Good morning, Samara.
I haven’t even been outside yet. From here I don’t see evidence of the freezing rain that was predicted. But I think I’ll find out soon enough as I plan to go out for a little old man jog.
Lots on the list for today. In view of our upcoming trip to Vanuatu, we sure need to stay on course. Lots of stuff needs to get done before blast off.
I was amused with a piece of ice that formed atop a glass disk out on our front deck. In the daytime sun, it thawed enough to release and slide on the glass—kind of like a miniature glacier. But then it froze again before sliding all the way off. That cycle was repeated over a few days—until yesterday when it finally crashed. I’ll stick on a photo to show it at one point.
Have a great day. Love, Tua
What should a person KNOW that would cause one to be careful and cautious in the way they speak? For one thing, a person should know something about how speech works—aware of the amazing cause-and-effect connection between a human heart (thinking) and a human mouth (speaking). Jesus put it this way: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).
A general Biblical truth to know is this: NOT A SINGLE THING WE DO, NOT A SINGLE WORD WE UTTER, AND NOT A SINGLE THOUGHT WE THINK, ESCAPES THE MONITORING SURVEILANCE OF OUR SOVEREIGN MAKER (Please read Hebrews 4:13 again). Additionally, please pay attention to this insight that Jesus wants us to KNOW: “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37). Wow! Don’t you agree, Samara?—that a person with this kind of awareness is going to use their words with restraint?—rather than just blurting out any old thing that wafts through their brain?
The fact is that anyone who chooses to practice this kind of balanced self-examination is most likely to be “even tempered.” They are constantly evaluating themselves, asking questions like this: Why do I think the way I think? Why do I say the things I say? Why do I behave the way I behave? Living by this kind of consistent self-management that renders KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING is very stabilizing to one’s personality. It has to minimize moodiness—mood swings that make a person hard to live with unless they are all giddy happy and upbeat because things are mostly going their way. But then when things don’t go their way, you’d better stay out of their way—or run for cover.
Here again is another bottom-line question for both you and me: What kind of a person do I want to be?