urge

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Right Now My Urge To Buy Is Great

There are certain times of the year that I’m more inclined to buy things.

buy, change purse

Right around this time of year is one of them. I don’t know what it is … maybe the ads that are stacked on our kitchen table? 

Maybe it’s the Labour Day sales, or just something in the air that begs me to get something new, something fresh, something I don’t really need. Whatever it is, it sure hit me this morning. 

At breakfast I was greeted with a stack of ads, specifically from the stores that I might shop at. I think Lily pulled all the right flyers and put them by my place at the table. … Hey, maybe she’s the real reason I’m in a buying mood!

I’m not that much of a shopper – that’s to say that I don’t go shopping all that often. I can’t remember the last time I walked through the local mall in our town. 

But when I get a hankering, sometimes it’s hard to stop me. 

I remember when I was about eight and my brother, John, was six. We had never gone to the neighbourhood strip mall by ourselves but we campaigned our mom to let us go on our own.

The mall was about a ten minute walk away … maybe fifteen for us because our legs were shorter back then.

We didn’t have anything in particular that we wanted to buy. We just wanted to get some candy and be all independent-like.

After much pleading and begging, my mom said we could go. We were thrilled and excited to be able to do it.

We headed for our room and our respective piggy banks. 

We needed to take some money, but how much money did you really need in order to buy cent candy from a variety store back in 1964? 

We were definitely not going to take along our piggy banks made of cheap china, so we got out our change purses. We didn’t have wallets back then because most of the money we had were coins. 

We opened the bottoms of our banks and started to fill our change purses with coins. 

I’m not sure we had a clear concept of what money was worth. Our intent was to cram into those purses as much money from our banks as we possibly could. 

We were making a run for the border on this trip and we needed every cent we had.

About the time that we were attempting to zip up the purses – that were so full of coins we couldn’t actually pull the zippers across to close them – our mom walked in.

It was like we were caught red-handed. 

She immediately realized that we would have no restraint and promptly called off the trip to the mall.

There were some tears and pleading after that. But mom knew we would not restrain ourselves. 

… I guess with no mom around this weekend and the urge to spend, I’m going to have to restrain myself.

Here’s the thing:  There are times when temptation is greater than at other times. Maybe it’s just the season that brings it out in you. The temptation to sin can seem all encompassing. Knowing when those temptations come is one thing; knowing the reason why you are tempted and purposely setting up roadblocks against them is another. But having restraint is also something you need to employ against temptation. Put up some resistance and call on God. He will come alongside and help you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to resist right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I Had An Urge I Could Not Let Go Of

I think we all have urges to do something for others. They’re not “all the time” urges, and they’re certainly not “anyone” urges, but we get the urge at times to help someone out.

It might be someone you don’t know, or maybe a neighbour. It could be some cause that stirs you to do something.

It might happen often, or those times may be few and far between.

But when it happens, we can’t help but do something; the urge is overwhelming and we have to act.

I remember years ago starting out on our first day of vacation. We had our van loaded and we were towing our travel trailer to our vacation spot.

We probably weren’t more than twenty minutes on the highway when I saw smoke in my side mirror. I quickly pulled over and found that one of the trailer tires was shredded to bits.

We were on the side of a major highway; it was early morning with people in a hurry to get to work. You could feel the trailer sway when the cars and especially the trucks whipped by.

I started to change the tire on the side of the road and probably was no more than five minutes in and a guy from our church pulled up behind me to help.

He had seen it all, driven to the next exit, turned around and, in order to get to us on the divided highway, drove back past us in the opposite lanes, turned around at the closest exit and came to help.

Amazing! That’s that urge that causes us to do something for others; when everyone else is flying by, we have the urge to do something.

This week I got to spend one night at both my daughter’s and son’s places.

There is something about helping out your kids that you can’t resist doing, even though they are on their own, and have jobs to support themselves.

I found myself looking for ways to help out. What did they need? What could I do to give them a hand?

My daughter needed to get a few groceries the night I stayed with her, and though I added a few things of my own to the basket, I had this urge to pay for it all.

She’s my daughter; I’ve been providing for her her whole life and it’s difficult to turn that off now that she’s an adult.

The next night I had dinner with my son and, of course, I paid for dinner. But back at his place I noticed there were a few things he needed. Before I left in the morning I hit up a hardware store and Walmart and got him set up.

These were all things they could have done themselves but I had this urge in me to help.

It happens sometimes; it happens with family and sometimes with complete strangers.

The bottom line is those urges make a real difference to people. We should never ignore them.

Here’s the thing: After God created people, it took no time before we rejected Him for our selfish wants and desires … and humanity has been on that path ever since. Yet even though we rejected Him, God had the urge to help us, to bring us back to Him. We call that love. He acted on that urge by sending His Son, Jesus, to die for our rejection of Him – our sin. That urge not only can help us now, it can help us for eternity. Aren’t you glad God acted on His urge to do something for others? Reflect on that.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When was the last time you acted on the urge to do something for others? Leave your comments below.