The Seed of Faith

When I was a married law student I would sometimes study in public libraries because they were closer to home than the law school's library. I remember one day while studying at a public library that I heard a male voice say over and over again, “Thank You Jesus, Thank You Jesus, Thank You Jesus.”  My curiosity got the best of me so I got up and walked over to see what was going on. The speaker was a young man about twenty years old with his hands clasped together and his eyes screwed tightly shut in prayer. I didn't disturb him and went back to my own table wondering why he was so passionately thanking God. Had he gotten out of some kind of trouble? Did he recover from some serious illness?  Nevertheless, I went back to studying my law books and went on with my life and never saw the praying man again. But I never forgot him. From time to time I would think about him as eight years passed by. During that span of time I would experience many good things in my life, but also some bad things and some very deep emotional pain.

However, I give that young man's prayer allot of credit. I know in my heart that on that day, a seed was planted in my soul that mysteriously and persistently took root over time. Eventually, I would gain a much fuller understanding of why anyone would want to thank Jesus over and over again and without shame. Then came the fateful day when I myself made Jesus the lord of my life. Now I too have become very grateful for the many blessings that have come my way.  You just never know who might be listening to or watching you when you call upon that name that is above all names: Jesus.

Training Yourself (To Be A Godly Man)

I was asked to do a short talk sharing with some men in our church on a scripture pertaining to training yourself to be godly.  In 1^st Timothy 4:7-8 the bible states, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

I had to ponder for several minutes about what to say to them. Obviously going to church, listening carefully to the message, taking notes and reading the bible are all training but I wanted to share what really helped to train me. To prepare for sharing, I started off with reading the scripture quoted above then I started to read other scriptures that mention the word godliness. As I was reading I began to feel stuck so I did something I should have done in the first place which was to pray. After looking up from my prayer my eyes fell upon my journals sitting on my bookshelf.   I picked one up to see if I had previously written anything down about training myself to be godly when suddenly it hit me.  For me the very act of writing in my journals was how I trained myself to be godly.  I have filed up three journals and I am currently working on my fourth. In my journals I write down my personal thoughts about things that are troubling me or inspiring me and I write down inspiring scriptures.   In my journals, I also admit to myself and to God what my part was in starting a conflict, and then I go ahead and forgive the other person’s role in the conflict. I also write down what emotions I am feeling and then write down some conclusions about why I feel those emotions.  It gets better; next I will write down exactly what I need to do to repent and how I’m going to make amends for my own wrong behavior. In conclusion when I speak to the men tonight; I plan to share with them that journaling was how I trained myself to be a godly man and that I still write in my journal today.