Friday the 13th

Today is Friday the 13th, a day that is supposedly bad luck. I don't believe in such superstitions, and I especially like the quote I read the other day that said, "Friday the 13th is actually a lucky day, because it is always followed by a Saturday!"

Man-made practices of good and bad don't hold any weight with God. Recently my 7 yr old came home from school and told me if you hold up your middle finger it means you don't love God. Then she asked me, "Is that true?"  "Do you love God?" I asked her.  She assured me she did.  "If you hold up your middle finger will you still love God?" She said of course.

I shared with her that God made every part of her, and he loved every inch of her, including her middle finger.  But people have tainted things making up the idea that raising a middle finger means something ugly or perverted, when God didn't make it that way.

Yet the very things God has said are not okay, and even calls sin, are readily accepted in society as the norm. We live in a mixed up world. We have to be alert, keep reading the Bible, and keep our eyes on God. I am thankful for a God who loves all of me, even my middle finger, and who loves me the same every day, even on Friday the 13th.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:8-10).

The Power of Your Influence

Never underestimate your influence.

 I recently ran into a gentlemen who was running for office in my locale.  I had met him previously at a social event. He said, "Do you remember me?" And I said of course I remembered meeting him at the event.  "No," he responded, "Do you remember meeting me at your mom's?" Shocked I said I hadn't. As I searched my memory over when I  could have possibly met him at my mom's, he made a remark I missed about rudeness. "My mom was rude to you?" I asked.  Laughing, he answered, "No, you were! But then I was just a friend of your little sister." I still didn't remember, the event happened 20 years earlier. But 20 years later he still remembered I had been rude.

Never underestimate your influence.

Recently, I got an email from a former co-worker. I haven't worked outside the home in 12 years, so literally I have not seen this person in 12 years. We did exchange a few Christmas cards over the years, and I sent a congratulations card once over a promotion.

The email asked me to pray for my co-worker's family as they went through a medical crisis. I was honored to do so.This person hadn't seen me in 12 years, but remembered that I "believed in the power of prayer" 12 years later.

What you do, how you act, what you say, leaves an impact on people, good or bad.

What influence are you, and your faith, leaving?