All in Personal Faith

We take some things to heart in ways that aren't helpful. Criticism—especially when mean-spirited—can crush our heart and break our spirit. Whether accurate or not, criticisms tend to play like a never-ending tape in our mind.

Flattery taken to heart is a trap. It's self-deluding and sets us up to fall when we crash into reality. Like someone who can't carry a tune trying out on the American Idol stage because family or friends tell them they sing well.

Have you ever said things you wished never escaped your lips? Of course, we all have! You can edit or delete a tweet or an email, but you can't recapture words spoken in haste, nor pull them out of the air as if they were never said.

The key to being careful with what comes out of our mouths is to surrender our heart and life to the One who knows us best. This is what we see King David do in this psalm.

Imagination can open doors of thought that lead to innovations, discoveries, and breakthroughs in many ways never considered. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity came to him while imagining light traveling through the universe.

Realization of a truth can stun and shock us when what becomes known through empirical science goes against long-held beliefs. The circumnavigation of the earth by ship disproved the idea of a flat earth, which was further confirmed by orbiting satellites and astronauts.

My wife recalls a time in her childhood when she imagined herself as a character in a storybook being read by someone—someone greater than herself. This was her first sense of God's existence and presence.

The concept of God being all-knowing—omniscient—can be assuring and scary. My wife's childlike sense of God's omnipresence opened up her realization of His omniscience and omnipotence.