What a difference a day makes.

What kind of day will you have?  It is up to you, at least if you are an independent adult, what kind of day, what kind of life you will have.  I just reread my last post and was at first a bit embarrassed.  I sounded so negative.  What can I say?  I was having a real tough weekend.  Can't believe how many grammatical errors I made.  You know I had to be off (Mari, I know you were worried. Please pray that it doesn't happen again.)  Anyway, no more rash, just a little but it is mostly gone.  Turns out the banana-flavored Ketotefine, or whatever it's called, must have helped.  I went on-line to see what it is and found out it is used for child asthmatics, but apparently it works great on skin allergies too. I just want to publicly thank God and pharmaceutical companies for good medicines and itch-free skin.
So back to your day.  How is it? How will it go?  Tonight was Family Night at CICRIN.  Hellen, the director is in Costa Rica taking care of personal business so I led the Bible study.  We read from James 4:13-17.  The point of the passage is to not to carelessly plan your life out when you don't even know if you will live to see next week.  We are supposed to seek God's will to be done in our lives as we think about the future.  So I asked the kids, "What would you do if you knew tomorrow was your last day to live?"  Again, for the most part we decide what kind of life we're going to live, what kind of day we're going to have.  Most of the kids said, 'Arrepentirse--repent'.  I was disappointingly surprised.  Why repent when you're already saved, or supposedly saved?  Others answered generally about making amends, visiting family, taking care of business, behaving so God would let them into Heaven (Heaven should be capitalized!)  Again, I was worried about their thinking.  Some made some real thoughtful statements about just enjoying the day because their lives should already be in order and they should not spend their last day scrambling to make it into Heaven.  Doña Dalila said we should live our lives being prepared for our last day of life.  She said we should take advantage of our time to use it wisely to enjoy every aspect of life.  But of course, she emphasized putting God first to do things right.  To the one who said she wanted to live right and be right by others but always couldn't because her good intentions weren't reciprocated I suggested that her behavior and conduct should not be controlled how others behave.  To the one who said he would behave I recommended he spend his last day finding out the truth about how to get into Heaven.  To the one who wanted to make sure she repented because if she had any unrepentant sin remaining at the deadline she would go to hell I explained God was not a callous judge clenching his palms just waiting for the chance to reject unaware Christians that had unknowingly failed His perfect performance evaluation.
In closing I told all of them that if they had all these issues that are apparently pending in their lives, why wait until they think they're going to die to settle them?  Why not do these things tonight, tomorrow?  I explained that they are not truly living a free life if there are people they need to talk to, people they need to apologize to, people they need to forgive.  I explained that until they do they are not living a full life.  To begin the lesson I told them that we are a group of young people, although I definitely an outlier I am still young.  They have their whole lives ahead of them.  Yet, according to the Word all our lives are but brief vapors, like a blade of grass, a flower who is here today and tomorrow leaves no mark of it's previous existence.  So the point is God wants us to make the most of our lives in Him!  And we can't have a great life in relation with Him if we live our lives bound in guilt, bound by pride, unable to humble ourselves and make right with those whom we have offended or hurt, or to confront someone for that matter who has done us wrong, but with the sincerest intention of forgiving and releasing so that both they and the other(s) can be free to walk with God (and live with themselves).  That's true love.  That kind of love is possible with God.  He is Love and He fills us with that love if we ask.  He promises us that whatever we ask, according to His will, He will freely give it.  I know that this is His will.  We cannot walk with Him with any degree of depth if we are filled with hate, anger, bitterness, hardness of heart, sin, selfishness, this list can go on for too long.  Why not just throw all that junk away and instead just make room for love, all the rest of the goodies will be added with just this first ingredient--indeed they are all part of this one ingredient.  So I need to take my own advice and really be careful about what kind of day I am going to have tomorrow.  I will not be negative, impatient, judgmental, cynical, too careful.  I will be more loving, more understanding, more empathetic, more concerned, more patient, more HUMBLE.  Life is amazing, I hope we all live it to the fullest extent that God intended.
EVERY DAY.