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My Daily “To-Do” List

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Neal Pollard

  1. Be productive with your time (Eph. 5:16)
  1. Be pure in your heart (Matt. 5:8)
  1. Be proactive in your relationships (Eph. 5:21-6:4)
  1. Be peaceable with your provokers (Rom. 12:17-21)
  1. Be purposeful with your life (Rom. 8:28)
  1. Be praiseful with your God (Psa. 150)
  1. Be pleasant in your demeanor (Prov. 16:24)
  1. Be prayerful in your decisions (Phil. 4:6)
  1. Be patient in your challenges (1 Thess. 5:14; Psa. 37:7)
  1. Be positive about your future (Phil. 1:20-21; 4:13)
  1. Be persistent in your evangelistic pursuit (1 Cor. 9:19-22; Matt. 28:19)
  1. Be pitying of the downtrodden (Prov. 19:17)
  1. Be picky about your associates (1 Cor. 15:33)
  1. Be passionate about your spirituality (Rom. 12:11)
  1. Be perseverant in your trials (2 Thess. 1:4)
  1. Be prospective in your opportunities (Gal. 6:10)
  1. Be petrified of falling away from God (Heb. 6:1-6; 10:26-31)
  1. Be powerful in your faith (Luke 7:9; 2 Thess. 1:3)
  1. Be persistent in your study (2 Tim. 2:15)
  1. Be penitent in your sins and failures (2 Cor. 7:10; Acts 3:19)
  1. Be plentiful in your gratitude (1 Thess. 5:18)
  1. Be permeating in your influence (Matt. 13:33-34)
  1. Be profuse in your generosity (3 John. 5; Prov. 11:25)
  1. Be prolific in humility (Matt. 23:12; 1 Pet. 5:5)
  1. Be pining for Heaven (Heb. 11:16; Phil. 1:23)

Looking For The Good In Others

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Dennis Gulledge

In John 12:4-8, we find the occasion when Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with ointment. Judas condemned her for what he perceived as waste. Jesus applauded her for the meaning which her act had in preparation for His death. Guy N. Woods noted, “Taught here with great emphasis is the blessedness of looking for that which is good in another, as Jesus did, rather than searching for faults as Judas did.”

It is easy to be a faultfinder if one wants to be. It should be just as easy to find the good in people. It is easy to hear a sermon for the express purpose of picking it apart. It is easy to read books or articles with the same intent. Some are never so comfortable as when they are setting someone else straight. In most cases, where one can find something to condemn, he can also find something to commend. (See Rev. 2 and 3)

If one is searching for fault, he can usually find it without much difficulty. Jesus was not a faultfinder, but neither did he hesitate to point out fault (sin) when He found it. To look for the good in people does not mean that one should be oblivious to error. Balance would demand that we deal with error openly and honestly, and applaud the good in people when we find it.

Speaking Without Thinking

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The beautiful bouquet of roses a grateful patient sent to the nursing station drew a lot of attention, and passersbys continually asked who they were from. One harried nurse, apparently tired of explaining, told an inquirer,  "They're from my boyfriend." The look of pity she received caused her to read the previously unnoticed card: "Thanks for everything, but I hope I won't be seeing you again."

We sometimes speak before we think and it gets us in trouble. There is an old saying: “Engage brain before putting mouth in gear." There are many scriptures which speak of this human problem of speaking without thinking:

- Be slow to speak.   James 1:19: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”

- Let your words be few.   Proverbs 10:19:  “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.” 

- Think before speaking.  Proverbs 15:2:  “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.”

- Knowledge spares words.   Proverbs 17:27:  “He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.”

- Listen before you speak.   Proverbs 18:13:  “He that ansereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”

- Guard your words.    Proverbs 21:23:  “Whoso keepeth his moth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.”

- We have probably all had problems with “putting our foot in our mouth.” James 3:2 - “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”

May we all strive to think before we speak.  James 1:26: “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own

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