"Do you see beauty?"

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One of the great things I get to do is to not tell everyday stories, but I receive a lot of them as well. If you’ve read many of these stories, you know I love being outdoors, particularly in beautiful places and experiencing God’s marvelous creations. One person, who reads these stories daily and knew that, recently sent me a picture of a flower that I’ve never seen before. Of course, growing roses and loving flowers, I was intrigued by it. It’s called a parrot flower. To see what one looks like, go to our website at www.listentolife.org.

It grows in Thailand and is shaped exactly like a parrot with a beak and feathers and the body. It hangs from a vine and its colors are absolutely stunning.

The parrot flower reminds me again of how creative God is, making such beautiful flowers. And it reminds me of how much God loves you and me—that’s why God created the parrot flower, for us to enjoy; a love-gift sent to us from Thailand.

See beauty and enjoy it as God’s gift as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living today.

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"Is your calculator clear?"

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I have to admit that numbers just aren’t my thing. Words are.

I have several friends who are accountants and I’m very grateful each of them enjoys running numbers. I’m much better processing words.

So when I pull out a calculator, which I did recently, it’s against my better wishes and is totally necessary. Only I couldn’t get it to work correctly. Pretty soon, I discovered that the problem wasn’t with the calculator, but with me. I wasn’t clearing the calculator before trying to do another function which meant I was piling up about three functions at a time.

Life is like that calculator. If you don’t clear a negative conversation with a client at work out of your mind before you go home, it walks in the door with you and gets in the way of you enjoying your family. If you don’t clear a painful relationship from your heart before you try to begin another one, you may never love completely again.

Ask God today to clear the calculator in your spirit so that you can enjoy life to the fullest as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"Few things in life last forever, do they?"

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I was packing a case of my latest book, Listen to Life Like a Child, and my other two books. A business woman purchased them to use as client appreciation gifts. I needed a marker to write on the boxes what was inside.
So I dug around in my desk drawer and found a pack of markers in the back. They had never been opened so I opened them, pulled out a blue one and started writing. But the marker was dry.

I thought about it and realized that I couldn’t remember buying the markers. I found them in the back of my drawer so I have no idea how long I had had them but evidently long enough for the ink to dry up.
Few things in life last forever. Your child grows up and goes to college. Your boss asks when you’re going to retire. Your loved one passes away.

Today, please listen to your life and make a life, not just a living. Listen with every fiber of your being to those people and things that are more important. Take your family out for a good time. Give an old friend a call just to say hi. Lock the door and pray because few things in life last forever.

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"How's your timing?"

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We’re quite fond of what I call "salad in a bag" around our home. It’s a lot more convenient than buying all of these vegetables and slicing and dicing them. You just open the bag, reach in and grab a handful, put it on your plate, pour your favorite dressing on it, and voila! You’re eating salad.

I’ve noticed that once that bag is open though, it doesn’t matter how tightly I seal it, or if I put it in another bag, that salad is going to spoil pretty quickly. You’ve got to eat that salad in a bag for several days in a row if you want to enjoy it. Leave it for a week or so and it’s no good. I’ve decided that the difference between salad and garbage is timing.

And that’s true about a lot of things in life. God presents you with an opportunity and that door opens at just the right time. But it’s up to you to walk through it in a timely fashion or the door closes. The opportunity is lost. It spoils into garbage.

Today, in the fullness of time, walk through the door God opens for you. You’ll know the time is right as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"In the midst of the horrors we call war, do you understand and forgive?"

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I talked with a World War II veteran one day. He served in the European theater, in Germany, during the final days of Hitler’s retreat. He told me about walking down dirt roads and seeing German bodies lying in ditches and fields. He told me how some of his fellow soldiers kicked and spat on those German bodies.

He also told me how his fellow soldiers kicked and spat on German prisoners being escorted to camps. They called the Germans names and beat them.

But this veteran told me that when he looked at the German bodies lying in fields and ditches, and when he walked by the German prisoners going to camps, that he didn’t see "Germans"; he didn’t see "the enemy." Instead he saw young men his own age who left behind wives and families to follow orders to shoot to kill; young men just like himself.

My friend, in the midst of the horrors we call war, understood and forgave.

Listen to life and understand and forgive your enemies today.

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