Author: debo

Are you a napper? I was speaking with a young mom this week, and every Sunday afternoon when she puts her kids down for a nap, she takes a nap with them. I love that! One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday afternoon in the summertime is to read the paper on the hammock and drift off to sleep in the warm sunshine for a short nap. I try to intentionally, deliberately take it easy on Sunday afternoons. As much as I am a go getter during the week, I realize the importance of a Sabbath Day rest, and I know that if I don’t intentionally, deliberately rest my body, I can not be my best for the rest of the week. Sometimes our body makes us rest through sickness. My best advice is to listen to the warning signs that your body gives you and act on them. Drink lots of water, get daily exercise, eat healthy food, and get some good healthy rest. It will do your body good, and will breathe fresh air into your world.

I saw an ad recently that was encouraging people to take their vacation time. A little girls says that 400 million paid vacation days go unused everyday. The little boy says that’s the stupidest thing I ever heard! It was little kids in the commercial and they were adorable, but so very right. I was so surprised to hear how many people don’t use any or even most of their vacation. As surprised as I was, I had to laugh, because for our 25th anniversary of starting AGF, we were given a vacation trip that we still have not taken. We are 2 ½ years since we were given the gift, and life has been really full and we haven’t used it yet. So, my fresh air determination is that very soon we will book the trip! So I will tell you to do what we haven’t done, go on your vacation. Use your paid vacation days! Give your family time to get excited about a future trip. Plan a trip for just you and your spouse, with some fun surprises along the way. A vacation can breathe fresh air into your family, into your marriage, into your own life. It is worth it!

Perhaps you haven’t heard about Sabbath in our secular world recently, but it is something that God established. God made the Sabbath for us and we honor Him by honoring a Sabbath day. Honoring God’s design, and the principles He established will only make our life better. Having a Sabbath in our week is a key component to finishing our race strong and healthy in old age. God knows how to take what we give Him and make more with less. He does it with our finances, and He also makes it happen with our time. Give God one day of your week, and it will make the other six more productive. It is opposite thinking to the world, but it is a principle that will breathe fresh air into your world. Make a commitment to weekly rest, and then carry it over to a life long pattern in your life. We want to finish strong emotionally, spiritually and physically.

Take it to the limit, one more time. That line from an old Eagle’s song is the way many of us live. When it comes to finances, when it comes to time management, or even stress levels, we take it to the limit. God wants us to have margin in our lives, and make choices that keep us from living over the edge. In fact we learned in elementary school when we first learn to write that we need margins. The wide ruled paper that we used to print our name on had two margins, one on the right and on the left. It actually is a great reminder of how we are to live. Give yourself time at the beginning and at the end of your day to wind up and wind down. Take a break in your work day. That’s like a comma or a period to take a breath while you are reading. Take your lunch break. Take a potty break! Live within the margins, and deep breathe throughout your in your day. That will give you more oxygen for yourself, and then you can really help somebody else when you are not totally worn out. Breathe some fresh air into your life, and you’ll have some to give to someone else.

Have you noticed in your car if you don’t check or change your oil that after a certain amount of miles a little red light will come on in your car? If can happen if we don’t care for the battery, or the tires or the brakes. We want our car to be in good working order, so we check up on these things regularly. We should probably do the same thing with our physical bodies, our mental health and our spiritual life. How are you doing physically? Are any warning lights going off that are cluing you in that you need to get a check up? Listen to your body. How about mentally? Have you been so stressed that one more little thing in your world could make you snap? Listen to your mental health, and honor your body by taking a breather. Over stress is a warning light you can’t ignore. How about your spiritual life? Have you telling God you can do life without Him by ignoring His Word, or forgetting to communicate with Him? Make the change today. Listen to your warning lights, breathe in some fresh air. And don’t forget to vote today.

Intro:
Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. This week as we begin winding down our Fresh Air study, we will talk about breathing some fresh air into our life routines. Peace is possible and we can have room to rest without pressing the limits all the time. It is a pattern in the Bible that God established that we take time to rest and to worship. Mark 2:27actually says that the Sabbath was made for us, and honoring the Sabbath can be life changing and life giving. Here’s a breath of fresh air this week about taking time in your schedule for God and for you. Here is your dailyeword

Nov 2 Take a Breather
Pace yourself. If you are a runner, you know that if you start out in a sprint, you will never finish a marathon at that pace. Only inexperienced runners begin marathon like that. I have been on a sprint through my day before, from the time my feet hit the floor in the morning, until I lay my head on the pillow at nigh. I should know better and I should do better. I know I am not alone. Maybe we have too much planned, or we say yes to too many responsibilities. We have to remember who is in charge of our schedule. We are! So schedule in some down time. Take a breather. Take a break every once in a while. Don’t forget to take care of you. Even Jesus knew when he needed time away. He honored the Sabbath, and honored his body by resting when necessary. We should follow His example.

Fresh air in our finances is such a good thing. It is really amazing to think of all the times that Jesus himself spoke about money, and how important it was to him that we not only be good stewards of what we are given, but that we are good managers as well. Our goal is to handle what God gives masterfully! Here are some good reminders if we want financial peace, and not financial pressure. 1) Give the first to God. I love that we can give online, but I also like the fact that we can bring our tithe to the church, either way, give God the first fruits. 2) Maintain margin in your finances. Have some breathing room, don’t always be spending up to your limit. It takes the pressure off! 3) Be disciplined. Have a plan, and work your plan. It is fun to be spontaneous occasionally, but don’t spontaneously go buy some big purchase that you will regret later. A plan gives you a course to follow that reflects your priorities and your values. Take the pressure off and have some peace! That will bring you some fresh air!

Today is a day that at our church every year, we sow seeds for eternity. I enjoy the fun of dressing up, and who doesn’t love candy, but the whole Halloween experience is just not my favorite. As a church, we have decided to use it as a yearly outreach because the world loves Halloween. So as we celebrate kids with our trunk or treat outreach, we encourage you to find ways to sow seeds for eternity. We want to be the church that some you adult who is looking for a relationship with God can look back and say that as a kid their parent brought them to trunk or treat, and those people were really great at that church. Even years after our rodeo camps, young families walk through the church doors and decide to plant themselves in our church because they remembered the life giving values and beliefs we poured into their lives as teenagers. Think long term, think generationally, not only when it comes to money, but every aspect of your life. How can you live to give, so that your life can affect eternity? I hope there is a long line of people when we all reach heaven that say, if it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have made it here. Sow some fresh air into the lives of people around you, it could have eternal ramifications.

God is looking for people who are eternity minded. Who don’t just live for today, but are investing in the lives of people, and expanding the kingdom of God at the same time. People who don’t just keep for themselves what God gives them, but are willing to sow generously into the lives of others. We think of that financially, but think of those who have great talents that they never pass on or use to train others. Think of those who make lots of finances and just use it for their own pleasure. Think of those who have so much time to give, and then they use it foolishly, instead of using their time to invest in eternity. I love the verse in II Cor 9:10 (and in Is 55:10) where it says that God gives seed to the sower and bread for the eater. Lots of people eat not only the bread that God supplies, but the seed he supplies to sow as well. No wonder there is no harvest. Don’t eat (consume) the seed that God supplies for you to sow! Live with tomorrow in mind, and sow seeds for eternity.

Living to give is the only way to live, get your eyes off of yourself and on to somebody else, show them Jesus, by living to give. Those are words from a song by my husband, Lynn. He wrote that soon after we were married, and I am so thankful that I have a husband who is in agreement with me regarding our finances. Actually, when we got married, he helped me build my faith in the healing power of God, and I think my simple faith that God always faithfully supplies was fresh air to him. I think men have this idea, my man did at least, that if the money you need isn’t available get another job. I so appreciated his work ethic, but there are only so many hours in a day. Let God use your job to help provide for your needs, but God is our ultimate source. Giving is the way we can get our seed in the soil so that we can see a harvest produced. Be diligent, have integrity, be a good steward and a good manager, and live to give