Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

• Proverbs 3:5-8

The Lord is my strength and my shield;
    my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
    and with my song I praise him.

• Psalm 28:7

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
    I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

• Psalm 32:8

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

• 1 Corinthians 12:9

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights.

• Habakkuk 3:19

I have mentioned before that I am driven.  I have always wanted to complete the task that is assigned to me or that I put on myself.

I have also written about how I never got a word of encouragement from my loved ones.  Heaven forbid that I get any praise.

People focus on building self-esteem and not tearing down the self-esteem that a child has.

But I have seen the opposite.  What if we are talking about a strong-willed child that has more self-esteem than you ever imagined?  They need to learn how to tone it down or they will never think they need God in their lives.

My self-esteem was never bolstered by my parents, but I desired to be thought of as adequate, even good.

Some people say that certain states in the USA put you at a disadvantage in getting an education, but why are there so many great novelists, songwriters, and entertainers that come from those states?

The point that I am trying to make is that God can give us the drive or we can give ourselves the drive.  With that drive we can achieve great things or small things or just the right things.

For those of us who get our drive from God, standing still is not an option.  There is one more person that needs to be encouraged.  There is one more person that needs to hear the Gospel of Christ.  There is one more person who is not saved.

While we must be still on occasion to know that we have no strength on our own and God is still in control, we need to be ready to move when God points us in the right direction.

It makes no difference where we came from.  The only thing that matters is in what direction we are going.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.