Hey, in our neck of the woods we didn’t receive any snow – at least yet – today. 

Had a doctor’s appointment this morning and was reminded just how treacherous driving is right now.  While I feel for those on side streets it is just so difficult for the City to hit them all.  Street after street has cars parked in front of their homes that, of course, is expected.

However, it makes it extremely difficult for the street crews to clear all but the center of the streets. 

It amazes me when people complain because certain things aren’t done in what, they consider, a timely manner – especially when the circumstances are extreme and not normal or even close to what is normal.

But, it also speaks well for the different departments involved; usually nobody notices the work they do.  They go about their daily duties almost invisible, and do it so well that we expect that same perfection under these difficult circumstances.

I appreciate them.

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James 4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

We call God ‘Father’ and it is fitting we do so.  We have been adopted into His family through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection from death.

We speak to Him daily, like a good friend who knows everything about us and still cares for us.  We are informal with Him; many times not standing on any protocol.

But that very casual attitude can hamper us.  While He is our heavenly Father and has become a good friend, we forget that He is God and deserves all respect and reverence.

We can become too lackadaisical with that relationship and start taking it for granted.  We do that the time with family and friends, we tend to be around them so much we take them for granted that they understand who we are and what we thing of them, but seldom tell them.

We don’t treat Him with the respect He deserves; we need to approach God with hat in hand, bowing before Him and with a heart open and willing to listen.  Not as if He is an equal, but as the supreme God, the Creator, the King and Ruler of this world.

He wants us to be comfortable with Him.  He wants us to be able to enter His presence without fear; but He also wants and deserves our humility towards Him, in recognition for His great love and mercy.

The two are not incompatible.  When we begin our meditations and our prayers with that respect, thankfulness and praise, we find ourselves in awe, but at the same time, relaxed and ready for a conversation that is open and without barriers.

As Jesus is approachable to the masses, so too is God the Father; the same respect the masses, who believed in Jesus, must also be given to the Father.

It reminds me of the young man who ran for office and was elected.  He was talking, later, with an elderly woman who had been a neighbor and a customer of his paper route for many years.

She asked him why he didn’t come to her and ask for her vote. 

He said we have known each other for so long, that I knew you would be voting for me.

She said, “Yes, but it is always nice to be asked.”

Let us not take God for granted.

Frankly it isn’t all that hard, we just have to remind ourselves that this good friend IS the CREATOR, IS the SAVIOR and deserves our humbling ourselves before Him.

Later, Art (-: