"We miss so much in life, don't we?"

When my wife and I vacationed in Maui, we were blessed to ride around the island in a Mustang convertible. The weather was perfect. It rained only about fifteen minutes. So we enjoyed Maui with the top down everywhere we went.

One particular trip was especially memorable. We left early in the morning, ate breakfast on the way, and drove down the infamous “Highway to Heaven,” the road to Hana. This road is mostly switchback turns, one-lane bridges, and picture-postcard scenery that literally takes your breath away.

Since we had the top down, we smelled the orchids blooming in a rain forest, pineapples growing out in the fields, and hundreds of acres of sugar cane being harvested. If we had driven with the top up, we’d have missed all of those wonderful smells and scenes.

Do you drive the twists and turns of your life with the top up? Missing all of the wonderful sights and smells that God sends your way? Break out of the familiar, put the top down and enjoy life the way God intends it.

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"What do you say?"

Some children wrote notes to God and here’s what they said. Joyce wrote, “Thanks for the baby brother but what I asked for was a puppy.”

Janet wrote, “I wish you would not make it so easy for people to come apart. I had to have three stitches and a shot.”

Charlene wants to know, “How did you know you were God? Who told you?”

“My Grandpa says you were around when he was a little boy,” Dennis said. “How far back do you go?”

“Did you mean for giraffes to look like that or was it an accident?” Norma wanted to know.

Peter has a simple request: “Please send Dennis Clark to a different summer camp this year.”

“I keep waiting for spring,” Mark wrote, “but it never did come yet. What’s up with that?”

I can relate with Frank who wrote to God, “I’m doing the best I can.”

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"How's your world?"

Our younger daughter is in middle school, but takes a high school-level course in French. She really enjoys learning a new language and loves her teacher.

Last month, the students in the French class drew names to exchange presents. Our daughter chose to make a bracelet for the girl whose name she selected. She put it in a box, wrapped up very nicely.

I noticed a second box and asked, “What’s that for?”

“I’m writing compliments and things I like about her in French on little slips of paper,” she said. “That’s her second present. We’re all doing it for each other.”

Can you imagine what a wonderful world this will be as we follow this class’ example? What an absolutely marvelous place this becomes to live as we give each other not just something material, but so much more than that—compliments, encouragements, positive affirmation.

Find someone to compliment, encourage, and affirm today and watch your world transform for the better as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"What's your angel's name?"

My wife was in one of those large home improvement stores. She purchased a dorm-sized refrigerator to give our daughter for a present. She stood in line waiting to check out and she kept looking at this man in another line near her. She knew she knew him, but couldn’t remember how she knew him, where she knew him from, or anything about him. She just knew she knew him.

Well, after she checked out, she stood by the register, waiting for someone to come and load the refrigerator in her vehicle. And up walks the “mysterious, unnamed man,” asking if he can help her. She gives him that, “I know I know you but I can’t place you” look. He gives her his name, and how my wife knows him. “Oh yea,” she says and he loads the refrigerator for her.

Don’t you just love it when that happens to you?

God sends angels to help us out just about every day of our lives. Some of them we know. Some of them we remember their names. But there are just as many we’ll never know.

Thank God for all of them as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living!

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"What difference does your work make?"

I was talking with a man who runs a dry cleaning business. We were talking about his business and the most fulfilling parts of what he does.

He told me the story about how a family’s home burned and one of the only things they salvaged was the little girl’s teddy bear. Now this teddy bear was in pretty rough shape. He had soot and stains all over him. He was soaked from the fire hoses and didn’t smell very good. But the little girl absolutely loved this teddy bear and it was all she had left.

So this man took on the mission of cleaning up the teddy bear. He worked on the little bear’s soot stains until you couldn’t see them anymore. He cleaned up and sanitized him so that he smelled all better. And he said, “That was one happy little girl when I was through.”

He went on to say, “And that’s why I do what I do. I get to make a difference.”

What difference does your work make in someone’s life? Look for an opportunity today to make a difference through your job as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

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