Skip to main content

VOD - Proverbs 21:21

"Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity, and honor." - Proverbs 21:21

So how do we pursue righteousness?  It is defined as the quality of being righteous, meeting the standards of morality and justice, and being virtuous.  My pursuit of righteousness begins by starting each day reading God's word, praying, and trying to grow closer to him.  Learning more about his word, and having a closer relationship with Him will lead us on a path of righteousness.

The pursuit of love is one that we may not want to admit its direction but we cannot ignore.  We will go after what we love, whether it's the right or wrong thing to pursue.  Is our main love and motivation to get more money, wealth and power?  Or is it to spend more time with the people that we love and do acts of kindness for others to show them love?  Try to be more loving today by simply a smile, a word of encouragement, or just being more patient with someone around you.

If we pursue 2 things, God promises us 3...he always gives us more than he asks of us.  We are promised:
- Life, time and moments to spend with those around us. 
- Prosperity, a successful, flourishing condition.  We may typically equate this to financial but take a look around at all the blessings you have, a caring family, a comfortable home, and food on the table.
- Honor, respect, esteem and glory both from God and man.

Britt and I watched a movie Saturday afternoon and it had a husband and father who was struggling with how much time he spent at work versus how much time he spent with his family.  One part that really stuck out to me was the close to the following:
Daughter:  Dad why couldn't we just go to the lake instead of making this stop for work?
Dad:  Honey, I'm trying to give you and your brother everything I never had growing up.
Daughter:  I didn't know you had a bad childhood.
Dad:  I didn't have a bad childhood.
Daughter:  Then what do we need that you didn't have?

That really hit home for me since I'll be adding fatherhood to my resume in a month or so.  While I want to provide everything that my family needs, I pray that I remember that they need my love, more than a nicer house; my affection, more than expensive gifts; and my time, more than a bigger paycheck. 

So as we go out to start this week, what are we pursuing?  I hope that it's righteousness and love.  Thank you Lord for your promises to us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020 is Hindsight...Finally!

Wow, what a year! 2020 could literally be an entire decade, maybe more, of history, change, and lessons rolled up into these twelve months. While many aspects of 2020 were kind of sucky and we would like to forget them, it will certainly be a year to remember. And it will be enlightening when this year is looked back on in 10, 25, or 50 years to be discussed. I wonder if we'll seem like geniuses or idiots? Probably both to some extent! While there is so much that I could consider and analyze about this year, I'll try to break some of it down into four dimensions - Physical, Spiritual, Mental, and Social/Emotional. These are events and happenings from my world and perspective and I'm trying to be open in sharing and would love to hear from others on events you found most transforming. Physical When COVID cause gyms to close, that messed me up. Our town and state were late to be hit with severe cases and therefore later than many across the country to close up shop. I'm n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Who Wants to be Dilos?

You're probably wondering if that's a typo or not. While doing a search for these letters did actually reveal that there is a brand and some fictional character out there with this name - my real intent was to show that order matters. You see, if we reverse the letters, you then spell the word, S-O-L-I-D. Yet far too many of us are operating with a Dilos mindset instead of getting our priorities in order and becoming Solid. We chase money like it's the most important thing in the world. And while it's certainly necessary, if money is the number one goal of any individual, or even any business, failure is surely on the horizon. To better understand the significance of the order, let's go through them backwards. Dollars. Yes, money matters. But what good is all the money in the world if you're "dumb as a box of rocks" and lack the next component, Intelligence, and don't know how to manage (or keep) your wealth? Intelligence. Let's say yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

The New Normal

When all of this COVID, Coronavirus, and pandemic talk first started, I literally got sick of hearing the phrase, "the new normal."  I heard sermons preached talking about what is normal.  I even preached one that I titled, "The Next Normal."  But what if these "new normal" people are actually onto something? When I was growing up, a normal summer consisted of a lot of time with Mom.  She was a school teacher so we were all out for several (probably stressful) months together.  She, my brother, and sister would spent countless hours at the pool and make several trips each year to stay at my aunt's house in the lower part of the state, about 30 minutes from the beach.  That was normal for me. But now, 30ish years or so later, life for my children (and their precious little grandchildren) looks very different - almost like there's a new normal in town.   My parents worked hard, sacrificed, and saved for years before purchasing a lake house in 2010 - ...
Post a Comment
Read more