Saturday, December 17, 2005

Are We Troubled or Trusting?

by Donna L. Watkins

© Donna L. Watkins - Northern Flicker

The Word of God is a living Word. Psalm 119 says that the Word makes me wiser than my enemies, cleanses, strengthens, delights, teaches, saves, comforts, directs and gives understanding. What a resource! What other book do we truly need? God's Word is enough for us!

Do we consider His Word real and living? If we had a person who would be able to give us all these promises and make these things happen in our lives, wouldn't we feel like we'd found our own version of a genie?

God's promises are ours, but we have to accept them and place them into our lives. When somebody gives us a gift, we have to reach out and accept it and we then have to "find a place" for it in our home.

God offers us so many promises and all we need do is reach out for them and take them and then appropriate them into our lives.

It takes time to maintain what you own. Many gifts we've taken have required labor during ownership. A decor item requires dusting and time to consider proper placement. A book or magazine requires time to read it. Clothing must be washed, dried, ironed, and storage space must be given to it.

The Word is alive and powerful and able to perform great things in our lives, but we have to take time for it. We have to find the "perfect gift" [the appropriate Scripture] for our troubled mind and for the situation. Then when we take that gift, we have to spend time applying it to our lives. We have to come against the thoughts that are causing us to worry and be troubled. We use the Word as a sword against those thoughts!

Our health cannot get better if we are worrying and hold anxiety in our lives. Disease comes in with stress, anxiety and worry. We were not made for it so the body begins to break down under it.

The world tells us there are lots of things deserving of our worry, but as you've read many times before, we worry over things we cannot control. For adults who are supposed to have "grown up," this doesn't sound like a very mature choice for use of our time and lives. To spend thoughts and energy and health on something that we can never have control over.

Children are many times the basis for our worry and concerns, but we are told to trust God in everything. When we believe that He is truly wise and all-knowing, we can allow Him to take our lives and do what He will with them. Then we can allow Him to do that with our children also.

Faith will always provide the best results. Worry only brings more worry and I believe that we actually choose what we have in life by choosing worry or faith!

Thoughts and words are seeds! What we plant determines the harvest.

Commit your children to God. They are in His hands anyway, not ours. Consider these words from William L. Coleman:

"Ask God to watch over them. It is not that we have washed our hands of them, but rather that we have called for a first-class security guard, our heavenly Father. Our children are not orphaned but rather are protected by the ultimate Parent. The Great Watchman will be there. Type up Psalm 121:5-8 and paste it on your bathroom mirror. Every time you think of your children, claim these verses."

Psalm 121:5-8: "The Lord watches over you - the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm - He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."

I have it placed under our son's picture by my bed and when I rise and go to bed I entrust him to God. After many years of worrying and thinking it would somehow change things I cannot control, I decided to trust in God. To obey His Word commanding me to do so. From that choice I have reaped so much joy and peace and faith about our son. I got absolutely no where with the worry, but the faith and trust has brought a harvest of good things.

Consider today what you worry about. Does it change the situation to worry about it? Does your heart testify that you are in disobedience to God when you worry? Do you want to choose today to trust instead of worry? Go to the Word and ask Him for your "perfect gift" - the Scriptures you need to overcome the habit of worry you have set up in your life and thoughts.

Sow the seeds of faith and trust and harvest great things for you and your family! If you trust Him to take you to heaven when you die, surely you can trust Him in the things of this life.

As Paul said in Acts: I commit you to God and to the Word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified!

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© 2000-2007 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission. Visit the author's website, TheNatureInUs.com for more articles and free email subscription. Link URL: http://www.TheNatureInUs.com

Thursday, December 1, 2005

Which Food Plastics Are Safe?

A myriad of petroleum-based chemicals go into the manufacture of plastics. Some can leach into food and drinks and possibly impact human health. Leaching increases when plastic comes in contact with oily or fatty foods, during heating and from old or scratched plastic. Types of plastics shown to leach toxic chemicals are polycarbonate, PVC and styrene.

Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that mimics the action of the human hormone estrogen, can leach from polycarbonate plastic. Human exposure to BPA is widespread. A Centers for Disease Control study detected BPA in the urine of 95 percent of adults sampled. Scientists have measured BPA in the blood of pregnant women, in umbilical cord blood and in the placenta, all at levels demonstrated in animals to alter development.

Hormones stimulate certain cancers. Bisphenol A has been found to stimulate prostate cancer cells and causes breast tissue changes that resemble early stages of breast cancer. One study found an association between ovarian dysfunction and higher levels of BPA in urine.

For more detailed information on this topic, download a fact sheet published in October 2005 from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

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