Pay Attention
 
People come into our lives. Some stay. Some go. Some you remember always.  Some you forget completely.  Some have a great impact on your life and change the way you think. Some barely touch the surface and have no influence on thoughts or actions.
A few years ago I met a family; a man, a woman, and a son.  I remember the first conversation we had in the hallway at church. The conversation came after I helped a nursery worker look for a little boy who had left the nursery during service. I later found this child had been diagnosed with autism. I had no idea what autism was.  I had heard the word but it was just a word. It had never touched my life in any manner. I researched it and was better able to understand and have meaningful conversations with Cheryl.  I shared web sites with her and helplessly tried to help.  Kile, the beautiful little blonde-haired boy, soon was in my toddler class at church.  I fell in love with him. My heart broke anew each week as I realized he could not understand my words and he could speak very few words.  Cheryl and I became very good friends. I found a verse that I claimed for Kile and shared with Cheryl. 
 
Isaiah 50:4  The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
 
Jack got a job transfer and the family that I had grown so close to moved far away.  Even though they moved on, they have not moved out of my life. We have remained very close. 
 
As God places people in your path each day, pay attention. You never know what friendships God may be trying to form. You never know what you may learn that you never knew before. You never know what love you will have the opportunity to share. 
 
Below is a poem that Cheryl wrote for Kile. April is Autism Awareness Month. Become familiar with this disease, what can cause it, and what can be done to find a cure for it.  Please pray for Kile and all the Kiles out there who may come into your life. Pray they will come to speak and hear as the learned.

The Race We Run
 
Un-describable, the joy that we felt
With a thankful heart, to God, we knelt.
Our baby, our child, our love, such joy.
God blessed us with a beautiful baby boy.
 
We marveled at your inquisitive eyes
Felt so proud at five months when you learned “bye bye”
We laughed, we played and made silly faces
You learned to crawl, then to walk and go so many places.
 
We thought we were doing all that we could
We got your vaccinations like the Doctors said we should
Please forgive us Son, how were we to know the reasons
That your little body could not handle all the poisons
 
Then like a thief slips in during the night of your home
Our happy little baby boy was suddenly all gone
No playing, no pee-pie, no more talking did you do
You ignored me like one deaf as I talked to you
 
Gone were the smiles, the hugs and the sparkle in your eyes
The Dr. said Autism, I did not want to believe such lies.
Look at me, Look at me, Kile if you can.
Please come back to me, please hold my hand.
 
I love you, I love you, my heart, my son.
Autism is treatable, this marathon we will run
The hours, the research, the tears, the cost
I want my little boy back, I will not let him be lost.
 
So Kile, as others look at you with staring eyes
When you talk to your fingers and tell them goodbye
Please know baby, mommy is setting the pace
Together, one mile at a time, we will win this race.
 
Someday you will play ball and ride a bike
And hang out with daddy on a 10-mile hike
We'll go to Disney World and see Mickey Mouse
And remove all the chains and locks in your house.
 
Someday you'll get your very own boat
As a family down the Natty we will float.
You'll laugh, you'll talk, you'll sing us a song
Because Jesus is a healer and the doctors were wrong.
 
As we place the pieces of this puzzle together
And unravel the mystery of Autism forever
I hope you will always know my son,
You are the reason for the race we run.
 
To my son, Kile
My reason, my heart.
Cheryl Killman
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From The Heart
 
For the devotional this week I have a couple of things to share from the mail I received last week.
First of all, there is a short piece I received about thinking of others with our heart. Our first thoughts of the day were discussed in a class I was in Sunday and then when I checked my mail I had the devotional from someone that I am sharing below.   In the class, I was reminded indirectly of the thoughts I think when I first wake up and throughout the day.  We, of course, should think of God first, then others. But what thoughts do we think of others? Do we just wonder what they are doing, or do we worry what might come their way this day?  The thoughts we think of others are sometimes upsetting.  No matter how much we try to think happy thoughts sometimes the worry and negativity have a way of creeping in.  It is said out of the abundance the heart the mouth speaks, and it could also be said out of the abundance of the heart our thoughts come.  We should strive to keep our hearts, out words, and our thoughts pure always, when we first wake up and as we lay down to sleep at night. Speak life, think life. Let the love you have in your heart for others season your thoughts with productivity and prosperity for them, not negativity. Speak great things and mighty things into their lives. Also, it is good to speak love and life over those who don't speak love and life over you.  Began to think of enemies, those who use and abuse you, as friends, as those who build you up and encourage you.  Positive thoughts quickly turn to positive prayers and positive prayers reach a Gracious God who does great and mighty miracles lovingly from His heart every single day.
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 "THINKING OF YOU WITH MY HEART"... 
Thinking of someone with your heart...wow~ now isn't that special?  We need to do a lot more of this. If we think of someone with our heart- we care about them, we pray for their needs are no matter what they are. We wish them happy thoughts, save passage no matter they may roam. True Christian love one to another. Yes, to have a world in such a need for thinking of others instead of self all the time ... To think of each other with our heart could be a real cure.
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Jeremiah 29:12-14 
In those days when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.  I will be found by you," says the LORD. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes...
 
High and Low
 
Have you ever searched high and low for something? More importantly, I guess, did you find what you were looking for there? Where is your high and low? Is it in a drawer, under the car seat, in the bottom of the washer, the dryer, or maybe even in the very bottom of some nasty trash can you never dreamed you would be looking for anything in?   Have you ever looked in the refrigerator for your car keys, or in the kitchen shelf for a gallon of milk? 
What do you lose the most? According to some experts, (people who have nothing better to do than compile lists of items people lose), car keys are number one, followed by glasses, cell phones, credit cards, and I pods.  I pods? I am glad I don't have one because if it is on this expert list I would be sure to lose it.
To the expert list, I would definitely add shoes, any slip of paper with something important on it, and a phone book of any kind, even one with the cover torn off. 
In my search, my quest, to find all I could find about searching high and low, I also found expert advise on how to find the most popular lost items. According to Tip Dude, (the name of the web site alone lets you know these folks are definitely experts), the first thing you should do is pray. Wow! I was impressed because this was not a Christian site as far as I could tell, but the fact they actually suggested prayer had me hooked.  And on down the list we find: retrace your steps, remember what you last used it for, think about where you might have hidden it from thieves, but actually hid it from yourself, use systematic search methods as divers do at sea, and finally, my favorite- look again tomorrow and hope it reappears.
As this devotional winds down, you might ask yourself where is she going with this?
Today I ask myself the same thing.  You see there is no brilliant theological point, a scripture that ties right in, or a story of lost items of David, Moses, or Paul. If there were such a story I  could tell how they systematically found what they had lost after much prayer, but truth is, that isn't where this is going.
This morning as I searched for something, I won't even say what. (you would laugh) as I searched high and low, I got to thinking what is high and low? I asked God and myself a lot of questions while I searched.  I wondered if God knew from the beginning of time on this day I would find myself frustrated, not really because something was lost, but because I was the one who lost it in the first place. I could ask experts, but I am pretty sure God did have a purpose for even this. 
Today if you have lost an item, even something you don't know is missing from your life really, I would suggest you follow Tip Dude's first bit of advice. Pray. It always helps you find peace in every situation in life. Today if you feel you are the lost item, that which someone else has misplaced or overlooked, you are what is missing from their life, again, follow Tip Dude's advise. Pray.  Sooner or later, after searching high and low,  someone is bound to do a tactical search, find you,  and figure out you have been within their reach for quite a while. You are the exact person for the job, to write the book (sorry, thinking of myself there) to solve the problem, or perhaps just the one needed in their life to help them search for what they have lost.
And if you want to know the results of my high and low search today-I will look again tomorrow.
 
 
Jeremiah 29:12-14 
In those days when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.  I will be found by you," says the LORD. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes.
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Activation Code
 
I have done it again, well maybe I didn't do it, but it did happen. Last week my computer
crashed once more, or as I usually say, "My computer went away."  First of all Monday, I lost  my
ISP, Juno, which means I lost all my saved graphics and e-mail where my prayer requests were saved. I lost my address book, all of it, gone.   I tried to fix it, but finally gave up and called tech support, which by the way is in the Philippines, with many questions. I had to pay 295 a minute to someone who I couldn't understand and I am pretty sure couldn't understand me either. Eighty dollars later, Juno would connect again, but everything I had saved was gone.  I decided I would just have to live with it and begin again.
And begin again I did, then Friday my computer did nothing at all. I turned it off and on and all the usual boosters didn't work. Finally, the screen lit up and said  "operating system recovery in progress."  I thought that sounded really good, but sadly it wasn't so good. The computer does come on again, but it is completely empty of everything. Every file, every program, all gone.  So now I use a laptop and send this week's devotional.
 
While trying to reload a lot of software on my computer I found much of it ask for an activation code, which you guessed it, I no longer have.  I have discs, but no packaging which probably contained the codes.
I know all the information I need is probably still in that computer somewhere, but unlocking it, activating it,  requires more than I have.  No matter how much I want the computer to do what it was built to do, it can't do it on its own.  It requires a greater force, (a  human) operating it, guiding it, more importantly typing in an activation code. 
 This weekend a friend and I talked about the different circumstances in our lives, but both led to similar questions. Why God?  Why does He allow this? How much longer will this go on?  Where are all my promises?  Why does He not just do what He is going to do quickly?  What am I doing that is causing this to continue and stopping what God has for my life?
After we got through whining we went to a prayer meeting at church. And pray we did.
Last night I felt God spoke to me a lot of things about my life and about all the questions.
I truly believe we won't know all the whys while we are here on earth, but I do believe God guides us and gives us the power to activate all the promises He has given us.  Why is this allowed for so long?  Why is my life not working properly, like I think it should?   Perhaps it is working like God thinks it should work until I get out of the way and allow God to work through my life. Perhaps I am not entering the right code.
 
Why God?
 
Code -P R A Y J E R E M I A H 3 3 : 3
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
 
How much longer?
 
Code- H O S E A 1 0:1 2
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
 
Where are all my promises?
 
Code-P R A Y I I C O R I N T H I A N S 7:1
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
 
 
Why does God not just do what He is going to do quickly?

Code- P R A Y G E N E S I S 4 : 3
And in process of time it came to pass
 
Am I doing something to stop what God has for my life?
 
Code- P R A Y E X O D U S 1 0 : 3
...Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How longwilt thou refuse to
humble thyself before me?
  E X O D U S 16:28
 How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
 
So as you ask God questions, remember the keys, the code to get the answer.  There is someone we call on who will give us answers we can understand, free of charge. When you feel all empty inside and feel like it is time to start all over again, God will guide you through the recovery process. He never goes away.  Prayer is the key to answer all the major questions you have about the crashes, the downfalls of this life.
These two verses below pretty well answer every question you might have as far as will God do it?  Can He fix it?   We may not know exactly when or why, but we do know it will come to pass when we allow Him to be the major operating force in our life.
 
 
Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
 
II Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen,
unto the glory of God by us.
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