Making the most of every opportunity...

Ephesians 5:15-16 "Be very careful then how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil". Be very careful...because the days are evil. When we watch T.V., especially the news, we see evil. We can go to the grocery store and see evil. We can probably go to any of our schools, and we will see evil there as well. Does this mean that we stay inside and lock all of our doors and windows because the days are evil? NO! God says: Be very careful. Be wise. Make the most of every opportunity. I love those words: making the most of every opportunity... There are many opportunities that come our way. Here are a few that came to mind almost immediately. MOVIES Look for Christ- I'm one of these people that when I watch a movie, I'm trying to figure out how to write a Bible study on it! Notice I said, look for Christ. Remember, the days are evil, of course you can easily find the evil in it. Look for the Redeemer to come and save the day! Look at the content of the story. Who are the characters and what are they experiencing? How do they handle their situations? How did they resolve them? Christlike or Worldly? What was the result? My favorite movies on this particular subject are the Spiderman movies. Every time I have watched those movies, I am amazed at the lessons in them. I taught the lessons to my children. When Spiderman 3 came out, we were at the theatre, and I was worried that they were going to ruin my movies! Spiderman started to turn bad, but he chose to turn back to good. He realized that everyone has a choice. I can't write this Bible lesson now! But, the third one, was such a good portrait of ourselves choosing and fighting for what is good and for what is right. It is hard to take your family to see a movie anymore that does not have some sort of bad language, crude humor, suggestive content and the list goes on. You rarely see a movie with a G-rating anymore. We have to be careful as to what and how much we allow our children to be exposed to. The Bible itself is full of violence, sex, substance abuse, bad language, you name it! It could be R-rated! It's much better than watching soap operas! However; when we teach our children stories from the Bible, we teach it to them on their level of understanding and for their age. We should consider the same for the movies that we select for our children and then make the most of the opportunity. Use your judgement based on your family and your children. Be careful! Be wise! HOLIDAYS Halloween- Now here's a touchy one! Me personally, I take my kids trick or treating. We have family and friends over for spaghetti or hot dogs, depends on what I feel like fixin! We dress the kids up and go get us some candy! Some of the folks stay back at the house and continue to give out candy to our visitors! We come back, check our candy and start eating it! (In my house, the candy don't even make it a week! Which is fine by me, because when it's gone, it's gone, the sooner the better!) Whether you choose to trick or treat or not there are still opportunities that you should consider. Something that either I've read somewhere or somebody told me, that I have not forgot, is this: What other opportunity are you gonna have where that many people are coming to YOUR door? Use it! 1. Pass out tracks or information cards about your ministry or church. still give them candy though, that's what they are coming for, CANDY! 2. Let your kids help pass out the candy 3. Carve a pumpkin with your kids. tell the story of salvation while you are cleaning out all that yucky sin from inside that pumpkin and then when his inside is all clean, he is so happy, you carve him a happy face for all the world to see and you light his candle so that he can shine for Jesus! Be creative and have fun with it! 4. Make a hot chocolate stand in your driveway and serve it to your neighbors. We had a home that did this in our neighborhood last year. They served hot chocolate and Water. Several people from their church was there helping. They had their church info on the table for people to take. I thought it was a great ministry opp. SCHOOL- This one has been on my heart lately. I am missing opportunities in this area and I have been praying about this. God has used this scripture to show me what opportunities I am missing: 1. Building relationships with teachers, my kids friends, other parents 2. Helping my children to have a good experience and better achievement 3. Having a Christian influence within the system through myself and my children One thing I know, this has been a challenging year, keeping up with the three kids in school! I know Randy's teachers real well, I can tell you that! He will be going to 10th grade next year, Rebecca starts middle school and Tanner just graduated Kindergarten tonight! Lord, help me! It will be even harder next year, but I plan to make this opportunity a top priority. Pray for me! How about you? What opportunities can you think of that you have experienced and would like to share? If you are missing opportunities and need prayer, share that too! Thank you for letting me share mine. I pray that this site will be a ministry tool for all us, so that we can pray for one another and encourage one another. You all have a good day!