Dear Reader:

Sunday morning I had the television on rather low and was dozing on and off but I heard the speaker say something about the two worst thieves for human beings are called past and future. They rob us of present happiness and joy by filling us with regrets and worry instead.

Since I have just had an experience with thieves (well actually one thief, two robberies) I opened my ears to listen to the voice more intently. If you grew up in the South most of us heard the expression “Don’t go borrowing trouble“….in other words don’t worry about the future ….the future will take care of itself.

And it is true…between anguishing over something in our past that we keep pouring ‘salt in the wound’ into and worrying about something that may or may not come to pass…it doesn’t leave the moment, the present, to be filled with happiness and joy. God did not want us to live this way.

And sometimes when we get overloaded with too many problems hitting at one time it is easy to succumb to these greedy thieves. But we are better than that….God knows exactly how much we can take and we, too, soon come to discover we can take a lot more than we thought.

I don’t have the time to write out the whole story but if you have never read the true story of Phan Thi Kim PHuc (famously known by the Vietnam photograph as the “Napalm Girl”…take some time to pull her name and read her biography. )

She fought the “two thieves” throughout her past (childhood and adolescence) present adulthood and future. She could not find the peace she so desired until she found Jesus at a rally one night. It changed her life around. She went from being that “Napalm Girl” to (today) a motivational speaker in Canada. She beat the “two thieves.”

Her story is so powerful.

So until tomorrow….Remember…being strong helps us to keep calm and protect our happiness and joy for life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh