Greetings and Salutations,

What a beautiful ‘Spring’ day in our neck of the woods, just several weeks early.  The temperature is mild and the sun is lighting up our corner of the world.

But, it is nice and we will take advantage of it, today, we are supposed to have rain the rest of the week; but no snow.

As part of the package from the fitness center I had a half hour with a personal trainer.  We went over my current routine and she added a couple of more exercises, just need to slowly up my workouts.  It only took 70+ years to develop this fat body, hopefully it won’t take that much to lose some of it...

Still can’t do a lot with my right arm, frustrating, but I know it is better than it was a week ago, it is just taking time.

Patience.                       

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Romans 12:3  KJV  “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

As I look back, in my life – especially my law enforcement life – there were indeed times I thought myself as being above, it wasn’t long before I was brought down; but that didn’t entirely stop me from thinking more highly of myself than I should have.

Law Enforcement in our community is very fortunate, we don’t have the council people, mayors, commissioners leaning on us to do something that will benefit them – at least not when I was working.

I can count on one hand times that I had someone call from one of those positions and announce that they were in that position and demanding certain things be done – which in the end would benefit them over someone else.

We always told them the same thing, we will enforce the law.

I am not naïve.  There are people in almost every community that have power, either in a position or by finances – that can influence decisions made by others.

I was just fortunate enough not to have very many on my doorstep.

Pride, sense of Power, sense of entitlement that we deserve absolute respect can afflict most people – not everyone, but far more than not.

It is easy to have happen to us.  We accomplish something, or attain a certain stature in the community and believe that we are something special and deserve more than the other guy.

It can happen in the church, just like it does in the world, where we can become prideful of our leadership position, where we can think more highly of ourselves than we should.

In the war against evil, there is but one General and He places people in positions that He deems not only worthy but have proven themselves to be faithful.

Part of that faithfulness is how the person reacts to their responsibilities, do they puff out their chest, or do they go about doing the best they can without trying to attain accolades?

Power and position can be used for the good of those we serve, or it can be misused to the benefit of those in power or to those they feel they wish to empress or gain acceptance from.

No one is secure in any position they have, if obedience to God is not in their hearts. 

We are placed in positions, not for our benefits, but because God sees something in us that He can use to bring people closer to Him.

The skills, gifts, knowledge or abilities we have are to be humbly worked so we can be used by Him.  If He wishes to honor us with praise, so be it, but it shouldn’t be our goal, and it shouldn’t be our goal to have others acknowledge our work.

We should always want to do our very best in whatever role we find ourselves.  If it is deemed we are worthy of being ‘promoted’ either in position or to others as recommendations, so be it, but we shouldn’t let those things ‘go to our heads.’

Even dictators have to answer to somebody, and while it may take a long time for it to happen, when it is done they are dragged down to the pits of the world.

Whatever I do should be for the Lord and I should not inject my pride into the mix.

Frankly, that is extremely difficult for me.  I often have to remind myself not to do something to get praise, but because it needs to be done – as directed by Him.

Later, Art (-: