Simply Profound Thought for the Day

You can't turn on the dark.

I think I heard a comedian say it, but it made me start to think about that. It's true--think of any situation where you have light and dark. I came up with a few examples, but I know there are so many more.

Genesis 1:3-5Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.”
When you flip a switch "on," the light speeds and spreads outward; it only stops when you put the switch in the "off" position (until the bulb blows, of course, for the cynical ones out there).

Darkness is the absence of light. Day is not overtaken by night; we have night because the earth has turned away from the sun. That's true of hearts, too.

The best that darkness can do against the light is to make a shadow--which is really just caused by things that grow or are built up and block the light from reaching everywhere. Yep, we can create shadows in our hearts, too.

I want the doors of my heart to be open, always, to THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD--not even to have any shadows from things that stop the light from reaching every corner.

"For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6
But more than this, I need to be a light shining and spreading in the darkness.

Jesus said, in Matthew 5: ¹⁴“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.¹⁵No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.¹⁶In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father."

It feels like darkness is spreading across this nation, but it is an absence of Light. Christians need to shine brighter and spread the Good News to light up farther and farther--to every corner of the world.

The Value of Money

On the way home today, Wyatt said, "Mommy, you know how chocolate is my favorite candy? Well, I accidentally ate the Hershey kiss off Zoe's cookie, today." [Wyatt and his friend, Thomas, made cookies with Poppa this weekend, which he then brought in for Show & Tell and to share with the class--and to get them out of the house!!! ] It seems that Zoe, for some strange reason, didn't appreciate a peanut butter blossom cookie with the chocolate picked off. We decided that he ate the chocolate on purpose but that he made her feel bad on accident. And he thought that getting her some new chocolate to go with an apology card would be a good route toward redemption.

Not wanting to let a "teachable moment" slide, I took him to Wegmans. On the way there, he picked three empty soda bottles out from under the kids' seats--okay, I realize we missed the "teachable moment" of keeping the car clean. Baby steps, people. We brought the bottles to the return machine and it duly spit out the little receipt. He said, "It's broken, this isn't money!" Urgh...does every moment have to be a teaching moment?

We dashed to the bulk food aisle and picked out 5 Hershey kisses (just in case any "accidentally" disappeared on the way) and weighed it on the scale--8 cents. Perfect, now he would even get a little change back from the 15 cents he "earned" on bottle returns. After getting all rung up, we started for the door, his fist tightly closed around two pennies and a nickel.

Wyatt suddenly stopped and dashed over to the Coinstar machine. "Turn your change into cash," he read aloud. "Sweet!! I want to give it my money and get three dollars!" The nearby store manager thought it was hilarious, but she wasn't the one dragging him away from the machine. I'm teachable momented out at the moment!