Here are some questions that may help in our reflections those deliberate, thoughtful pauses that we need to create in the whirlwind of life.

• Where am I heading? ...in my job, my business, my family, my relationships...? Is where I am where I want to be? Is where I am bringing me to where I want to be?
• What am I doing now? Is it what I really want to do? Would I be very happy at the end of my life that I had done what I am doing now? Am I doing what I am doing because that's God's best for me, or am I just pleasing others...my spouse, my pastor, my friends, my family?
• Am I growing in my job? Am I growing my job? Am I doing dfferent and new things regularly that stretch my potential and myself, or am I just repeating the same old stuff that keeps me on a perpetual plateau?
• Am I growing in my relationship with God? Is He occupying a greater and greater part of my life, including my thoughts, my heart, my finances, my priorities, and my time? Am I growing in my knowledge of God? DO I know more about Him today than yesterday, not just mind-knowledge, but in heart and experience? Do I detect His hand in every incident of everyday? Am I seeking more and more of Him than the goodies in His hand?
• Am I growing in my marriage? Is it becoming better and fresher or is it degenerating into staleness and sluggishness? Am I taking my spouse for granted or am I more and more thankful that I have this person for my spouse? Are we sharing more or are we drifting further and further apart? Is the romance still alive or has life been reduced to grocery lists and children's needs?
• Am I growing in love? In patience and kindness? Am I becoming more calm and collected, or am I getting more touchy, demanding, and resentful? Do people matter than results to me? Do I care more about relationships than things? Do I think well of others or am I continually submerged by critical and unforgiving thoughts?
• Am I growing in faith? Do I believe God to provide, or have I succumbed to the worldly way of getting things? Am I walking by faith or by sight? Am I asking God for the impossible or has my God become too small to meet all my needs and desires?
• Are my children more and more blessed? What part am I playing in their lives? Are they learning the fear of the Lord from me, or do they see in me the image of Mammon? Are they better off because I am their parent, or are they limited because of my neglect? Do I know my children more today than yesterday? Are they sharing with me their secrets, hopes, dreams, problems, and heartaches? Am I spending quality time with them?

  As you reflect on the foregoing questions, think of ways you can make the necessary changes to improve yourself with God's help. Remember all things are possible, if you determine to achieve, seeking God's grace and strength.(Philippians 4:13).

  Be Encouraged.
  A.Othniel