Good advice from your mother –
Mom, and God.
Psalm 40:2 (NIV)
He lifted me . . . out of the mud and mire.
Psalm 24:3-4
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
. . . The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Listen up. Mom was right. 
“Sin has the devil for its father,
shame for its companion,
and death for its wages.”
Thomas Watson (1620-1686)
James 1:15 (NIV)
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin;
and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
You might want to skip out on that family reunion.
I had one of those days: horrible circumstances not my fault, terrible responses all my fault.
Me: Some days are like that, Lord.
God: Without me, my child, every day
would be a very bad day.
How good are you?
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
I’m not accusing you. But I’m not excusing you either.
Forgive me, Lord, for spending so much time trying to look good in this world, while giving nary a thought about how I’ll look in the next.
Matthew 6:10 (NIV)
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Life here on earth is just a dress rehearsal for the real thing in heaven.
C.S. Lewis offers this thought on dressing for heaven:
“Women sometimes have the problem of trying to judge by artificial light how a dress will look in daylight. That is very like the problem for all of us: to dress our souls not for the electric lights of the present world but for the daylight of the next.”
Dress up!
