Even children are known by the way they act, whether their conduct is pure, and whether it is right.  Proverbs 20:11 NLT

What we call character is what either builds or destroys relationships.  Character is more than just a family name; it is the definition of our life. Even children are known by the way they act.  Wounded emotions can take individuals down roads to adultery, divorce, drunkenness, slander, unforgivness and survival modes of every kind.  Here families are injured and broken, businesses fail and communities are in disarray.  God’s grace given in Jesus Christ is much more than saving someone so that they may go to heaven someday.  Grace creates a new nature through the Holy Spirit, it is described as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in Galatians 5:22, 23 NLT. Today let yourself experience the life of God’s grace given to you through Jesus the Christ.  His character is now yours, right now in the place where you find yourself.  His blessing is now yours and you can be the blessing of God to your family, your business, your neighborhood, your church and your community. Get your will involved in His grace and you will have a character that will bring about a good day. Even children are known by the way they act, whether their conduct is pure and whether it is right.  Enjoy!

For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself.  He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.  This includes you who were once far away from God.  You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.  Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.  Colossians 1:20-22 NLT

Many times through our life we will hear someone say, "If God is so good why does he let bad things happen?"  Well, bad things happen because that is the nature of sin in which our world exists. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.  It is while we are in this condition that God poured out his grace for us through the blood of Jesus the Christ on the cross. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.  Grace brings us to life so that we may have the faith to trust, enjoy and love God and be a blessing to each other. Grace by nature encourages, trusts and blesses, therefore relationships are strengthened and refreshed. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Today may you be willing to be renewed in how you feel and think because of the grace of God that has been given to you. Do not let your old habits from your old nature have any place to express themselves through you on this day.  May your very presence bring peace to all who come in contact with you.  For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself.  Enjoy!

Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.

Proverbs 16:24 NLT

Words, what overwhelming power they have. Think of how many broken relationships have taken place because of words and tones that had nothing to do with kindness.  How many still feel wounded because someone said something that overwhelmed them with grief.  What is so amazing about God’s grace is the new creation it brings to our thinking, which changes our words and tones into blessings. Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.  Would you like your emotions to feel better, then ask God to pour out his grace upon you through Jesus Christ.  You will find a joy coming from you that sounds like - Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.  Today let this grace be expressed through you and you will experience a joy that you had only dreamed of.  The souls of men and women around you are waiting for this blessing.  Enjoy!

God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.  

2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV

When God makes all grace abound something brand new takes place within the soul of our emotions. In that place we find ourselves refreshed so that we are actually abounding (being fruitful) in good works. These good works will bring joy and appear as gifts of encouragement, kindness, and the meeting of physical needs.  God's grace allows us the freedom to live this way twenty four seven, Wow!  Talk about being blessed, how about actually living in a place, no matter where we are found, that grace is given and expressed through us.    Today let yourself become overwhelmed with his grace and you will abound in every good work.  God's grace just makes a good day and allows you to see with new eyes as well as hear with new ears.  Feel free to have tones in your voice and expressions from your face that cause others to desire the grace that you have experienced. Enjoy!

Imitate God, therefore in everything you do because you are his dear children. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity or greed among you.  Such sins have no place among God’s people.  Obscene stories, foolish talk, and course jokes – these are not for you.  Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.  Ephesians 5:1,3, 4 NLT

What is commonly called salvation in Jesus Christ is the transformation that his grace gives to our character. Imitate God, therefore in everything you do because you are his dear children.  If the iniquities listed here in God’s Word were somehow renewing to our nature, we would have stayed in them and would have had no interest in the life of his grace.  In the grace of Jesus Christ we can experience a refreshing nature, we would recognize it as thanksgiving in our thinking, our emotions and our attitudes towards God, family, friends and co-workers. Imitate God therefore in everything you do… let there be thankfulness to God.  Today allow yourself to celebrate the life you have in his grace, that joyful attitude of thanksgiving.   You and everyone around you will experience a delight in relationships with the Lord and each other. As you imitate God in the life of his grace, no one around you will be irritated, hurt or ashamed.   Your day will be just down right refreshing when your heart is filled with thanksgiving.  Enjoy!

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  Colossians 3:12,13 NIV

Have you ever thopught about what the LORD really thinks or feels about you?  Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.  That is an eternal definition of His thoughts and what he feels about you.  Therefore, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  His grace lets us clothe ourselves with a new nature which are here called clothes, which impact our thoughts, our desires, our hopes and of all things our emotions. In fact, these clothes will bless everyone around us and bring a desire to Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  What is wonderful about these clothes is that they are a gift from the Lord and they are wrapped in grace.  Today enjoy what the Lord has provided for you to wear through his grace – compassion, kindness, humility gentleness and patience.  These are wonderful emotions that will clothe your heart and you will find that what he has given you to wear is a perfect fit.  Joy and praise will come very naturally to you and these clothes never get old or wear out.  Enjoy!

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.  

Psalm 63:1, 3 NIV

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you. There may be moments in our life when we can be in a great throng of people and yet feel drained and alone.  It is as if we are in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  There in that place we discover emotions that never give any life, they only seem to exhaust whatever we thought we had.  We name them as hopelessness, despair, sadness and depression.  But right in that moment our God offers his grace which is water for our soul.  It is his love that quenches all our thirsts and brings hope, joy, refreshment and an abundance of kindness. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. That is why his grace is called amazing and overwhelming.  This would be a great way to start a new day!  So allow yourself to desire the life of his love and grace.  Let your lips glorify Him and you will experience thanksgiving and rejoicing in the depth of your soul.  Enjoy!

Repent, all of you who forget me, or I will tear you apart, and no one will help you.  But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me.  If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God.  Psalm 50:22, 23 NLT

Our sin absolutely has no desire for God or his will; it lives only for self, there is no thanksgiving within it.  If left to itself, it will tear apart the individual, the family, the church, the community and a nation.  Yet, in this place God’s grace can be found. Repent, all of you who forget me… Here in his grace an invitation is given without limit or condemnation. What does this repentance look like? But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me.  His grace makes us new which changes everything, giving a life that is actually thankful to the Lord and esteems others as more important than ourselves.  Living in the grace of Jesus the Christ renews us, our family, our church, our community and even our nation.  It is a life, a salvation of no regret. Today may you actually desire to give thanks to our Lord as you consider your ways.  Let yourself find many varied ways in giving thanks for the life you have. There is no remorse, no brokenness or tearing apart in the grace of our Lord.  Enjoy!

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, jusrt as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1,2 NIV

Have you ever wondered what God really thinks or feels about you?  As dearly loved children, live a life of love, just as Christ loved us.  That is an eternal definition of God’s thoughts and what he feels about you.  Therefore, the  blessing is given -  Be imitators of God.  God's grace gives us this blessing and lets us clothe ourselves  with tender hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12 NLT. We then become the images of God through his grace and with these new clothes, our thoughts, our desires, our hopes and of all things our emotions will be a fragrant offering and blessing to us and everyone around us. In fact, Being imitators of God will bless us with a graceful kindness that will be defined as making allowance for each other's faults and forgiving anyone who offends us. Colossians 3:13 NLT. WOW!!! What is wonderful about  being an imitator of God, being clothed in grace is that we become living expressions of the nature of God.  Today enjoy what the Lord has provided for you to be and wear through his grace – tender hearted mercy, kindness, humility gentleness and patience.  These are wonderful emotions that will clothe your heart and you will find that what he has given you to  be and wear is a perfect fit. Enjoy!

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.  John 7:37, 38 NIV

There was a time in my life when I know I became thirsty. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  It was after I had grown up into a young man, finished my time in the Marine Corp and had come back from Viet Nam. The thought came to me – “what is life for, what is its goal?”  I had no problem believing in God because it says – “In God We Trust” on our money.  So I asked this God on our money to please do something with my life and he began to do something in me that would change and renew me forever. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  By his grace he renewed my faith to trust again in Jesus the Christ and I have never been the same.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from with him. This living water flowed, which I discovered was the Holy Spirit producing a new character within me, which looked like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and of all things self-control, Galatians 5:22,23.  Today enjoy being thirsty for our Lord and his grace. The life that is eternal will be yours even through your opportunities.  As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow naturally from within and through you.  This will give you a life that will bless you and bring inspiration to those around you.  Enjoy!