Shovel-fulls or Spoon-fulls
Day 151 of Photo Inspirations — Shovel-fulls or Spoon-fulls
I heard such a beautiful message Sunday about “The Man in the Mirror”. We all remember this song as one of Michael Jackson’s best. It spoke of the person we need to be in order to make the world a better place. The chorus went like this: “I’m starting with the man in the mirror.
I’m asking him to change his ways.
And no message could have been any clearer.
If you want to make the world a better place,
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change”.
And the pastor took that message even further when he said what we should see in the mirror is how God sees us, and what He says to us. He says:
1. I love you.
2. I’m grateful for you.
3. You’re a rare and beautiful treasure.
4. I forgive you.
5. I’ll hold you to high standards with appropriate amounts of grace & mercy.
6. You have a special calling.
7. I’m cheering for you, and I believe in you.
God lavishes all of His goodness, love, grace, compassion and mercy on us, by the shovel-fulls. He is a shoveler. He didn’t meet us half-way; He came all the way to us from heaven. He relentlessly pursues us. And, when we know that’s true, it will be shown in how we interact with others. We really love to celebrate the shovel-fulls we get, but we usually dispense to others in spoon-fulls. And, the question is……what do we do with all that love; all that grace; all that mercy; all that goodness in return? Are we dispensing shovel-fulls to others around us….or are we dispensing spoon-fulls? How can we say to others, “I’ll think about forgiving you”? “I’ll think about helping you” when we have been so forgiven and so helped with the shovel-full. If we consider the outrageous, indescribable love of God to us, then how could we give less than our best to others.
Perhaps…..it’s not spoon-fulls OR shovel-fulls — it should be dump-truck full of blessings to others if, in fact, we desire to be like Him Who gives and gives and gives to us FAR more than we could ever ask or think.