Pains and aches, why do we have them?

Pains and aches are not desired but we do have in this earthly body we have.

Three elements

Do we carry about with us the thought of God wherever we go? If not, we have missed the greatest part of life. Do we have a conviction of God’s abiding presence wherever we are? There is nothing more needed in this generation than a larger and more scriptural idea of God.

I copied this from Henry Drummond. He talked about  the three great elements which go to make up a perfectly rounded Christian life, which he described from a painting.

1. The first element in a symmetrical life is WORK.

2. Another element in life, which of course is first in importance, is GOD.

3, The third element in life about which I wish to speak is LOVE.

And at the end of his article he gave an advice on praying for the one we are lacking of. 

These three things go far toward forming a well-rounded life. Some of us may not have these ingredients in their right proportion, but if you are lacking in one or the other of them, then pray for it and work for it that your life may be rounded and complete as God intended it should be.

A beautiful and necessary advice in our life.

Little people

Children are people! Yes! I love them, I work with them, I teach them, I also learn a lot from them everyday. These last two months I have been teaching the less fortunate full time. I used to engage in full time teaching the children for many years. The passion of teaching in me never dies. I take every opportunity daily to smile and interact with children. I can't remember there is a time where I smile at a kid, she/he never smiles back. Except one time, that surprised me. But most of the time they want to be acknowledge and they are, they are the friendliest creature in my opinion.
By now I know each of the child in my class. Each of them is so precious with their own unique character. One particular girl, she really wants to test me. She would do exactly the opposite and wait and see what I would do. One painting day I was doing the painting with them. I put some paint on one of their hands and let them do the printing. I told her specifically to print once on the card, but she quickly did it twice and looked at me with a mischievousness smile. I looked at her with a stern look this time instead of getting upset because she was testing me. Then I reminded her again to do once for the next color. With the understanding that I really meant what I said and without getting all aggravated with her disobedience, she was testing me for sure, she obeyed this time.

A strong grip

Again God is with me in a little thing such as pointing me to get the fresh paneer (Indian cheese). One afternoon I went into a shop that sold sweets and asked if they had paneer. They had the last piece as the shopkeeper was showing me where it was kept. As he took it out from the glass shelf, another shopkeeper was washing his fingers in the liquid of the tray where the paneer was. I started to think this was not good, as it was being the last piece, then the guy washed his fingers in it as it was the thing to do before they sold it to me. I followed the man who was taking the tray somewhere. He went to wash the paneer  in a sink as I watched him do it. Then all of a sudden I felt a strong grip on my arm, from a lady who told me where I could get the fresh paneer from instead. I was so thankful, and cancelled buying it from the guy, and went to the other shop instead.

To me it was like God was watching me, keeping me from dishonest people and making sure that I got the good and right things. He is really in control if we believe and include Him in every thing we do and say, every moment of our life. He is not too busy, or too big to care for us in little things. In fact little things are important to Him as He told us in His book, "Let the little children come unto Me, If you have care for these little ones, you have cared for Me, Be faithful in little things, I will put you in charge in bigger things, and I am sure there are many more about little things He mentioned in His book that I would try to find out. God is so real in the physical ways, I can sure testify that over and over again. And if we are aware of these things we would not just think it was just a luck or it was a coincidence that good things happen to us, or we are protected from dangerous situations. He wants to be included in our lives planning, little or big. 

Is this life a waste?

No, of course. God has put each of us here for a purpose. Otherwise He would have taken us back to Him as soon as we were born. Or why would He made us in the first place?
A friend said, "I hope the end of the world will come soon, we are just wasting our lives here". I hinted that he could always do something useful for others. That would be up to him what he would want to do with his life that it's given to him.
As a friend I feel sorry for him that he would think his life is so. There are so many opportunities in life everyday that comes our way which we can do, help to make some life's better, easier, happier, in different circumstances. I think you will agree with me. Or we could just thinking after we have gotten all that we want, need physically, earthly things, we would be satisfied and happy. But it proves to us it is not enough, and yes you would think life is a waste. It is only with sharing your riches, materially and spiritually you will  find your time is not wasted.
Yes, we will die eventually, each of us. But that is not our destination. The journey is what important, what you do, see and learn on the way, that is what makes it count. So when you get to your destination, you will feel so good that you have traveled well, using your time in your travel well.

Shepherd's job

A big job, recognized, a high post and on and on it goes with this worldly concept of success. And if we don't reach any of those we feel we haven't achieved much in this life.
This mindset has been with me these last few days and days, months and years before. So I decided to sit down and ask my answer Man, Jesus, about it.
He encouraged me by showing me the example of David's life in the Bible. He was a shepherd boy, but he was faithful in what he was doing, before he was chosen to be the king.
God only requires us to be faithful in what He has placed us to be, asked us to do, and He will do the increase, that's how I conclude the matter from His answer to me.

Whew, so encouraged, will be the strength of my day today, and days to come whenever I get tempted to feel that I haven't done anything big or so called successful. 

Preparations

We all  heard that so often in our daily activities. For me it is preparation for the nursery class that I am teaching. If I have prepared the materials for the next day, the day runs smoother with 17 kids I have in the class. It makes sense, ha! Yet, finding time to prepare is a challenge for me, as I am also teaching other classes in our center. If I want my time with the nursery kids to be fun then I have to prepare, it goes with the older children too. It would be chaos, and I get frazzled of what to do next. I can see it is the same thing with my spiritual and faith life. I also need to prepare, so whatever circumstances come my way, I am prepared.

I find it is an effort to do that daily. I read and hear God's Word daily in one form or another. I pray with my partner. I feel good and feel prepared for the day. I think it goes with any work that we do, when we prepare ahead of time, we are ready for the show.