Daily Bread Devotional April 17

Have you ever considered the weight of your everyday decisions and how they ripple through the lives of others? Join us for a profound conversation that examines the legacies we leave behind, inspired by the contrasting stories of two church members at the twilight of their lives. We confront the harsh lens through which non-Christians often view us, challenging the idea that followers of Christ lead lives free from struggle. Our discussion unravels the devil's attempts to stir up discord, and how, through prayer and choosing to align our perspectives with God's will, we can find the serenity Jesus promises. It's not just about the grand gestures; we celebrate the pure joy found in the simplicity of a smile or the warmth of engaging with those around us, illustrating through personal stories, such as running a Dungeons and Dragons group, the profound effect of small acts of kindness.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Good morning Ginger Adventurers. It is time for another Daily Bread devotional. Today's devotional is titled Choices Matter. The scripture that we're focusing on today is there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death Proverbs 14, 12.

Speaker 1: 0:39

Now, today's message is talking about a pastor who goes around and does hospital visits, as many pastors do, and at the time that he's going around and doing visits, he has two church members who are in the hospital and they're very close to dying. And the two church members are very, very different from each other. One is very, very outgoing, loves to help people, very selfless, always wanting to get out there and make people's lives more positive. The other church member has not been that same influence. The other church member is leading a hard life, making poor decisions, not stopping to think about what the things that he does affects others, and it's really affected his family. There's a lot of chaos, there's a lot of upheaval, where, with the other church member, there are just a lot of people that really admire her and want to be around her, like you know, when in life you have friends that just give off a certain energy. So I'll say I have one friend. I love her so much. She was my top mentor when I first entered into teaching. She always gives off a vibe of happiness and joy and she's always laughing. Like a lot of us are just magnetically drawn to her. She's just so much fun. And then you have some of those friends where they're more like Eeyore If anybody knows the character Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh they're more glum, they're more sad, they are not maybe outgoing, they don't make choices that are positive, and it really does affect people. And I think what we want to try and understand from this is that the choices that we make affect people, obviously, and that we want to try and do things that are going to lead people to God. And if we're making choices that are selfish, we are doing things that are negative, we're going to push people away. I know that I've had friends in the past that were not Christians and I'm sure a lot of you have as well where they would really analyze the choices that we made and the lifestyles that we lived.

Speaker 1: 3:08

A lot of non-Christians look at us Christians and think that we think that we're better than others or that we have it easy, and the truth is we really don't. We really don't. I really love this one quote that I've been seeing float through different areas on the internet lately, where a girl says I'm not just a church going girl, inside I'm a hot mess. I have all these things going on. I have all these doubts, I have all these fears, I have anxiety. You know, I have struggle and I have to depend on God to get me through those things. Like everybody that we meet, christian or not, everybody that we meet is dealing with their own battles, that magnifying glass, because a lot of people think that being a Christian means that we're goody two-shoes or that things have to be easier. And it's just not that way.

Speaker 1: 4:12

The devil is definitely out to stir up chaos, to make problems, to make people angry with each other. He wants us to be mad at each other. He wants us to take the fight to our family, to our friends, instead of realizing that he's the one that's stirring up the pot. So we really need to be more aware of the things that we're doing, the choices that we're making. We need to be aware of our perspectives, because I'll tell you when you're looking at a situation and you stop and you just take a moment and process that situation and put that situation in front of God and pray about it. It could change your outlook completely. It can make you feel so different about the situation and the devil loves to use that. He wants to twist your perspective to look at things negatively. He wants to make you angry. He wants to make you fight people, and that's just not the best way to go about things.

Speaker 1: 5:16

I love that in this devotional it talks to us about how God wants to help us. He does, he wants to help us make the best choices. Jesus says come to me and I will give you rest. Matthew 11, 28. Jesus genuinely wants us to have peace. He wants us to have happiness, he wants us to feel joy and he wants us to give that joy to others. And the thing is it's so contagious. Just smiling can be passed down. It can. It can brighten someone's day. Um, it's really simple.

Speaker 1: 5:51

Silly things can brighten people's day, like, for example, I, when I worked the library. I run a dungeons and dragons group and it's, it's fun. The kids really enjoy the adventures and enjoy the problem solving of it and working together as a team. It's absolutely fantastic, and I had one of the kids come in and he had gone to our maker lab in the library and used their 3D printer to make this dragon head. And he came in wearing it and it just, and he had glasses purchased on the edge of it and it just made me laugh. It just, it really made my day because it just looked silly. It was very bright colored. It was very fun the whole night. Everyone really enjoyed it and got a laugh out of it. Yeah, and there's other times where he wears like silly stuff too. He had bought this huge sombrero from a garage sale for $5. It's very sparkly and fun and things like that.

Speaker 1: 7:03

Just someone just seeing you it makes their day. Smiling at someone, makes their day. Making a point to talk to someone that maybe you don't usually talk to makes their day. It's just those simple things and we don't usually talk to makes their day. It's just those simple things. And we don't always stop to think about those simple things. We really don't. We don't always stop to think about how saying something negative, just a very small, whatever type of thing, will affect someone negatively, because it can. Even the small negative things can be that negative impact that really ruins someone's day. So it's just trying to bring awareness to the choices that we make, the small or big choices and how it affects people, and really making that conscientious effort to approach things differently, making that conscientious effort to approach things differently, to make more positive choices, especially if you're having a bad day, because I find that when I'm having a bad day I just am so frustrated and cranky and kind of snarling. When I make the point of approaching the situation, I'm in positively, it does not take very long at all and my whole attitude changes. It really does, and when my attitude changes for the better, the attitudes of those around me change for the better, like I love to see the impact of it because it's very visible.

Speaker 1: 8:38

I will say that this devotional was a little bit more difficult for me today. I don't feel like I've been talking smoothly through this like I normally do, which honestly, isn't the point of it. It's just to be able to interact with all of you. I would love to have questions, comments, shared stories. I absolutely love interacting with people, hearing about what's going on with people. If any of you have things that you need prayer for, I would absolutely love to pray for you.

Speaker 1: 9:08

You can contact me at AdventuresofGinger, at gmailcom. You can also reach me on Facebook. At facebookcom, slash adventuresofginger. And then, of course, you can go to my Buzzsprout website. That is adventuresofgingerbuzzsproutcom. And when you go to the Buzzsprout site you'll see that there is a button you can click on for subscribing to my channel. It's not necessary to subscribe to my channel to listen to my podcast, but if you would like to support my podcast, you can click on that subscribe button and sign up for $3 a month. Anyone who's willing to do that for me. I will give you a shout out in a future episode. Friends, I've enjoyed this devotional. I love doing these every day. I love sharing them with you every day. I look forward to it. Every single day. I'll see you on the wild side.