rising from the ashes

why are we not consumed by Your great love?
how can we continue to look the other way...
needing to run back, into Your loving arms every day
instead of staying there, forever and always?

Your patience, Your grace
Your mercy, Your love

i don't deserve it
but yet You give it freely
Your compassion never fails

strike from my mind all that is not of You
provide me with constant reminders of Your faithfulness
help me to rise above the ashes of my sins

Memories for a Lifetime...

Today, the 6th graders received their yearbooks and have been running around like mad getting everyone to sign their yearbook. It is such a huge deal and yet, in 20 years will they remember what it all means? I know that when I've looked back at my yearbooks, floods of memories come crashing into my head. Some great memories, some sad, some things that I don't wish to remember and even some things that I can't remember.
I can recall plotting to get the boy who I had a massive crush on to sign my yearbook. I can remember reserving entire pages for my best friends to rewrite our past year's history on a page to preserve forever. I can remember the feelings of my stomach dropping to my feet when all someone I really cared about wrote was, "Have a great summer..." (See the first sentence of this paragraph.)
What if, as adults we signed yearbooks? Wouldn't it be nice to have a place for your friends, acquaintances, co-workers, etc. to sign---to write something to you that captures the "best memories" of the past year? If we did do this, what would you say?
"Dear ________, I'm so glad that we have gotten to know each other this year." "Hey ______, remember that one time when we went to the lake and I flipped the jet ski? Man, I thought you were going to kill me that day..." "Keep in touch." "Best wishes for next year."
Do we really mean the things like this that we say? And what if we were able to really, I mean, really tell people how much they have influenced our lives for the better? Do we need a yearbook signing party to tell people how they have helped push us, convict us, inspire us to be better people? I don't think so. So...why not get out some paper (YES....letter writing means more) and think of the top 3, 5, 10, whatever, people who have truly made a difference in your life over the past year and let them know it. You never know what that letter could mean. Maybe they'll look at it in 20 years and think, "Yes. That is a memory that I want to keep for a lifetime."

Or even better, that letter will make a difference as soon as they read it. Go and make someone's day...week...month...year...lifetime.