A crisp twenty dollar bill feels good in our hands these days. Right after church a family handed me one as payment on their piano account and I was pleased to get it as I needed the money to buy lunch and take my grandson to a concert that afternoon. There was a group of us standing around in the lobby after church when the bill was passed to me- all witnesses I had the money- yet five minutes later I couldn’t find it! Everyone got into the search. There were 2 bags of clothes I had been looking at someone grabbed saying it was probably in there. The children searched under tables and chairs. A friend took my purse to go through. I checked and rechecked all my pockets where the couple who gave me the money thought they saw me put it. When after all this it still didn’t appear I went into the restroom and took off my pants and shook them to make sure it hadn’t fallen somewhere unawares! I came back out flustered and my son-in law pulled out his wallet and asked it anyone had change for a twenty- he would give me ten saying so sweetly what was his was at least half mine! Of course I refused. The pastor’s wife called down to the church office and asked her husband if they had picked a twenty dollar bill off the floor on the way to count the offering! Then she looked at me and said, “…Trash?” I remembered throwing something away. She opened the can and there it was right on top. I am still being called so wealthy I throw money away!

Funny as this story may be, I can’t afford to be careless. Careless: inattentive, negligent.  As Planet Carol orbits into a second year I am considering Peter’s words to us:

“…be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure…I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have! I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live...”

2 Peter 1: 11a-12a NIV

1. I for one thank God for friends who will help when I mess up!

2. I plan to listen to friends who love me and know the Lord. I need their constant reminders of the truth of God’s love and purpose for my life.

3. I will laugh with those friends when they catch me acting out a Lucille Ball episode and lighten up knowing I am not alone!