Up Close and Personal

 When you want to take a real good look at a room or item, you view it from every possible angle. You may even use a tool, such as a magnifying glass or a microscope, to help you see something more clearly. At first glance, it may look okay. But, after careful inspection, you see details and cracks that may not be obvious at first. For those of you who may not know, I am a teacher. Last week was my first week back at work. During the first week, there is a lot of unpacking and cleaning that needs to be done in the classroom. In my unpacking, I had one particular crate that I had taken items out of. At the bottom of the crate, there was a small crack. Now the crack wasn't huge, but it was big enough to notice if you got closer to it. It was big enough that I didn't want to use it to put any items in. After all, that was the purpose of the crate. So, I put it in the hallway and labeled it as trash because I couldn't use it anymore. Just like that crate had to be inspected, our lives have to be inspected. We all have to take a good look at our lives. At first glance, that crate may have looked okay to someone walking by it in the hallway. But upon closer inspection, it was not okay. We all have areas in our lives that have cracks and places that have been broken. We need to find out what they are and acknowledge them. Some things need to be totally discarded out of our lives (like the crate), while others need to be fixed. We have to know the difference. In order to know the difference, we must pray and ask God for wisdom (James 1:5). Then, we need to stay alert and look up close and personal to see what's really going on. We can ask ourselves the question: Is it worth holding on to? Here's what I didn't say earlier: I have another crate that looks exactly like the one I had to get rid of and it's in good condition. I can use that to store things as needed. So I didn't need to hold on to the cracked one. If what we're holding on to and carrying is not helping us, we don't need to hold on to it. What have we let in the cracks of our heart? Take a close look and then decide what you will do. Action must be taken. We can't let it sit there if it's not useful. Yes, I probably could have set items that were light in it, but eventually if enough items were weighed down in it, the crack would have gotten bigger. I knew I had the other crate and other storage items in my classroom, so I was good. We have to know what we have. What's in our life? Who's in our life? How are we using what we have? Can we even use what we have? Let's examine the cracks of anxiety, doubt, low self-esteem, pride, negativity, disrespect and see how they can be dealt with and replaced with something healthy. On the other hand, let's take love, humility, peace, confidence and thankfulness and see how they can be seen in our lives. Let's remember to look at our life up close and personal every day. We have to make sure our heart is holding the right things and get help to let go of what we need to. We also need help in mending what we do keep. So..what do you say...It's time to get up close and personal!!