I was born and raised in the South and I am proud of it!  I am not one bit ashamed to admit that I love Grits!  Being raised in the South has many advantages!  One of the greatest advantages is that we have words in our vocabulary that explain things with one word that takes folks from other parts of the country to explain with several!  While some of these words have never found their way into Mr. Webster’s fine, but limited volume, they have and continue to be of great importance to communicating life changing truth!

One of the words that you tend to hear a lot around the south is “y’all!”  The word “Y’all” is more than likely referring to more than one and is usually talking about a group of people that have something in common!  We might offer an invitation that says:  “Y’all come on over to the house and we will break out some Moon Pies and RC Cola!”  Which means:  More than one person is going to have a good afternoon!

I think Jesus may have been raised in the Southern part of Nazareth, because He had a lot to say about “y’all”!  He wanted everybody to be together, unified and as one!  Many of the instructions that Jesus gave have been translated as “you” (singular), but if you look at the original languages, many times you will find that He is giving instructions not to an individual, but to a group “you all” (plural).  The truth is Jesus was very much into us all coming together as y’all to be blessed by Him!

Just think what Jesus could do and would do if we became “y’all”!

If it is true that you can’t focus on everything and clearly this is true!  What do I need to focus on?  This is most likely different for every person, depending on where you are and what time of life you find yourself in.  I do think that there are some things worthy of our focus, no matter where we are or what time of life we happen to be living in.  We need to focus on finances, family and friends and faith!

Finances are important because the world we live in is driven by money.  This should not be the case, but it is and I see very little that will change that.  The truth is:  We will either fix our finances or our finances will fix us!  Much of the turmoil and frustration of life comes from a lack of finances.  You can’t live for very long on what you don’t have!  So, we must learn and discipline ourselves to live on what we do have!  I believe that it is God’s desire to bless each one of us and allow each one of us to live a life that blesses others!  Focus on your finances by knowing what is coming in and controlling what is going out!

Family And Friends!  The truth is:  “You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them!”  We all need to spend more time thinking about who we are and what we need to do to be a better family member and friend and less time thinking about what someone else needs to do.  Focus on yourself and the role that you need to fulfill and it might just amaze you at how much better your relationships will be.  Remember:  God has given us each other for a reason!

Faith!  Everything is built upon what you believe!  Belief is so much more important than most of us are willing to give it credit for!  What do you believe and what difference is your belief making in the way that you are living your life?   If we will take some time to focus on God and His will for our lives, we will experience some miracles that cannot be explained!

Fix your focus this week and enjoy God’s work!

You Can’t Focus On Everything!  If you stop and think about it for just a minute – it is not even possible, so why do we try?  Trying to focus on everything only causes us to get distracted.  And when we are distracted we tend to miss the main thing, the important thing, the thing that really matters!  The main thing is where our blessings flow, so we must be extra careful to make sure that we don’t miss out!  There are a lot of good things, but good is not good enough, when you are desiring God’s best!

You can’t focus on everything because you will fizzle out!  There is almost nothing that I can think of that I hate worse than a dead, without carbonation, stale soft drink.  God did not create us to focus on everything and when we try, we get out of His created purpose and mess ourselves up.  God gives each one of us gifts for focus.  We all have different gifts, so that when I use mine, it blesses me and you and when you use yours, it blesses you and me, and we get to take care of, minister to and grow each other!  When we each do our part – it all comes together to work for His glory and our blessing!  Remember a fractured focus leads to a fizzled and frustrated life!

You can’t focus on everything because you will miss opportunity!  God gives us beautiful and amazing opportunities to experience Him everyday.  It is these experiences that allow us the opportunity to join Him in doing the supernatural.  We tend to miss God, not because He isn’t working, but because we are not paying attention!  Focus please!