Smoke Detectors

    
Smoke detectors in a home are just about a given anymore. I know when I was still at Union Heights Elementary School during a grade level presentation a local firefighter explained to our students that they actually give out smoke detectors to families that don't have detectors in their home. Without this early alert system, the inevitable is a high risk, but with it homes are protected and lives are literally saved. You more than likely have heard the old saying, "where's there's smoke there's fire", that's why we don't install fire detectors, it would be too late if we waited to see the flames before taking action. Small, inexpensive, easy to install, and extremely low maintenance make investing in smoke detectors for our homes a virtual no-brainer.  Essential for our homes, smoke detectors could actually save us a wealth of strife and grief if only we had one installed in our frontal lobe. Unfortunately, Lowe's and Home Depot do not stock smoke detectors for our decision- making processes, but fortunately we do have a much better option that can provide us with a more effective alert system.
      In life the same principle figuratively applies about smoke and fire.  In most cases if something is starting to smoke it won't be long until we have a full-blown fire on our hands. Life is full of choices and decisions, that's a given. What drives the decision-making process is not exactly a given. Some of us just seem to make the same bad choices over and over, and over again. In other settings it isn't necessarily the fact that we make the same mistakes in rapid sequence, but instead it is more of what happens at the time a thought enters our mind. Wouldn't it be nice to have a bad idea detector in our head that could alert us before the smoke turns into a blazing fire?
     I would suggest that you do have a First Alert system at your disposal, but just as any brand of smoke detector requires batteries to be installed and then monitored regularly, our human smoke detectors must also have the right batteries installed and then charged on a regular basis. So how do you charge your body's smoke alarm system you ask? Well for me my guiding light for making the proper decisions in life and avoiding "fires" is found in my relationship with my Maker. Just knowing that God is real and placing our trust in Him provides each of us with a helper, “If you love me, you will keep my commands; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforting Counselor like me, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you forever.  The world cannot receive him, because it neither sees nor knows him. You know him, because he is staying with you and will be united with you." John 14:15-17 CJB. We can rely on God's Holy Spirit to be with us and guide us as we face those choices and decisions we face each day. Read His word, pray to our Heavenly Father, and seek Him through meditation and reflection.
      Your walk with God is definitely a difference maker in your life. None of us is going to get everything right and most certainly none of us is perfect in our decision-making history. The key is to connect with God and then keep those faith batteries charged, so that when smoke does appear in your life, you can easily rely on the One that can extinguish all smoke before it becomes a fire in your life!
Charge your batteries daily!
Coach Carter