Good morning, Recently I was reading a ladies devotional and the woman who wrote was speaking of trials in our lives. She made a statement that when a trial comes we are to "look at God's faithfulness and not at the circumstances." This seems to be excellent advice! We are human so our first reaction to many difficulties and trials in our lives will be emotional. If we trained ourselves to look for God's faithfulness in the middle of the trial, we would see His loving hand working the circumstances for good. There maybe some circumstances for which it will take eternity to reveal God's purpose but we can train ourselves now to trust God in every situation. Romans 12:2 "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-His good, pleasing and perfect will." The transformation of the mind is done by trusting God, His plan and will. By purposely looking at His faithfulness in every situation. When some circumstances come into your life today will you purpose to look at God's faithfulness? You will find He is there!

Good morning! I woke up this morning thinking about a couple of verses: "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, virtue..." II Peter 1:5 and "Who can find a virtuous women? For her price is far above rubies..." Proverbs 31:10 Virtue is a quality that God would like us to add to our lives. What exactly is virtue? It is a Greek word prounced: ar-et-ay it means: "excellence" Add to our faith- excellence....that a woman of excellence or virtue is considered of more worth that a ruby. A ruby is a valuable stone, a beautiful stone. What a challenge! Would you say you are a woman of excellence? Would others say that about you? In order to have this said, we first must have faith in a Holy God and in the work of His Son, Jesus, on Calvary's cross. This faith assures us that our sins are washed away and that we are accepted by God. When we accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we are given the Holy Spirit to live within us. We have the excellence of our God living right inside us! We have a resource, a power for living that is beyond the norm. Then we go on in life pleasing the One who died for us, with the power of the One who lives within us. We make decisions moment by moment to life to please Him or do we? How often we fail and forget! We live for ourselves, pleasing ourselves not thinking what might please the Lord. What should we do when we realize we are on the wrong road? Confess it! "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:9 Then begin again to walk in the way we really should be going, in the way of excellence. This pathway will involve giving up, getting rid of, or completely turning from whatever tripped us up on the path of excellence. We want to stay close to the Lord, following His Word daily and seeking to please Him. This is a life long journey, with many twists and turns, but the path to excellence is only found by dying to ourselves, to our selfish desires and following Him. Adding virtue to our lives. Excellence will be displayed in our daily decisions. We do want to be women of excellence! Let's do as the verse says: "make every effort" to add virtue to our lives. Let's determine to make this effort today to add to our faith- virtue.