Defining business is easy if it is someone else’s money. Just like it is always easy to tell someone else how fix their problem. When it is your money or your problem it is never easy. I know this is true because giving someone else advice on how spend their money is really easy to do but when it is your money, well, that is a different thing.

When the business issue or personal issue is your issue, it takes much more thought, prayer and patience to get them resolved. I don’t know why we seem to be able to see and resolve issues in other people’s lives but many times we cannot see the same logic when it is our own life.

The bible speaks to this when it talks about removing the beam in our own eye so you can see clearly to remove the splinter in someone else’s eye. Ha. We usually we see our big problem as a small problem and one in which we can easily handle without anyone else’s help. It is much easier to give advice that to accept advice and it is also much easier to tell someone else how to fix their situation than to fix your own.

Many times when we face our own problems, it helps to imagine you are giving advice to someone else. Let me say that again because it is important. When you are facing your own issues, it helps to imagine you are giving advice to someone else because we all know it is easier to give advice than to accept it.

I have this thing I do when faced with a decision. I picture myself in a coffee shop meeting with a friend and discussing his/her issue. I imagine the friend telling me all about his/her issue and then asking for my advice of how to handle it. Many times when I play this role in my mind I can see the answer much clearer that before. The reason why is that it is always easier to give advice to someone else because you are detached from the issue and it allows you to see it more clearly. KT

There are many times in our lives when we don’t know what to do. Today may even be one of those days for someone reading this blog. It is the not knowing, the pause or the wait that seems to be the hardest part to manage.

Sure, no one wants to hear bad news but at least you know what the news is. If you know, then you can begin to piece together the plan for dealing with it. Examples of such news are, you are fired, you got the job, you didn’t get the job, you are sick, they denied your loan, the test results will be back in a week, you are not welcomed, your marriage is over or any such example that life throws at you. There are many more examples of the simple decisions in life when you just wished “they” would make a decision so you could know what the answer is. It is the in between, where patience and faith is put to the test.

The question is what you do when you don’t know. First thing is to place the outcome in God’s hands. Sounds easy right? Well, in my experience, there is the “idea” of placing the outcome in God’s hands and then there is the actual faith step in doing it. Big difference. The idea of it is always easy advice to give someone else. When it is you, it is a whole different story. When it is you, it becomes personal and it becomes real.

Ask God to give you the revelation (reveal it to you so you can understand it) that he is in control and he knows what the decision today means 15 years from now in your life. He literally knows where every turn in your life is and the impact of each turn. You can trust yourself or you can trust him. When you do step over and put your present and future in his hands, you will feel a huge weight lifted. It doesn’t mean that the outcome and the answers will always be happy and good. What it does mean is that you and you alone have made the decision to spiritually step close into the shadow of the almighty and ease up under his arm and let him be in control. KT

The NIV version of Psalm 90:12 says “teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

We get so busy in life that the days and years seem to slip by and you look up and realize you are 5 years older than the last time you checked. I was watching a movie the other day from 1999 and it still seemed like a recent movie. Then I paused and realized that it was 16 years ago. This past weekend I was upstairs in my daughters’ old bedrooms just looking around at all the stuff that is still theirs. Ha. My oldest daughter graduated from high school 13 years ago and my youngest daughter graduated from high school 10 years ago. Wow how the years get by.

This passage of scripture means to measure your days carefully and add purpose to each day and to seek God’s direction for each and every day. It means to live life on purpose and with meaning and to gain God’s wisdom in the process. Numbering the day means to make it count because once today is gone you will never have another day exactly like today. They hopefully will be similar, but they are never the same. It means to make it count because one day all you will have is the memories of the days spent. Spend them wisely.

It means to not just hurry to start a day, rather have a quiet time with God at the beginning of each day and ask him to guide your paths. I find that a quiet time in the morning sets the stage for the whole day. On the days that I slept late and hurried to get dressed and rushed out of the house and hit the traffic to the office, it usually starts the day off hectic and it seemed to carry throughout the day. The days where I got up a little earlier and had a quiet time seemed to give me more control over the flow of the day.

I believe God wants us to ask him about the day before it starts and seek his wisdom on how to handle the events of the day. It is like you start the day with a secret weapon as compared to the rest of the world. I find it calms your spirit within you and gives you balance throughout the day.

Use tomorrow as an example and number the day and ask God to help you make it count. KT