It’s a Fact, Jack!

Commentators say that today people do not change their minds on issues, even when presented with the “facts.” What is a fact?  It is a statement that is indisputably the case, meaning a reality or a certainty. So, I started to think about some statements that I believe are indisputably real and certain. Here is my list of facts:

Parenting is maybe the hardest job in the world, but it has the greatest rewards for our hearts, minds, and souls. Children are truly gifts from a loving God.

If you want to see the beautiful view from the mountaintop, you have to let go of your fear of heights, and ride the cable car. Fear paralyzes and prevents us experiencing all that the world has to offer. Don’t miss out!

No one is too rich, too pretty, too handsome, too slick, too thin, or too intelligent to avoid the troubles of this life. Everyone suffers at one time or another, so know the Source of all help before trials come.

If a person feels wrong to you, meaning that something in your spirit hesitates when you are around them, then let them go. What we cannot see, God can.

Love is not meant to hurt physically, mentally, or spiritually. Anyone who constantly put you or your ideas down and never supports your efforts to improve yourself is not worth your time or effort. If he or she was a beast when you met them, no amount of rose petals falling is going to change them, and certainly you can’t change them. Know when to let go and move on.

Without faith it is impossible to please God, but also it is impossible to possess the patience and endurance that provides us with the ability to see things not yet seen as already accomplished.

If no one thinks that your ideas or dreams are a little crazy, then dream bigger, because it is the seemingly impossible or crazy ideas that change the world. Just ask Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Patricia Billings, George Washington Carver, or Oprah Winfrey.

Bodies, minds, and spirits need rest. If you are the person that everyone else depends on or the one always pouring into others, without sufficient physical, mental, and spiritual rest, you will eventually implode and everything and everyone that depend on you will come tumbling down.

Rest is different for each of us, and only you know what soothes your soul and makes you whole. For me, it is good food, a great and really sweet dessert, and sweet jazz music, especially a piano or trumpet solo. It don’t get any better!

We need each other. Human beings were not created to live alone. Our mental and emotional health depends on interactions with other people in community and love.

To say we love others and do nothing when we see a need makes us nothing but a noisemaker. Love for others, agape love, requires us to love not in word, but in deed.  The compassionate person who recognizes a need and seeks to fill it is truly created in God’s image.

A society that lacks compassion for the poor, orphans, and widows, and which emphasizes wealth, war, and self-first, will eventually lose its moral compass, leading to divisions that will cause it to fall.

Your sex/gender does not determine the your intellectual abilities or your capacity for success. Determination, tenacity, and perseverance are not gender-specific qualities.

Whatever you bring to God’s work, whether it is talents, words, money, or time, Jesus will pray over it, bless it , and God the Father will multiply it for the work ahead.

A dose of prayer and Scripture every day makes life so much easier to endure. There is always a message from the Lord.

Prayer still works, for the answers can be Yes, No, and Maybe Later. As Garth Brooks stated, “Thank God for some unanswered prayers.”

A sense of humor will save your sanity. Laughter is a gift from God, a mechanism for releasing the stresses and strains of our lives. Laughter lifts the soul and heals the body. Put on a comedy album or stream a comedy show, laugh wholeheartedly and unashamedly, and watch the stress and strain melt away for a little while.

I know that God probably gets a daily dose of laughter from us, especially those of us who think we are in control of the plans for our lives.

There are two realms that human beings must acknowledge for good mental and spiritual health, for what happens in both impact our daily lives: the natural realm or the seen world that we live in and the spiritual realm which we cannot see. There are enemies in both, but, be of good cheer, God rules over both.

Lastly, the daily prompts can become addictive, calling us to write everyday, even when there is so much more to do.