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| Volume 22 Number 7 July 2020 | Page 12 |
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| Volume 22 Number 7 July 2020 | Page 12 |
Derek Broome
Over the past several weeks while worshipping at home with my family, I have had the opportunity to sing a lot with my kids. What I have learned is that my children have very few songs that they love, and they want to sing them over and over again. Yet, how can I really say no? They love to sing, and they love God. So, in our devotional times and in some extra singing we do as a family, we usually sing a lot of the same songs. One of those songs that we have been singing a lot is “Blue Skies and Rainbows.” This has been one of Joshua’s favorite songs for a long time.
I know that typically this song is sung with children, but this song has a powerful and an encouraging message. “Blue skies and rainbows and sunbeams from Heaven are what I can see when the Lord is living in me. I know that Jesus is well and alive today. He makes His home in my heart. Nevermore will I be all alone since He promised me that we never would part.”
As Christians, even when things are not going the way that we expected, we can know that Jesus is there and that He is alive. He is with us always, and one day He is coming to take us home.
Spiritual Vitamins
Ed Benesh
For years, my family and I have taken vitamins. It is now part of our everyday routine, finding its place right after breakfast but before we all scamper out the doorways of our home to the various places that demand our attention. Our days can be long and often difficult between the school and work routines, let alone the inordinate amount of time spent on the various extracurricular activities. In an effort to provide for optimum health and well-being that enables productivity and positive attitudes (among other things), we take vitamins. Such is life in the Benesh household.
Just the other day, however, as I was filling the case that holds the vitamins that my wife and I take, I began thinking about the notion of spiritual vitamins. I looked at the pills and thought, “I am taking all these for good physical health and productivity, but what sort of vitamin am I taking today to help with spiritual health and productivity?”
Now, rest assured, you cannot run down to your local pharmacy and find spiritual vitamins, and I wouldn’t recommend consulting with your pharmacist about them. To get your spiritual charge, you may, instead, want to spend just a few moments in prayer or picking out a verse from the Bible on which you could focus that day. Imagine how your day could be improved if you read aloud the words, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice” and then prayed, very simply, that God would grant you the wisdom to see His work and rejoice in it. What if you pulled that same verse out at lunch to remind yourself to rejoice? How much better would your day go, spiritually supercharged with this small, spiritual vitamin of truth?
Why not try it? If this is the day the Lord has made, then should you not rejoice and be glad in it, having prepared to do so by taking your spiritual vitamins? Give it a try. “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).