Weighing the Measure of Life

Discipline, not desire determines destiny.~Dr. Charles Stanley~ I have a friend whose prayer requests often includea request that God may help them establish healthy rhythmsin their marriage and family-life.In pondering the phrase 'healthy rhythms' I have been scrutinizing my own rhythms;how these rhythms impact and become my life!!Rhythms shape and reveal where my deepest devotion/affections lie.Rhythms prove...What/who fuels my desires, my goals, my choices?What arouses my deepest concerns; the temporal or the eternal?Who do I turn to for counsel?Who gets my first hour of the day?Who directs my joy?Who/who do I most admire?Are my rhythms Christ centered?Is He my first waking want, worship and wonder? It takes dogged discipline to establish new rhythms,and all the more so as we grow older and set in our ways! It's never too late to confess apathy to our loving Heavenly FatherAnd beseech Him to lead us in the path of His commandments and righteousness!As we open his WordHe will open the eyes of our heart if we ask.He will give us ears to hear Him! 1 Thess.5:24 He who calls you (us) is faithful, who also will do it. Jer.17:5-10Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in manAnd makes flesh his strength,Whose heart departs from the Lord.For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,And shall not see when good comes,But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,In a salt land which is not inhabited. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,And whose hope is the Lord.For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,Which spreads out its roots by the river,And will not fear when heat comes;But its leaf will be green,And will not be anxious in the year of drought,Nor will cease from yielding fruit. “The heart is deceitful above all things,And desperately wicked;Who can know it?I, the Lord, search the heart,I test the mind,Even to give every man according to his ways,According to the fruit of his doings. This poem can be one 3-stanza poem or 3 one-stanza poems 😊 The measure of a life is wroughtFrom word and deed; the fruit of thoughtHow swift the innocence of youthIs shed and wed with timeless truth For no one is exempt from this;'As a man thinketh, so he is' *** The words of our mouth impartThe meditations of the heartThen pray with all humility'Lord, let these be pleasing to Thee'So life will be a rhythm ofUnwavering faith, hope and love *** Oh, may our steps be ordered byThe Lord on whom we can relyMay His law be Thought's chief delightTo guide and help us fight the fightTo the reward that will not fadeWhen the measure of life is weighed Janet Martin