A Cheerful Heart!

Proverbs 17:22 says, “A Cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.” (NLT)

I don’t know about you but I would much rather be around a person with a cheerful heart than to suffer through another agonizing scenario with a person who doesn’t realize how good they have it in their lives. So many times, as a minister, I have dealt with people who are on their last straw and they feel like they just can’t survive another day in their lives. They just don’t know what to do. They worry, they try to find happiness, they try to over compensate for past mistakes by never allowing themselves to stop and look around them.

I pray with them or for them that they find a peace that abides inside of themselves that they have yet to tap into. It is a spiritual thing that many don’t realize is truly there for them. God wants us, not to be happy, but joyful. Realizing what we have in our church family, our spiritual hub of our Christian existence, is one of the most joyful experiences that we will ever have or be a part of. It just takes us making our minds up when we wake each morning that today is going to be a day that I praise God no matter what Satan and his minions throw at me.

I hope you find that blessing of joy each morning as you open your eyes from your slumber and thank God you are here and able to be included in His family!

God bless us all here at West Freeway, or wherever we find ourselves in our Christian walk. 

I'll see you later!

Ya Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd!

I have always been told “Ya can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd…Ya can’t take a shower in a parakeet cage…Ya can’t go a-swimmin’ in a baseball pool…Ya can’t change film with a kid on your back…Ya can’t drive around with a tiger in your car…Ya can’t go fishin’ in a watermelon patch…” No, ya can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you’ve a mind to.”

            Roger Miller wrote and sang those words back when I was a kid, but the word picture it painted in my mind was how absurd the song was. Everyone knows that all of what he sang was silly, but I forgot to look at the actual meaning the song was trying to push forward. I was only six when he debuted his album The Return of Roger Miller. So it was a long time ago. The visions that came through my mind were comical and I loved the tune.

            Being a young child I concentrated on the words I liked and didn’t listen to the rest of them with as much interest. A couple of days ago the song popped in my mind as I was working in my office.  I got to thinking about the rest of the song but I couldn’t remember. Thank goodness for Google I found the words with the most meaning. Yes, the tune always sparked my interest but I couldn’t remember all the words and had to look them up.

Like many who read the Bible, I had heard it enough to remember a part of it but not enough to get the real meaning of the words. See, the chorus and bridge of the song goes like this. “All ya gotta do is put your mind to it, knuckle down, buckle down, do it, do it, do it. No, ya can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you’ve a mind to.”

No, you can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd or any of the other things that Roger sings about here. But, we can all smile and be happy if we put our minds to it!  We can read and learn the rest of the bible to find out what God wants for us in our lives.

How are you doing? I love you all!  Britt