others needs

As I was doing my Bible study today a few things struck me.  I was reading in Mark 6 about the time that Jesus fed the five thousand and first I noticed that Jesus told His disciples to rest.  "Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat,  He said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."  Mark 6:31  Even Jesus, with all the work that he had to do, understood the importance of resting.  It is mentioned mentioned many times throughout the Bible.  God resting on the 7th day, observing the Sabbath, and so on.  We are on such a busy path so much of the time that sometimes we forget to stop and take care of ourselves.  We rush out the door and run around like chickens with their heads cut off.  I cannot count the number of times that I've yelled at the kids to hurry and get their butts in hear when in reality I should be taking a page from their book and learn to relax.  Obviously there are situations that arise that we need to hurry for, but there are also sooo many others that we can stop and smell the roses.  Do we really need to get home to that TV show or can we spend and extra 15 min enjoying a beautiful sunset?
Another thing that struck me was how Jesus viewed the people needing help.  So many of us see people needing something and all we see is more work for us.  "The disciples often saw the crowds as work, and as constant demands, especially at a time like this when their well-deserved rest was interrupted by the multitude. But Jesus saw them and was moved with compassion. Each face reflected a need, a hunger, or a hurt. Being a thoroughly others-centered person, Jesus cared more about the needs of someone else than His own needs." David Guzak (He has a very well written commentary that I will most likely quote often)  How often do we do this with other people?  We see them as work rather than a person??  Now of course Jesus is sinless and perfect so we can't just see the needs and be able to give unfailingly, but we can strive to be like Him and try.  Just like in my other post there are soo many people out there needing help.  Everyone out there has their own struggles, their own hurts, and their own demons.  And my computer is dying and I'm falling asleep so that is all for now!

week 2 weigh in at 187.8

As I rung in the new year I was struck by how short life is.   On the morning of New Years Eve we took my kids up to my mom's house for the night so that we could go out (thanks so much mom).  On our way up there we witnessed a horrible accident involving 2 semi's and a few other cars.  It made me think about how short life really is.  I hope that I live to a ripe old age, but in reality I could be dead anytime.  Life is too short to hold on to regrets or to hold grudges.  Just let it go and really think about what someone else might be going through before you judge them.  Or better yet just don't judge people at all.  Until you can actually walk a mile in their shoes, know their past, present, and future, you have no right to pass any judgment on anyone.  That guy who cuts you off in traffic may have just found out that his wife is in the ER.  Now granted there are just jerks out there, but even then there's usually something that made them that way.  It's so hard in this culture not to pass judgment and not to try and find the bad in people.  It is so frowned upon to be lower than someone that we will pick and pick at another person until we find something superior about ourselves.  What is so wrong with letting someone else be superior?  At our funerals are they going to talk about how much better we were than anyone else or about how we loved??  Just something to think about.