In the name of Jesus, help me overcome all anxieties and worry and enable me to trust You to provide for every need I have. Amen.

Getting What We Want

Culled from Every Day Answers By Joyce Meyer - May 03, 2013.

Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
—Proverbs 3:5–6

I usually know what I want, and I like to get it. I’m exactly like most people. When we don’t get what we want, our negative feelings flare up. (And remember those feelings began with thoughts.)
“I drove across town to buy that dress, and you’re out of my size?”
“What do you mean there are no HDTVs left? You advertised it in the paper.”
Most of us are like that—and when we don’t get what we want, we make people around us miserable. It’s not something we learn in school—it may be inborn. As I wrote the above quotations, I thought of a scene in the grocery store.
A young mother was pushing her cart along and stopped at the cereal. Her child—less than two years old—reached out for a box. “Want! Want!”
“No,” the mother said. “We have plenty at home.” She put a different box of cereal in the cart.
“Want! Want!” the child said. Getting no response, she began to kick and scream. To the mother’s credit, she did not give in but pushed the cart to another aisle and distracted her child.
As I watched that behavior, I thought, That’s the way we all are most of the time. We decide what we want, and when we don’t get it, we’re angry.
“Jack and I were both up for the same promotion. I’ve been with the company longer, and my sales figures are stronger,” Donna said. “I deserved it, but he got the job.”
“I had a grade of 98 going into my final essay test,” Angie said. “If I had made another 100, it would have given me a 4.0 average, and I would have become the top student in my graduating class. But I made only 83 on the test, and dropped down to fifth in my class. I deserved a grade of 100, but my teacher doesn’t like me.”
Let’s look at this problem more closely. The individuals mentioned above, who didn’t get what they wanted, made one common statement: “I deserved it, but I didn’t get it.”
Too often, we Christians expect life to be perfect and for everything to go smoothly for us. We expect success, happiness, joy, peace, and everything else. When we’re thwarted, we pout or complain.
Although God does want us to have a good life, there will be times when we must be patient and endure not getting our way. These disappointments test our character and level of spiritual maturity. They actually show whether or not we truly are ready for promotion.
Why do we think we should always be first while others have to endure a lesser position? Why do we think we are entitled to the perfect life? Perhaps sometimes we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. A humble mind enables us to take a back seat and wait for God to move us to the front. God’s Word says that we inherit the promises through faith and patience. Believing God is good, but can we continue to believe God and trust Him when we don’t feel that life is fair?
Satan plays with our minds. Most of the time, the evil one says negative things to us: “You don’t deserve it; you are worthless; you’re stupid.” Once in a while, however, he tries a different trick: He tells us how hard we work or how much we’re entitled to. If we listen and believe, we may begin to feel cheated or believe that someone has taken advantage of us.
When we don’t get what we want, we fall apart, saying, “I deserved it!” We not only get angry with the boss, the teacher, or anyone else, but we sometimes get angry with God for not giving us what we felt we deserved.
The big mistake was to say we deserved it, because then self-pity creeps in when we don’t get what we want. We can take that attitude, or we can recognize that we have a choice. I can choose to accept life the way it is and make the best out of it, or I can complain because it isn’t perfect.
I think of the story of Jonah—not the whale story—but what happened afterward. He had announced that in forty days, God would destroy the city of Nineveh, but the people repented. Because God listened to their cries, Jonah was angry. “Therefore now, O Lord, I beseech You, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3).
Sad, isn’t it? Jonah would rather have been right than to see 120,000 people saved. Our situations aren’t usually that dramatic, but so many people would rather sit and feel sorry for themselves, listen to the whispers of Satan, and miss out with God than to simply trust God in every situation.
The secret of the Christian life is that we commit ourselves fully to God. If we surrender our wills to God, what happens doesn’t make us angry. If God doesn’t give us what we want and ask for, our faith is strong enough to say, “Not my will, but Yours.”

God, help me. I often have strong desires, and when I don’t get what I want, I get upset. Forgive me. Remind me that Jesus didn’t want to die on the cross, but He lived in total submission to Your will. I ask You, through Jesus Christ, to help me live in total submission and be content with what You give me. Amen.