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DAILY BATTLES
As I raked the pine straw, picked up the limbs and debris that had been scattered over my yard, I encountered the many, many pine cones in my yard. Pine cones are the part of the tree that the squirrels love, many people use as fire starters, and they look really good when painted and used as decoration. But they are trouble for my lawn mower and rake! The mower tries to cut them up and in the process, the blades are dulled and damaged. The raking attachment on the lawnmower continually clogs with the pine cones and I have to stop, reverse, and sometimes, dismount and manually remove the pine cones from the brushes. These pine cones, limbs, and debris blown about by the wind are real obstacles in my mission to clean my yard!
Obstacles slow us down, discourage us, delay us and sometimes succeed in completely stopping us from achieving our goals. Just like the debris in my yard, I have to work diligently to regularly clean up my life. I allow other peoples’ attitudes to discourage me, their words to hurt me, and I allow my hurts to distract me from achieving my goal: Living a positive, uplifting, encouraging life that will point others to the source of all good things: Jesus!
Anything that interferes with my progress is Sin and I must work daily to remove it from my life. I try to overcome these obstacles with a diligent prayer life, regular Bible study and church attendance, and surrounding myself with church family and friends. I battle daily to give up my way for God’s way. It takes work and effort and I am not always successful! I lose the battle some days, but I keep plugging away because I’ve been promised victory in this war!!!!
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” Psalm 84:11 (NIV)
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
Brinda Blair
Magee, MS
