Christmas with family...

As the year slowly draws to a close, I'm in Scotland, where I spent Christmas Day with family. It was our first Christmas at Mum's new house in Grangemouth, the one she moved to in February when my Dad passed away. It's strange to realise that we are literally 100 yards along the road from the home I grew up in - the one where my brother and I spent all our childhood Christmases.

My border collie, Maiki, had to stay back in Spain for Christmas, but my brother and niece both brought their cocker spaniels with them on Christmas Day. Hunnie just wanted to play and snuggle, while Beau seemed to be dreaming of life as an animal actor on Christmas TV.

Not pictured here is my niece (who was working hard in the kitchen to prepare the Christmas dinner.)
 

It's all about FOCUS...

I've been reading Psalm 119 over these past couple of mornings. If you're familiar with the scriptures, you'll know that it is the longest psalm in the Bible and that it particularly highlights the value of  understanding, loving and obeying the Word of God - the instructions that our Creator has given for our lives to turn out well.

In the section I was meditating on this morning, the word "turn" stood out to me and I was struck by how the psalmist understood the importance of having the right focus in life. In vs 36 - 37 and then in vs 59 - 60, we read:

• Turn my heart...
• Turn my eyes...
• Turn my steps...

To be faithful in following God, our heart (our motivation) needs to be turned towards God's instructions and not towards selfish gain.

Secondly, our eyes need to be turned away from worthless things that could be a distraction to us.

And then we need to take a third and very practical turn: we need to turn our steps without delay to putting God's instructions into practice in our own lives.

The writer of the psalm prays for God's help to turn his heart to the Word and to turn his eyes away from distractions... but then he takes personal responsibility for the needed action step, saying, "I have turned my steps to your commands. I will hasten and not delay to obey your instructions."

Turn my heart, turn my eyes, turn my steps... This is the sort of focus involved in seeking God wholeheartedly and experiencing His help to live life well.