Today is Thursday, December 20th, 2018; Karen's Korner #3944

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year. But sometimes our expectations are higher than they should be. Sometimes things don't work out like we'd like. Sometimes life glares at us when we can't be with family members or broken relationships are broken.

I have heard it said that families/relationships are 'fully functional' on one side of the equation and ' totally dysfunctional' on the other side. ALL of us are on that continuum some place. I believe the same can be said for emotions:  emotionally stable on one side versus unstable on the other side. We are neither fully one nor the other.

Here is something shared by Joyce Meyer in her newest books "Healing for the Soul of a Woman" (could be a man!), a monthly offering from a Christian cable network:


"How we see ourselves and what we believe are extremely important. A story is told about a young man who had lost his job and all of his money. He was sitting on a park bench feeling very depressed and hopeless when an elderly gentleman noticed and asked why he was so sad. The man told his story, and the older gentleman took out a checkbook, wrote him a check and said, 'I will visit you at this same spot one year from today, and by then you will have made enough money to pay me back.' When he looked at the check, he saw it was written for half a million dollars and signed by John Rockefeller, who was at that time one of the wealthiest men in the world.

"The man in the park put the check in his safe, and although he didn't cash it, it gave him confidence to believe that he didn't need to be afraid to start over. He began doing business again and started making money, always aware that he had the check in the safe if he needed it.

"The year went by, and by then he had plenty of money and was eager to return the check to the man who had helped him. He went back to the same park, sat on the same bench, and waited. Soon he saw the elderly gentleman approaching, but he had what appeared to be a nurse with him. The man seemed to be fairly unresponsive to the younger man, who was holding out the original check, trying to give it to him. The nurse took the check, looked at it, and said, 'Oh, this no good. He is confused most of the time. He often thinks he is Rockefeller, but he isn't.'

"The young man succeeded because he believed that he had what he needed in the bank and could draw on it at any time. What he had wasn't even a reality, but thinking that it was helped him overcome his loss.

"What we have is so much more. We have something in the bank, so to speak, because we have Jesus living on the inside of us, and we can live without fear and do great things because we can make withdrawals anytime we need anything. If you need help, you can make a withdrawal. If you need peace, you can make a withdrawal. If you need wisdom, or strength, or creativity, make a withdrawal. You can never make too many withdrawals, because what you have available in Jesus has no limits. He is always more than enough for any need we have.

"You can do whatever you need to do through Christ, who is your strength. Your are not weak, you are strong. You are more than a conqueror through Jesus. You are an overcomer!"


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