Benjamin Button and the start of a new year...
My sweet husband asked me if I'd like to go see a movie this afternoon, just before the Rose Bowl was about to start! He knew I had been wanting to go. I said, "Don't you want to watch the game?" (He loves football and it doesn't even matter who's playing.) He said he didn't care about it.
We don't get to go to the movies all that often. It just seems like there's no time. And I have to go in the afternoon or I get sleepy. We went to see "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey in Evansville with John's mom and brother. It had its moments, but overall it did not live up to our expectations. Jim Carrey's movies are usually much funnier.
There are always good movies over Christmas and there are several we'd like to see. One that I have particularly wanted to see is "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." So that's what we saw this afternoon. I don't normally review movies on my blog, but I thought this was such a neat movie that I wanted to give it a thumbs up in case anyone else is considering seeing it.
The movie is very well done and has a message. It is very effective in communicating that the best time of our lives is right now. Make the most of what you have and don't lose or take for granted one precious second of what you've been given.
This was a good movie to see at the start of a new year and its message coincided with so many of my own thoughts over the past week. Life is short. Make the most of every day. One thing that resonated with me from my grandma's funeral was when her pastor talked about how short life is no matter how long you live. He said that to a teenager, 90 years seems like a very long time. But once you hit 50, it doesn't really seem that long. I will turn 50 this coming May and I know exactly what he meant. The majority of us don't see 90. But even if I do, more than half my life is already gone. I want to make the most of the days I have in front of me. And one of the things I want to be most is a kind and loving person. I've made enough mistakes and blunders. I want to choose my words more carefully. I don't want to harm another soul, even in small ways, if I can possibly avoid it.
I received tomorrow's daily thought subscription in my email today. It's about personal relationships. I loved it so much that I thought I would share it on this first blog post of the new year. It's the desire of my heart that I would be able to put this into practice more than I have at any other time in my life.
Daily Thought for January 2, 2009
In Colossians, chapter 3, St Paul gives us two general
principles governing personal relationships. Here they
are: 'Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name
of the Lord Jesus.' The second is: 'Whatever you do, work
at it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men' (verses 17
and 23). Now let me tell in my own words what I believe
these two principles mean. Firstly, I have got to learn,
if I am a Christian, to treat other people as if I were
Jesus Christ. That is what it means to do everything *in
the name of* the Lord Jesus. To do something in somebody
else's name, is to do it as his representative. When David
stood on the field of battle against Goliath, he said: 'I
come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.' That is, I
am not coming in my own name, I am coming as his
representative. So to the Christian, to do everything in
the name of Jesus Christ, is to do it as if he were Jesus
Christ. I have got to learn, if I am a Christian, to treat
other people with the respect and the consideration, the
thoughtfulness and the graciousness with which Jesus Christ
would treat them.
The second principle is the exact opposite. It is to
learn to treat people as if *they* were Jesus Christ. I
must learn to do everything as unto the Lord. The roles
are now reversed and I must learn to treat every person
with the graciousness, the humility, the understanding, and
the courtesy, not now that he would give to them but that I
would give to him ...
I tell you that these two principles, to treat other
people as if they were Christ and as if I were Christ, are
as realistic as they are revolutionary. This is not
idealist rubbish. This is practical advice about personal
relationships.
--From "The Doctor -- A Person" (Cape Town: Medical
Christian Fellowship, 1959), p. 4.
We don't get to go to the movies all that often. It just seems like there's no time. And I have to go in the afternoon or I get sleepy. We went to see "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey in Evansville with John's mom and brother. It had its moments, but overall it did not live up to our expectations. Jim Carrey's movies are usually much funnier.
There are always good movies over Christmas and there are several we'd like to see. One that I have particularly wanted to see is "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." So that's what we saw this afternoon. I don't normally review movies on my blog, but I thought this was such a neat movie that I wanted to give it a thumbs up in case anyone else is considering seeing it.
The movie is very well done and has a message. It is very effective in communicating that the best time of our lives is right now. Make the most of what you have and don't lose or take for granted one precious second of what you've been given.
This was a good movie to see at the start of a new year and its message coincided with so many of my own thoughts over the past week. Life is short. Make the most of every day. One thing that resonated with me from my grandma's funeral was when her pastor talked about how short life is no matter how long you live. He said that to a teenager, 90 years seems like a very long time. But once you hit 50, it doesn't really seem that long. I will turn 50 this coming May and I know exactly what he meant. The majority of us don't see 90. But even if I do, more than half my life is already gone. I want to make the most of the days I have in front of me. And one of the things I want to be most is a kind and loving person. I've made enough mistakes and blunders. I want to choose my words more carefully. I don't want to harm another soul, even in small ways, if I can possibly avoid it.
I received tomorrow's daily thought subscription in my email today. It's about personal relationships. I loved it so much that I thought I would share it on this first blog post of the new year. It's the desire of my heart that I would be able to put this into practice more than I have at any other time in my life.
Daily Thought for January 2, 2009
In Colossians, chapter 3, St Paul gives us two general
principles governing personal relationships. Here they
are: 'Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name
of the Lord Jesus.' The second is: 'Whatever you do, work
at it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men' (verses 17
and 23). Now let me tell in my own words what I believe
these two principles mean. Firstly, I have got to learn,
if I am a Christian, to treat other people as if I were
Jesus Christ. That is what it means to do everything *in
the name of* the Lord Jesus. To do something in somebody
else's name, is to do it as his representative. When David
stood on the field of battle against Goliath, he said: 'I
come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.' That is, I
am not coming in my own name, I am coming as his
representative. So to the Christian, to do everything in
the name of Jesus Christ, is to do it as if he were Jesus
Christ. I have got to learn, if I am a Christian, to treat
other people with the respect and the consideration, the
thoughtfulness and the graciousness with which Jesus Christ
would treat them.
The second principle is the exact opposite. It is to
learn to treat people as if *they* were Jesus Christ. I
must learn to do everything as unto the Lord. The roles
are now reversed and I must learn to treat every person
with the graciousness, the humility, the understanding, and
the courtesy, not now that he would give to them but that I
would give to him ...
I tell you that these two principles, to treat other
people as if they were Christ and as if I were Christ, are
as realistic as they are revolutionary. This is not
idealist rubbish. This is practical advice about personal
relationships.
--From "The Doctor -- A Person" (Cape Town: Medical
Christian Fellowship, 1959), p. 4.
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