As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. Psalm 42:1

 When we are unhappy and nothing seems to satisfy us, how we tend to buy, or do things, that try to fill a void. When we pray, or visit a Church, we find that void filling up, but we often do not recognize it is Jesus and the Holy Spirit who are filling up that void. How we tend to not notice the closeness we just reached for. Again, we go off in search for the stream that will fill our thirst, looking but not finding. Until one day when we enter into the house of the Lord and lay our prayers at his feet will we find it is there that we find the thirst quenching water.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles... 1 Corinthians 1:22-23

It seems to me no one is happy unless they receive a sign. Don't move unless you get a thumbs up. Reminds me of the game Simon Says. Some of us get signs for specific reasons, others get signs, but unfortunately when we are not paying attention we will not see them. Come to a stop light, you notice what color, and proceed from there or you stop. If your not paying attention you could end up in serious trouble. We become conditioned to do so many things, from the smallest of tasks to the biggest of burdens. We see so very much, yet we see so very little of what is truly important, the many signs given to us daily to bring us a stronger faith and love for God.

If we were playing Simon Says right now, Simon would say open your eyes.

Today I tackled something that I kept putting off, the removal of un-needed items. In the process of doing this, in the background was some very pleasant music. Usually when we do chores we tend not to hear much of anything, but this particular time, I heard two words from a song that I seem to recall in my sleep the other night. This CD I have not listened to in some time, so when I finally heard the words I was, to put it mildly, very excited. A few days ago I was thinking to myself how God is my best friend, and how much he has done for me in my life and the direction he is guiding me in. Well any way, I saw Sister yesterday, and I mentioned these words, but at the time I did not know why I was given them, until today. This song is called "My Forever Friend" by Daniel O'Donnell. There is one thing that I will never do in my life is walk away from God, this song was an affirmation that God is always our friend, at least for me anyway. It was a comfort for me to know that he speaks to us in a variety of ways and he responds in some very unique ways. I have looked for God in all things and I'll tell you, when you seek him with honesty in your heart, he is there in all you see and hear. He will do the impossible, put a smile in your heart, if you let him.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Psalm 103:1

How often do we bless God for all he has and has not granted us. We have good health, bless him. We have a mind that thinks well, bless him. We have faith, bless him. We have the capacity to love, bless him. When we speak, bless his most holy name, instead of using his name as a curse. Should we have the opposite, not so well with health, not so good at thinking, not as faithful as we should be, it is all the more reason we should bless God, for all we have comes from him.

They hated him [Joseph] so much that they would not even greet him. Genesis 37:4

I would say doesn't this remind us of how we treat each other. Now why on earth would they hate him so much for? What could the reason possibly be? Perhaps it is jealousy. After all jealousy causes people to act cruelly to one another.

Today we are people who seem to keep up with what our neighbors have. Our jealousy shows when we need to purchase more than what our neighbor has in order to look better and more prosperous. How when we dress if someone we envy looks better, how we tend to try to outdo them also. This happens too, among children, young adults while learning. They mimick their parents, their values come from those who teach them. and their first teacher is their parents. Are we then teaching our children to mock others, have disrespect. I come across this with my students. Our jealousy toward others as in the time of Joseph when his brothers sought his downfall, is our downfall too. Can we change? Is it possible? Or do we prefer having it our way all the time, selfish as it is. Our destiny is after all is one of two places, up or down. We want to go up, then we need to fix ourselves.