"Life is like a box of crayons, isn't it?"

I can still remember from my childhood wanting a box of 64 Crayola crayons. And I can still remember when I got it. I carefully opened it and just stared at all those colors and read those wonderful colors’ names.

And then I got out my favorite coloring book and pulled out that first crayon and started coloring. Oh, it colored better than any crayon I’d ever used.

And pretty soon I noticed that I sharpened some more than others, which meant that some crayons were shorter than others. And I liked some colors better than others, but I still had 64 different colors.

And each time I used one I made sure I put it back in the box, because that’s where all the crayons belonged—they all lived in the same box.

Life is like a box of crayons, isn’t it? Life gives us different skin colors and names. Life sharpens some of us and dulls others of us which means most of us come up short at some point in our lives. And yet we all live in the same loving box, don’t we?

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"Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder?"

A woman and her little grandson, whose face was sprinkled with bright freckles, spent the day at the zoo. Lots of children were waiting in line to get their faces painted.

"You've got so many freckles, there's no place to paint!" a girl in line said to the little fella.

Embarrassed, the little boy dropped his head. His grandmother knelt down next to him and said, "I love your freckles. When I was a little girl I always wanted freckles. Freckles are beautiful."

The boy looked up, "Really?"

"Of course," said the grandmother. "Why just name me one thing that's prettier than freckles."

The little boy thought for a moment, looked into his grandma's eyes and softly whispered, "Wrinkles."

Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. God looks into your eyes and sees a beautiful person. Remember that as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

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"Did your team win the Super Bowl?"

So who were you pulling for in the Super Bowl yesterday?

Why did you pull for them? Is that team closer geographically to where you live? Do you really like one of the players because of his accomplishments or because of where he played college football or because he looks good?

Or, did you pull for them because you just don’t like the other team?

I guess we all have our reasons for preferring one team over another, most of them based on our life experiences. And if you stop and think about it for a minute, you probably base your preferences for people along the same lines of reasoning. For instance, you live nearer someone or went to the same school or prefer his or her looks—hair, skin color, height, weight—to someone else. Or maybe you like one person better than another simply because you don’t like the other person.

I’m sure glad God sees all of us the same, aren’t you? I’m so happy that God doesn’t love some of us more than others of us, aren’t you? Pull for everyone like God does as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"Do you rush through life?"

A friend who listens to life with us through www.listentolife.org wrote me about an experience he had recently. It seems that someone was burning leaves and the fire jumped and went over to another area. Eventually it was contained. He wondered why someone would be burning under the conditions at that time.

And then he thought about that for a second, and listened to his life. “Many times in life we start something,” he wrote, “be it a task or new project or even just a sentence. It’s not the right time for it. God tries to get us to stop, or slow down and re-think our plans. God even sends us signs like the conditions at that time or a thought or feeling. Still we charge ahead, ignore the warnings, and bring dire consequences on ourselves and others.”

We do, don’t we? Or maybe, I should say, I do. What about you?

God really does more about what’s best for us than we do, but we have to consult with God, ask God what to do, to take full advantage of God’s wisdom.

So today, before you rush off to do what you think is best, stop for a moment and just ask, “God, what do you want me to do?” Then listen to your life.

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"So what do you think—are men really from Mars and women from Venus?"

Playwright Jean Kerr says that, "Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when he is driven to speech by something outside himself—like, for instance, he can't find any clean socks." Which means that when a man says "Can I help with dinner?," he really means "Why isn't it already on the table?"

Communicating care and concern can be tricky for married persons because God created us male and female and that means that we must celebrate our differences and play to our strengths.

A recent Gallup survey discovered that happiness in a marriage is better predicted by the strength of prayer than anything else. Couples who pray together have greater respect for each other, agree on how to raise their children, are more playful, and more satisfied.

So one of a couple’s strengths is prayer. Play to the strength of prayer in your marriage. Ask your spouse to pray with you. Then listen to life today for what God has to say as you make a life, not just a living.

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey