What kind of dropout are YOU?: December 2006

The atmosphere of Heaven

Christmas is My love come down to Earth. Let it possess you and fill you and take you to Heaven.

A heart full of love and thankfulness is a heart full of Christmas daily.
And as you pause to thank me, you'll realize that frankly,
Christmas is a time of praise
that can brighten ALL your days.

Praise me for the things in your life that have happened in this past year.

Praise me for the blessings that brought a smile to your face or laughter to your lips because they lifted your spirit.

Praise Me for the trials that brought tears to your eyes and pain to your heart because they caused you to search your heart and seek out something higher to make you rise above.

Praise Me for the tests and challenges, because they strengthened your character and fortified your resolve to contunue fighting.

Praise me for the love that you received from your loved ones, from those I brought across your path when your cup was empty.

Praise me for the opportunities to reach out and and give to others because these actions are changing the world one heart at a time.

Praise Me for the children, yours or those of others, because of the purity and simplicity they bring into the world.

Praise Me for My creation, for the beauty that I have placed around you-both in nature and in the hearts of those around you-because it refreshes your spirit and renews your physical being.

Praise Me for My light and truth, because it shines brightly in an ever increasingly dark and desperate world.

Praise Me for everything.Praise is the atmosphere of Heaven

Jesus

Let your light shine

Christmas time and the approaching New Year have a way of bringing out the best in people. It is a time when we tend to look upward in search of peace and hope; inward for the resources to care and give freely to others; and forward to brighter and better days ahead.

But what about this year?
Considering all that is happening in the world around us, is there any reason to believe that peace and brighter days will ever come?

One of my favorite true stories makes a great thought for Christmas and the coming year-a time when we all hope to make a difference and change things for the better. It's about a humble shepherd who single-handedly transformed a barren region by planting nuts as he watched his sheep graze on a different hillside every day. Over 20 or 30 years that one shepherd reforested the entire area, which brought back the wildlife and improved the soil for farming. After that, many people moved to the once nearly deserted area and it became alive and prosperous. The shepherd slowly but surely made a difference in his part of the world.

What turned out to be a great thing was probably the result of a sudden inspiration. How many others, do you suppose, would have brushed off the idea as crazy, impossible, or not their job? Not this shepherd.
He believed and put his inspired idea into action.
What he did each day wasn't especially difficult, but he stuck with it day after day. Great things are often the result of patient plodding. He did what he could do and trusted God to do the rest.

We, too, can make a difference and influence those we come in contact with for good through our attitude and actions. A song that was popular a few years ago put it like this: ]
" If everyone just lit one little candle,
What a bright world this would be! "

We may not be able to change the whole world, but we can light our part of the world. We all can!

Heaven is....

Heaven is God's Love.
Heaven is in your heart,
and in your home,
every time you share a smile,
wish someone joy,
lift somebody's load,
do something that helps another.
Heaven isn't just when you finally finish your life here on this Earth and we're together in the Heavenly Kingdom—that's just part of Heaven.
Do you think that I would keep something as wonderful as Heaven all to Myself, all that time, and not share it with you?! Oh, no! I like to give you Heaven every day, every moment! It's part of My love gift to you on Christmas.
I give you Heaven —not just in the future, but today! Now, this very moment, I hand you Heaven!

Jesus