The short answer is yes, everyone is blessed by God with an amazing ability. This gift is sometimes an inherent ability to do certain things better than others. These are awesome gifts that should be used to their fullest extent to further His work. What people seem to not know or forget is that gifts aren’t always genetic abilities. Sometimes a gift is a circumstance that you find yourself in, or even a gift you receive from another person.

For instance, say you come across some extra money, whether trough a bonus or extra hours at work. Sometimes this money can come in handy for things that pop up in life, while other times this money seems to be of no apparent use to you other than to be blown on stuff, not even important stuff, just stuff. You don’t need the money but if you step back and take a look around, do others maybe have a need? I have been blessed many times recently with the ability to give to friends who needed the money more than I did. It feels great to help and there isn’t a doubt in my mind that God put me in those situations at those times to help people. Kudos to me right? Not in my mind. To me, doing the right thing when God puts you somewhere is just the natural thing to do, not something to be celebrated above and beyond the call of duty.

Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not always money that people need. It can be your gifts, time, or even a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen to another’s problems. Do something to make a difference, even if it is just one person or one time a day. 0+0 will always equal 0. If you do nothing and just go with the flow, you aren’t making a difference. But if you do something to help someone else, how much better would the world be today? There are about 2.1 BILLION Christians in the world today. If they did just one good thing a day, imagine the impact. So start something where you are, it might very well be something small, but remember that even the Giant Red Wood tree starts as a seed that will fit in the palm of your hand.

There is a saying out there that it is, “always darkest before the sun rises.” Well being a Christian this works a little different for us. I have noticed that there are many Christian’s everywhere under attack in deep and serious ways. My heart is with them all, even my life has been a little out of whack here lately as well. Our church seemingly on the brink of collapsing on the eve of a bright future. Then we get good news and its not the end of the world anymore. We must not lose sight of the fact that the Creator of the Universe is on our side, to take heart in that fact that He will never give us more than we can handle, no matter how we feel about ourselves, He knows our limits and won’t let us get pushed too far beyond them.

Nothing ever happens without a reason though our human minds might not be able to make sense of it, God knows and we must trust Him with all that we are. A lost opportunity today is a better deal tomorrow, a broken heart now can lead to a soul mate later. Take heart in your trials and rely on God and your fellow Christians, for what happens today will help you tomorrow. Here is something I pray when I get down:

Dear God

Tomorrow I know the Sun will rise

I am going to get up

Breath in and out

Endure the trials now for the good times yet to come

For Your are with me no matter what

And in that I take hope

Thank You for the gift of eternal life for I fear nothing with you.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

The what? Sounds kind of weird, what is that? Well in determined use it is one of the best ways I have found to keep yourself living a life that would glorify God. Most have heard the term WWJD or, What Would Jesus Do. This saying is fine for most everything with one minor issue for me. Putting that phrase to use is hard in my mind because you have to think through someone else’s mind, you may have an idea about what someone would say or do, but every human mind is unique in how it looks at issues and circumstances. The Presence Principle takes care of that minor hiccup.

It’s easy to understand and simple to get answers from, it goes like this. If your Savior, the Son of God, Jesus Christ were standing next to you, would he be pleased and happy with what you are doing or saying? For whatever reason people tend to forget or not truly grasp that Jesus was a real man, he laughed and had fun just like the rest of us. The difference was that he never derived his fun from hurting others or doing things displeasing to God.

This one is shorter than the last, due to conflicts of the heart and a hectic work schedule, God Bless

Well hello there friend and welcome to Reality Check, the place where no topic is out of bounds. If it deals with being a Christian, no topic is too touchy for it to be talked about. My name is Thomas and this will be the place where I get to tell you all about the wonderful things that God has laid on my heart to tell you about. This site will geared mostly towards teenagers but everything will still be applicable to Christians in all stages of their relationship with our wonderful and awesome savior.  In the coming weeks I will be talking on a variety of subjects like:

• Today’s Music
• Using Profanity
• Acceptability vs. Authenticity
• Peer Pressure
• Ways to Grow Closer to God
• Dating
• News in the World Today
• How to Praise God with our Gifts and Talents

So yes, I like to cover a variety of topics and I pray that you get something useful out of them