Survival Guide

If you look on the internet there are a lot of survival books, from surviving the wild, to making the best shelters and so on. You name it, it has probably been written. In those books there are guides to what needs to be done to do just that survive. If I just have the book, it does not make me an expert. There are steps to using those books.

1. I must read it
2. I must practice the techniques it suggests.
3. I must put it into practice in my life.
4. And I must reread it, over and over again, because it is easy to forget the truths it contains. Maybe even read other books that have other survival techniques to understanding the guide. 
5. I must continue to practice these truths.

In our lives, God gave us a survival guide, it is called the Bible. If we do not put do the above steps to the Bible, we are not preparing ourselves for every day life. If we do not put His truths to practice, we are no better than having a survival guide, but never opening it, never practicing it, we will not survive. We will die, because we do not learn the truths. 

The Bible is full of such truths to survive life, marriage, raising kids, dealing with difficult people, we can read it, but if we do not practice what is written on the pages, we will not survive, we will not grow and learn. We may just make it through by the skin of our teeth, but who wants to just slide through, when God promises so much more, if we are to learn and grow in His truth. 

What is God saying to you about His guide? Are you in it? Are you practicing it? Take a chance to seek God, see what He is saying to you. 

God has given people the ability to write, to share their findings, what they have learned about raising kids, about marriage, about so much, but if we do not read those truths, we will have to learn it for the first time. Learn from others, learn what they did wrong and learn from the truths that they want to share, biblical studies. It will allow you to grow closer to God and to grow in understanding and learning. 

Don't be like the foolish and think that just because I have a survival book on my shelf that makes me a survival expert.

Reactions

I don't know about you, but I know for myself, that the reactions I have are mine. I read something yesterday that when we blame other people for our actions we are passing the problem onto them, when in fact it is our issue. Yes, the other person may have done something that hurt me or upset me, but my reaction is my choice. I believe so many people react and are reactionary, that they can't see how they are making these choices, instead of seeing their choices as their own.

I go back to my being cut off in traffic, what I do about it is my choice, I can either lay on my horn, scream at the person or just calmly say Lord I pray that you will bless that person. The first choice is I feed into the the anger, rage inside of me and I allow it to control my actions, which increases my heart rate, my adrenaline gets pumping, my reactions get out of control, because that person had no right to do that. I will use words like that person caused this to happen, he made me do it, he made me react this way, instead of taking the blame on myself, because I have control over me. I put the blame on others. The second option is one that is more difficult and in the situation our first reaction may be the learned one. I need to be willing to turn all my thoughts over to God, by cursing the guy, I am not doing that, by reacting negatively, I am actually feeding the devil, but if I bless the guy, I am no longer feeding the demon that says react, I am feeding God that says to bless those that curse you, which is like blessing someone that cuts you off, speaks poorly to you, treats you badly, is selfish towards you, God says bless them.

Can you imagine if we start doing this in our own homes? In our communities, in our church, no longer would it be about self and how I feel, but about God. What they do to the least of these, they do onto Me. So when I treat my wife poorly, I am not just doing it to her, I am doing it to God. When I react to her, because I am angry and I blame her for my anger, I am using manipulation, instead of saying, that word hurt me, but I will rise above it and I will show you love. Can you imagine Jesus, walking through the streets, cross on His back, people spitting, throwing things at Him, calling Him names, He didn't react out of anger, He loved them, He forgave them. We think just because our spouse does something that causes us to be react that we have the right to put my reaction on them, that isn't true. We are to be just like Jesus was, we are called to love even to our death. Am I doing that? Am I loving no matter how I am treated, no matter how I feel, because that is what I am called to as a husband, a father, a friend, to love no matter what. Just as Jesus did.

Reflect on yourself, are you doing it? Are you feeding the great beast of blaming others or are you standing strong in the fact that your choices, your reactions are yours and if you have a hard time not reacting are you praying about it daily? God will give you strength, trust and believe for He is good, His mercy's are never ending.