I recently was in prayer and had a thought, “If you depend on anything or anyone other than the Christ for your happiness, then you are open for the enemy to spiritually cripple or destroy you.”.  This might sound strange when you first hear it, but after more thought, it is the truth.

In what do you place your trust?  Not just a reasonable level depending on the person or thing, but the kind of trust that would shake you to your core if violated.  Do you place trust in your job or business?  Maybe you trust your close friends or family, or perhaps you have trust in your spouse. 

If you place your full, unshakable trust in anyone or any thing other than the Christ, you have set yourself up to be spiritually and emotionally crippled or destroyed.  Given the right circumstance, in the right environment, with the right conditions, everyone and every thing, other than the Christ will fail you.  Jesus is the only one that will not fail you.  At times it may appear that He has, but He knows the beginning from the end, He knows what will happen in the future and He will never fail you.  We should have our full trust in Him.

Proverbs mentions how words can hurt, how people can fail you and how your emotions can override good sense.  If you place your trust in and/or receive your primary source of happiness from anyone or any thing other than the Christ, then He is second place in your life.  Scripture clearly tells us that He is to be first place in our life and everything else a far distant second place, and for good reasons.

Many Christians know sin is wrong and that you should not intentionally sin.  They would not consider committing adultery or to steal something from someone, nor is telling a lie is not acceptable.  Now, you take that same person who happens to be happily married who was placed their full trust in their spouse which is the focus of their happiness, and let the person find their spouse in an act of adultery.  At that time, their mind and emotions are consumed with hurt, anger, shame and bitterness.  All of the sudden, things of God no longer seem all that important, sin does not seem that important.  Their hurt and anger overrides their common sense because God is not first place in their life.  Their source of happiness, their spouse, is no longer there and all that remains is a vacuum of hurt and betrayal.  Sin does not seem that important to a person in such a situation.  Some people who are emotionally consumed turn to cutting themselves as a source of release.  The pain they feel in their flesh is less than the anguish they feel inside. 

Now, the same story as above, but this time, the primary person has placed God as then center of their happiness, and the person spends quality time with God on a daily basis.  The same incident occurs and they find their spouse in such a situation.  While they may be hurt and still feel some betrayal, the pain is not overwhelming, they are still centered, but this time the turn to God for strength and to obtain His help to forgive the person’s spouse.  This is the way we should handle any offense by others and with God as our source we can do just that.

The point is, if our source of happiness is something other than God, we not only set ourselves up to harm, but give the enemy a target to attack in order to cause us to stumble.

Mat 10:37 ~ He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

We need to keep God as our source for happiness by our love and trust in Him and everyone and everything else a distance second place.

I read a blog today about someone whose grandmother was a strong support for the Christian faith in his family and was decidedly very dedicated to her faith. 

This got me to thinking about my grandmother and just how her faith was an anchor to our family.  After a little reflection, appears that many families are the same, many have that special person that is the primary grounding force in the family, constantly urging family into a relationship with Yeshua, or a deeper walk in faith.

My grandmother gave her heart to Yeshua at young age and never departed.  While she was not perfect, she did continue in the faith through many trails over the years.  While I was still quite young, she gave me a Bible, which I cared for as being something special throughout the years, even when I was an agnostic and did not really know God, that book was still special to me.  When I gave my heart to Yeshua in 1990, that Bible was my main Bible and I still use it today, even though it is quite worn.

I have seen in other families, the anchor of the family passes away and suddenly it seems that the family falls apart (unsaved ones) if there is not another to pick up the responsibility. 

I thank God for these anchors in our lives!

In the world of today, we have a tendency to lose track of what is important and what it means to be parents.

Today, I was at the grocery store and as I was about to leave I notice a woman with four children, none of which could have been over the age of five. As the woman was walking to the car, all the kids ran to the car, which was about fifteen feet away. The mother started back towards the store talking to a friend and as she did, one of the children ran back after her, which just happened to be in front of a car. The car spotted her and stopped. The mother started yelling and cursing at the children and telling a couple of them that they should be paying more attention.

This was sad to me as it reminded me how few of parents really understand what it is to be a parent. In today's world, it seems that everyone is always trying to push the responsibility on to someone else. In this instance, it was the mother trying to place the blame for the situation on a child less than five years old simply because "She" was not handling her responsibility and paying attention to what the children were doing in a parking lot. Moreover, attacking them verbally with such hostility was sad.

It seems that parents are wrapped up in their own lives and expecting the children to come along for the ride, instead of realizing that it is their duty to nurture and grow their children.

Be a parent, your children are worth it!