[ampaterry]

Thank you, guys!!

An anonymous friar in a Nebraska monastery wrote the following when he had grown older:
“If I had my life to live over again, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take more trips. I would be crazier. I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. If I had to do it over again I would go places, do things, and travel lighter. If I had my life to live over I would start barefooted earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would ride on more merry-go-rounds. I'd pick more daisies."

I believe this friar had a good handle on the simple fact that we are not to be TOO serious in this life. We are not to go around with long faces, afraid to smile because Christians are to be sober.

I sat under a pastor in Illinois that had it right. He stepped into the pulpit, looked around over the congregation before him, and said "We are Christians! As Christians, we are preserved! Looking over these pews, I have to tell you that most of you look pickled!"

In the Old Testament we find thirteen Hebrew roots, found in twenty-seven different words, which are used primarily for some aspect of joy or joyful participation in religious worship!

Psalm 5:11-12 (KJV);
“But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”

On several occasions since I have been saved, I have had someone address me in the middle of some joke or frivolity which I am enjoying very much and say “A Christian should not be carrying on like that!”
My response has always been “Jesus saved me, he didn't kill me!"

We are to be serious in our faith, but we are to be joyful in it as well, as we are in every aspect of our lives.

May God bless each one of you, and as Krogan says, keep Him in the PILOT'S seat, not the other one - -