Little Smudges In Life

George and I were engaged in lively conversation when he stopped talking for moment and retrieved his white no frills hanky out of his back pocket. Unfolding it, he rigorously blew his nose. I continued to talk with skipping a beat. After several good snorts, he folded the hanky right on the creases again and again, until it was returned to its perfect square. He put it in his right hand and slid it down into his back pocket.

When he looked up at me, I had become mute. My mouth was agape. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. and it showed on my face.

"Is something wrong?"

"Do you always fold your hanky like that after you blow your nose?'

"Yes, Is that a problem?"

"After twenty-five years of married life, I had no idea you folded your hanky back up like that after blowing your nose."

"So?"

"So, I'm sorry to tell you that when, I'm doing laundry and find the hanky so neatly folded in your back pocket, I assume it hasn't been used and I simply put it back in your drawer with out washing it."

Now it was George's turn to stand with his mouth agape.

After a couple of beats passed, he responded, "No wonder I always have so much trouble getting my glasses clean."

George and his smeared glasses remind me of a letter that said. Sometimes our days feel like a smudge on the window pane of life and we don't dare look out of them for fear of what we might see. The smudge of life prompts us to use a windshield wiper. The wiper's is a reminder that if we let Him "GOD" wipe away our worries. He polishes off our smudges of pain, rubs off any mistakes we've made (or think we've made), and gives us a bright, new out look on life. Then instead of focusing on the "ought as" and " should as" and "if only's", we can fill our minds with thoughts that are good pure, and lovely as God renews us from within.

To have this kind of attitude we need a different kind of glasses, the spectacles my friend Roger Shorise calls "Grandma's glasses." He tells the story of a little boy who said to his friend. "Wouldn't you hate to wear glasses?"

"No" his friends replied, "not if I could have the kind my grandma wears! My mother says she can always see when folks are tired or discouraged or sad. She sees when somebody is in the need, and she can always recognized when you have something on your mind and when you need to talk over. But best of all, she can always see something good in everybody."

The little fellows continued. "I asked my grandma one day how it was that she could see that way. She said it was because of the way she's learned to look at things since she's gotten older. So I'm sure it must be those glasses of hers."

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all of us could see others through Grandma's glasses?"

Just as Grandma could see something good in any situation, God can take your trouble and change it into treasure.

In the mists of the darkness, you will learn lessons, you might never have learned in the day. We all have seen dreams turn to ashes -ugly things, hopeless experiences but beauty for ashes is God's exchange. Off yourself to God and ask for a spirit of praise so your whole being will be restored. Sorrows come but each time God will be there to remind you that HE CARES.

Roman 9:28 means Gods causes all things in our lives to work together for good.

REMEMBER:
Composts makes great gardens.

God is offering Himself to you daily and the rate of exchange is fixed for sins for the forgiveness, your hurt for His balm of healing, your sorrow for His joy. Give Him your pain. Give Him the guilt you feel, the heartaches that come to us all. They are part of living, but if you focus on Jesus Christ. He alone can uses your heartache. Then He uses us to dry the tears to others.

Someone said, genuine healing is not a microwave process. It's more like a Crock-pot experience.

From the book "Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This, But She Never Said Just How Many"