Do You Look Like Your Father?

Quite a few of my Facebook friends updated their profile photo today with pictures of their fathers. For many, the similarities are striking. You can see strong family traits such as a common facial structure, similar eyes, or the same smile. And although many of us look a lot our earthly fathers, how much do we resemble our Heavenly Father, in whose image we were created?

If you look closely enough at me, you will see some of my dad’s features. But I believe you can really see my dad in my personality. My mother used to always tell me, “You’re just like your father!” Most of the time, it was a compliment. ☺ I share my dad’s temperament, his work ethic, and even many of his political views and opinions. It doesn’t matter that we are a generation apart. It doesn’t matter that he was raised in the West Indies and I was raised here in America. It doesn’t even matter that we didn’t always live under the same roof. You can see my dad in me because I am his child.

Jesus, the Son of God, resembled His Father in every way. In John 14:8-11, he tells Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus is the perfect reflection of God. As Christians, people should see our Father in us, too. When Jesus prayed to God on our behalf in John 17:20-26, He said, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.” It is a Divine desire for us to be the spitting image of our Father. We should love the way God loves, care for others the way He does, and live in a way that reflects Him.

People should know that we are the children of God because we walk just like Him!

Happy Father's Day!

What Are You Doing With Yours?

As Christians, we look forward to the day when we take our rest from this earth and enter eternal life with Jesus. And we long to hear God say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” But how many of us will enter heaven and only hear, “Well? You’re done.”

In Matthew 25:14-30, we read the parable of the bags of gold. Before leaving for a journey, a master entrusts various amounts of gold to 3 servants. Upon his return, the servants who have wisely handled the riches are rewarded with more. But the one who wasted the gold is punished.

Jesus told this parable to help us understand what the kingdom of heaven is like. The bags of gold (called “talents” in the King James Version) represent the gifts that we are given on this earth (for example: teaching, preaching, leading, or writing). Just as the bags were of different amounts, our gifts may be of different values. But it is what we do with them that matters. What good is it if God gave you the voice of an angel—but you only choose to sing in the shower? Or even worse, only use it to sing songs that do not glorify God?

So what does God want from us? Romans 12:1-8 gives us some pretty clear instruction. It begins by telling us to offer our bodies as a “living sacrifice.” That simply means we should turn our lives over to the service of the Lord. It also means going against the “norms” of society, which often tend to be in contention with the ways of God. The rest of the passage gives us wise direction on how to use our gifts well, in a way that is pleasing to God.

What are you doing with your gifts? Are your talents being used to glorify God? Make it your business to enter His presence with a job well done!

A Matter of Time

I’ve always believed the perception of time is purely mathematic. Think about it…for a 5-year-old, one year is 1/5th of that child’s entire lifetime. So one year seems like a very long time. However, for a 35-year-old, a year is only 1/35th of that person’s life experience—a much smaller segment. No wonder time seems to fly as you get older! But, as I was recently reminded, it’s not about how much time you have in life, but what you choose to do with it.

Aren’t you always amazed by people who seem to get so much done in the course of a day? We’re all given the same 24 hours, but some folks just seem to know how to make every 60 minutes count. Much of it has to do with goal-setting and discipline. Remember the old Army commercials? After a montage of scenes featuring very task-oriented young men going about their daily routine, the voice-over said, “We get more done before 6 a.m. than most people do all day.” Now, that’s a model for productivity!

Making the most of your time isn’t just a nice thing to do—it’s a spiritual principle. Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” In light of that scripture, when it’s time to eat, a person shouldn’t be out running and playing. Just as when it’s time to work, someone shouldn’t be sleeping. There is a time for everything. Every activity has a season.

Perhaps this is why the old have greater wisdom. After 60 and 70 years, they have witnessed quite a few seasons. And because life is cyclical, these older folks have had a chance to see for themselves the pattern of life over the years. They know by experience that “every action has a consequence.” They understand that “weeping endures for a night but joy comes in the morning.” They realize that “this too shall pass.”

People often say that young people have their whole lives ahead of them. But that holds true at any age. Remember the saying, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life?” Whether you’re 16 or 46, you have the rest of your life ahead of you. And life is so unpredictable, no one at any age can be certain of how much more time that is. But everyone can make the choice to make the most of the time we have right now. We can talk about what we’d “like to do” OR we can choose to go ahead and make it happen.

It’s all just a matter of time. What are you doing with yours?