"Have you looked at your hands lately?"

Recently I built some things around the farm which meant I was sawing and hammering and drilling. I hadn’t done anything like that in a while so that night, my hands were sore. So I took some pain reliever and put a little antibiotic cream on my knuckles.

Then I just looked at my hands. And I thought about how, when I was toddling around, my hands broke my fall until I learned how to stand up and walk. My hands picked up our teenaged daughters when they were toddlers and fell down. I eat with my hands and I fed our daughters when they couldn’t feed themselves with my hands. Even when I’m not wearing it like when I’m working, my wedding band leaves its mark on my hand. And I suppose one day, my hands will give my daughters’ hands in marriage. When I was a little boy, I folded my hands in prayer. And when our daughters were small, I taught them how to fold their hands in prayer.

Our hands pass on the good stuff in life, don’t they? So make a life with your hands today.

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"How much does a good time with you cost?"

“Big vacations” to resorts or amusement parks weren’t in vogue when I was growing up. The “good times” I remember most from my growing up years really weren’t vacations at all. They were really just “special moments” like when my Dad woke me up early one Saturday morning and asked if I wanted to go fishing. Or, when a friend called and invited me to go horseback riding. Or, when my grandparents just showed up for a visit.

Today, it seems like “good times” have to be “big vacations.” Or at least so parents think. Take your child fishing instead of blowing a wad of money on a big vacation. Or, call a friend and go horseback riding. Or, go visit your grandchildren. It really doesn’t matter how much money you spend on a good time. What’s more important is how much of yourself you spend.

And that, my friends, is the heart and soul, the spirit, of what listening to life and making a life, not just a living is all about.

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"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.

Click here to listen to Dr. Joey