The 31st--Issue #5

Welcome everyone to this fifth issue of The 31st! For those of you who don't remember, The 31st is a regular column on my blog that appears on every 31st day of a month that has a 31st day! Lately--especially in the last week or so, bald eagles have been on my mind. That's probably because of the live eagle cam that our family discovered...but anyway, here's some cool facts on America's national mascot!

• The Continental Congress of the United States chose the bald eagle for their new country's mascot on June 20, 1782.
• Bald eagles mate for life, and can often live for 20-30 years. 
• Bald eagles aren't really bald; but until several years old, the baby eaglets don't have that white plumage.
• Bald eagles can glide at speeds of up to 43 mph, and have been clocked diving at 99 mph!
• Bald eagles can fly at altitudes of 10,000 feet, and have been known to have at least 7,000 feathers. 
• At one time the birds were almost extinct, but now thanks to human efforts they have made a terrific comeback. 
• Female bald eagles can have a wingspan of up to 90 inches, while their mates may only reach 85 inches. A female's body length can be up to 37 inches, while the male may reach 34 inches.   
• This post is the SEVENTH HUNDREDTH POST (#700) published on this blog in just five years!! (OK, so that's not about eagles, but I just had to say it! ;D)

Well there's your trivia for this time! See you in May!

~Photobug

Two Greats & A Grand, Down the Line (Part 3)

What’s happening: Asa king of Judah is a good king. Unlike kings before him, he tears down foreign idols and altars and instead reinstates/revives the worship of the one true God. Asa goes as far as calling all of Judah—and some from Israel—to Jerusalem where they all take a solemn oath to obey and follow the Lord their God (the one true God) all the days of their lives.

In the course of time the kingdom of Judah was once again attacked. The invaders were the next-door country of Israel, and they had seized a key city (Ramah) just five miles away from Jerusalem. By fortifying Ramah, Baasha king of Israel had made sure that no one would enter or leave the kingdom of Judah.

Asa was in one big figurative pit. What to do? Well, Asa decided to go make a treaty with the king of Aram, who rules in Damascus. Damascus is just north of the kingdom of Israel. The agreement basically stated that the king of Aram would invade Israel on behalf of Judah, for a pricey sum of much gold and silver. The logic was that if the king of Aram attacked the king of Israel, the king of Israel would stop bottlenecking Judah and go fight the king of Aram. Then in a much-needed breather Asa and his men would go collect the building supplies at Ramah and make sure that this kind of thing would never happen again!

When I first read about the plan (check out 2 Chronicles 16), I thought it sounded pretty logical. I mean, kings were making treaties and fighting other nations all the time; what’s different about this one? So I’m sure you can understand my amazement as I read 2 Chronicles 16:7-9:

“At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushite and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”

I had to think about this one for a while. Hadn’t Asa made a good move? It sure seemed logical to me! But then I read this passage a few more times, and a light popped in my head. Years and years ago, at the very start of his reign, Asa had been challenged by the Cushites. They outnumbered him ten million to one, yet he still won the battle because he had trusted in God. Now, the prophet was saying to Asa, why didn’t you trust God now?

Good point.

So once I finally wrapped my brain around Hanani’s message, I kept on reading. I fully expected that Asa-good-king-of-Judah would repent like David his predecessor did many years previous to the prophet Nathan. But no. I was quite surprised and indeed shocked as I kept on reading, particularly verse 10:

“Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.”

Huh?!? Good king Asa putting this prophet in prison? Brutally oppressing his people? This surely didn’t sound like the Asa I had gotten to know over the last few chapters.

As I have seriously pondered this story, I have only been able to come to one conclusion, that being that in the interlude of Asa’s reign—which the Bible doesn’t talk about—Asa must have gotten a bit self-reliant. He might have forgotten where victory truly comes from, and in Whom we need to trust. That’s honestly the only explanation that I can come up with; how else would a grand king like Asa go from doing good one second to doing bad the next? I really don’t think that it happened overnight. It was those small, seemingly insignificant daily decisions that brought about this sad change of character.

The good news, however, is this: the same small, seemingly insignificant daily decisions that brought Asa down can bring us up. With God’s help, we can choose to make the good decisions, even if they are only “small” daily ones. As you can see in the story of Asa, those “small” decisions weren’t too small after all!

The end of Asa’s life is a very sad tale. Three years after his bout with the prophet, Asa developed a nasty foot disease. He was still so angry at God—still holding onto that grudge—that he refused to call on God for help, even when his disease became quite severe. Two years later, Asa died.

There are many lessons that we can learn from this descendant of David. We can learn from the good things he did in his life, and that can encourage us to tear down the foreign “idols” and “altars” in our own lives. In like manner, we can take heart from Asa’s battle with the Cushites and realize that with God on our side, we can never lose.

But we can also mark and remember the not-so-good actions of Asa. How towards the end of his life he relied not on God, but on himself and other men. And how when God reproved him he wouldn’t repent. In conclusion, let me share with you a favorite proverb of mine. It’s found in Proverbs 2:7-8.

“[God] holds success in store for the upright, 
   he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 
  for he guards the course of the just 
   and protects the way of his faithful ones.”

Alcoa Eagle Cam!

Today at church, a really nice lady--one of the other church janitors, in fact--gave me a piece of paper with "Alcoa Eagle Cam at Davenport Works" written on it. She told me to Google it...so I did, as soon as I got home! What I found was really cool. It is a live cam of two bald eagles in Davenport, Iowa! They have been living in Davenport for the past three years or so, and since 2010 the eagles (named "Liberty" & "Justice") have raised a family there, in a nest 80-85 feet above the ground.

Since the pair started raising a family, Alcoa (whoever they are, probably a company or something) has installed an "Eaglecam" which streams live video of the nest (and the eagles when they are in the nest, which is most of the time) 24/7, at least in the exciting part of the year when Liberty & Justice are raising a family. The eggs (three this year) were laid last month, and this month's big thing is the hatching of the eggs. According to the blog (at the link which I'll give you in a minute), two of the eggs have already hatched. The third was being hatched today! I got on board and found the live cam at around lunchtime today, but could see no baby birds yet. I wasn't surprised though, as the process probably takes a long time.

I come upstairs and tell my sister and mother about it. Alison--my sister--gets real excited, and very enthusiastically asks to watch the eagles, hoping to watch the actual hatching. To be honest I didn't offer her much hope, but I got the Internet up for her anyway. Well, about ten minutes later, we were both very privileged to watch the final baby bald eagle hatch from its' egg!!! I thought that was really really cool, I've certainly never seen a bald eagle--much less one hatching--up so close.

You can see the newly hatched baby right above the big stick...Mother "Liberty"
is watching over her brood proudly!

So that's what we've been doing this afternoon. It's fun to watch Liberty & Justice feed and care for their brood, and to hear the babies' little chirps! Occasionally you can hear geese flying overhead as well. The hatching isn't the only exciting thing, however; the eaglets grow quickly and I am told will fledge around late May or early June. So go head over to the link below, and watch America's icon in family life up close! I'll tell ya though, it's quite addicting! :D

http://www.alcoa.com/locations/usa_davenport/en/info_page/eaglecam.asp 

~Photobug

Two Greats & A Grand, Down the Line (Part 2)

What's happening: Good King Asa rules the kingdom of Judah. He tears down all the idols to other detestable false "gods", and embarks on a big campaign to get Judah back to worshiping the one true God. When faced in battle by an army many times his size, Asa trusts God. God delievers, and the tiny army of Judah defeats the very large army! God then sends his prophet Azariah son of Oded to encourage Asa and all of Judah. 

Greatly encouraged by Azariah’s words, Asa continued his campaign against false worship in Judah. He continued to tear down the repulsive altars and crush the detestable Asherah poles. Moreover, the godly king repaired the true God’s temple, set the true God’s altar back in place, and reinstated worship of the true God.

To highlight all of this, Asa gathered all of Judah to Jerusalem to make a covenant with the Lord. Not only did the tribes of Judah and Benjamin show up, but also tribesman of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon. It’s natural that the countrymen of Judah—the tribes of Judah and Benjamin—would show up, but why Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon?

That’s where I think this story gets really cool. Let’s check out 2 Chronicles 15:9--

Then [Asa] assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who had settled among them, for large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

Is that neat or what? People living in the northern kingdom saw how crummy their own kings were, and how godly good King Asa was. So, secretly—I’m sure that this was illegal—they crossed the border and settled in the southern kingdom, Judah. And evidently it wasn’t just a few from the northern kingdom who did this. There were large numbers!

Let’s let the Bible continue narrate the story:

They assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. At that time they sacrificed to the LORD seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from the plunder they had brought back. They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. All who would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. They took an oath to the LORD with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. ~2 Chronicles 15:10-14

So with great rejoicing, God’s people remember and re-commit themselves once again to God. That’s a wonderful thing to do, you know. It seems that I hear a lot that we need to commit our lives to God. Well we do, and I’m not downplaying that! However, that’s not enough. We need to re-commit our lives to God, and keep doing that each day.  

I think one of the key ideas is found in verse 14, which I’ll share with you in a minute. Remember what Azariah the prophet said? Look back a few verses in 2 Chronicles 15 and you’ll see it. Part of Azariah’s commendation went something like this:

“If you seek [God], he will be found by you…” (verse 2)

Encouraged by that, Asa and all of Judah, plus some from Israel, came to Jerusalem and re-dedicated themselves to God. And so I just love how verse 15 sums it all up:

“All Judah…sought God eagerly, and he was found by them.”

God can still be found by you! He is still there and more than willing. If we confess our sins and re-commit our lives to Him, in other words if we seek Him, He will be found by us. Isn’t that great news?

Here’s another lesson, pertaining to the people of Israel migrating over to Judah: Whether we think so or not, people are watching us. Watching us to see what we do, see how we talk, or more importantly what we don’t do or don’t say. Even if we don’t say a word, we can still be good witnesses for God. Today, take a good long, deep look at your life. What kind of witness are you?

Next week we’ll conclude our study on Asa. Be sure to come back then to read the final installment!

Two Greats & A Grand, Down the Line (Part 1)

Well, a couple weeks ago, I was once again sitting in my Sabbath School discussing the lesson study with my peers. Our subject this time was Asa, king of Judah. I felt that there were so many good lessons to be learned that I just had to share the story with all of you…so here goes!

Don’t know who Asa is? No worries. Let’s do a little genealogy here. You know who David was, right? Good. David begat Solomon, and Solomon begat Rehoboam (remember, we talked about him last week!). Rehoboam then begat a really bad king named Abijah, who only ruled Judah for three years. And….(drum roll here!) Abijah begat Asa. So there you go. David was Asa’s great-great-grandfather!

One of the really cool things about Asa is that for the most part, he is remembered for doing good things. Many kings totally defied God, and that trend just kept continuing. But not with Asa. When he became king, he vowed to do what God said. And that wasn’t an easy choice. By the time Asa ascended the throne, Judah was one sad nation. Idols and altars dotted the countryside, all dedicated to foreign heathen gods. Male and female prostitutes were quite prevalent, and the whole country was in a mess. Asa had one big job on his hands.  

But with God’s help, Asa successfully made sweeping reforms in Judah. I think 2 Chronicles 14:3-7 says it best:

^“3 He [Asa] removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.^[a] 4 He commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands. ⁵ He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him. ⁶ He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the LORD gave him rest.

⁷ “Let us build up these towns,” he said to Judah, “and put walls around them, with towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the LORD our God; we sought him and he has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.”

So there you go. Asa was doing all that he could to follow God’s will and to restore the country’s allegiance to the one true God. One thing that I’d like to point out is what Asa did when God gave him peace from his enemies. During that time, Asa didn’t just sit back, relax, and take a nap. He constructively used the peacetime that he had and built up Judah. In other words, he prepared for the attack which he was sure would come at some point. Asa doing all that reminds me of a favorite proverb:

“Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.” ~Proverbs 10:4

Asa had used his peacetime well, and now it was time for all to see just how well prepared Asa was.  

Zearah the Cuhite marched against Judah, and came as far as Mareshah. (within twenty-five miles of Jerusalem). Asa and his army marched out to Mareshah to meet the invading force. As Asa looked over the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of soldiers in Zerah’s army, he must have been a little afraid. After all, Asa only had 580,000 soldiers! That was true, but Asa had a secret weapon that Zerah didn’t: God. So as Asa is contemplating this whole situation, he does exactly the right thing. Let’s read about it in 2 Chronicles 14:11—

“Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, “LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. LORD, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.””

Wow. That’s powerful stuff! And that’s not just your generic prayer of “and please dear Jesus keep me safe today”! Asa is calling on God for some big-time assistance, and from the prayer, it seems pretty obvious that Asa is expecting God to deliver. What I read between the lines is that Asa had a very close and intimate relationship with God. He wasn’t just praying to God as a last resort; he had made God first in everything else he did and this time wasn’t any different.

The LORD struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled, and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. Such a great number of Cushites fell that they could not recover; they were crushed before the LORD and his forces. The men of Judah carried off a large amount of plunder. (v. 12-13)

God delivered. Big-time. I feel like this is a prime example of how God’s tiny minority won the day…with His help. God loves to help us in situations like this, but too often we forget to ask. Or we only remember to ask for divine intervention as a last resort. That’s not how God wants it to be. He is more than willing—in fact, eager—to help us win the battles we face in our lives, but we must do our part, too. We must in peacetime “build up the walls”, and get ready for the battle that’s looming ahead. We must now cultivate that personal and intimate relationship with God, so when the hard times come we have Someone to turn too.

In conclusion, let’s see what God’s prophet Azariah son of Oded had to say to Asa and all of Judah after they returned triumphant from battle:

“[Azariah] went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you…But in [Israel’s] distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them…But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage.” ~2 Chronicles 15:2, 4, 7, 8

What encouraging words! And they are still true today. If we seek God today, we will still find him. And when He is our God, He will still fight for us in our battles. So be strong and don’t give up! Take courage! If God is for us, who can be against us?

Next week we’ll be continuing our discussion on Asa. Come back then!

Lessons from the Life of Solomon's Successor, Part 2

What's happening: Rehoboam, Solomon's son, becomes king. The people ask him to lower the taxes, but the new king raises them instead. This bad decision costs him ten out of the twelve tribes of Israel.

What made Rehoboam make such a bad decision? Why was he so focused on selfish desires, instead of the good of the kingdom? So what made him listen to his peers instead of his elders? These are all very good questions, and before I go any farther, I’d like to share a quote from one of my favorite books, Prophets and Kings. Prophets and Kings is a wonderful book, discussing the Bible stories all the way from Solomon to Nehemiah.

Here’s the quote:

Although Solomon had longed to prepare the mind of Rehoboam, his chosen successor, to meet with wisdom the crisis foretold by the prophet of God, he had never been able to exert a strong molding influence for good over the mind of his son, whose early training had been so grossly neglected. Rehoboam had received from his mother, an Ammonitess, the stamp of a vacillating character. At times he endeavored to serve God and was granted a measure of prosperity; but he was not steadfast, and at last he yielded to the influences for evil that had surrounded him from infancy. In the mistakes of Rehoboam's life and in his final apostasy is revealed the fearful result of Solomon's union with idolatrous women. (Prophets & Kings, p. 88)

So the bottom line is, Solomon didn’t give as much attention to Rehoboam’s upbringing as he should have. While Israel’s greatest king was chasing after gold, chariots, and idolatrous foreign women, he neglected being the father to Rehoboam that he needed to be. And so what happened? Rehoboam certainly wasn’t instructed in the ways of the Lord! His mother, according to 1 Kings 14:21, was an Ammonitess. You think she instructed her son in the ways of the true God? I seem to remember that the Ammonites served a false god named Molech, who quite consistently demanded live baby sacrifices to be appeased.

So this is the training that Israel’s next king got. Remember that Bible verse that goes like, “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it”? I’ve always liked to think about that verse in the positive way, but the case of Rehoboam is a perfect example of how this verse works in a negative way. The story really hits home, I feel, on how important godly parents are. Because if there are godly parents in the home, teaching and coaching their children to love the Lord, there is a good chance that the children will grow up and continue loving the Lord. However, the opposite is also true. If there are idolatrous or absent parents…

Rehoboam—and the rending of the kingdom—was just the start of the consequences of Solomon not spending enough time training his son. “By beholding we are changed”, and Rehoboam certainly beheld his father. For a few years of his reign Rehoboam did follow the Lord, and God blessed him then. But the bad times most certainly outweighed the good. Most of the time, Rehoboam followed his father’s evil practices. Solomon’s son, too, was idolatrous. Solomon’s son, too, had multiple wives (according to 2 Chronicles 11:21, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines). Solomon! The wisest guy ever to live on earth! And his son turns away from the True God of Heaven.

I’d like to share some more quotes, both a Bible text and another passage from Prophets and Kings. First the Bible verse:

“After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord…[Rehoboam] did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord.” ~2 Chronicles 12:1, 14

“How sad, how filled with significance, the words, "And all Israel with him"! The people whom God had chosen to stand as a light to the surrounding nations were turning from their Source of strength and seeking to become like the nations about them. As with Solomon, so with Rehoboam--the influence of wrong example led many astray. And as with them, so to a greater or less degree is it today with everyone who gives himself up to work evil--the influence of wrongdoing is not confined to the doer. No man liveth unto himself. None perish alone in their iniquity. Every life is a light that brightens and cheers the pathway of others, or a dark and desolating influence that tends toward despair and ruin. We lead others either upward to happiness and immortal life, or downward to sorrow and eternal death. And if by our deeds we strengthen or force into activity the evil powers of those around us, we share their sin.” (Prophets & Kings, p. 94)

Whether we like to think about it this way or not, it is true: no man is an island. Whatever we do or say, those actions don’t just affect ourselves. They affect the people around us, either for good or bad. I think we can really see how this happened in the lives of Solomon and Rehoboam. Solomon was idolatrous and obsessed with foreign women. Guess what Rehoboam was obsessed with? And I doubt that Rehoboam changed the cycle and spent much time with his son, Abijah. According to 1 Kings 15:3,

“[Abijah] committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God”

But back to Rehoboam. I’d like to take a closer look at 2 Chronicles 12:14—

“[Rehoboam] did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord.”

Why did he do evil? Because, in so many words, he was riding the fence. He wasn’t for the Lord necessarily, but he wasn’t against idolatry either. He had not set his heart on doing either one, and in that condition it was very easy for Satan to bring Rehoboam into idolatry.

Now I want to throw this question back at you: do you have year heart set on seeking the Lord? On cultivating a vibrant, personal relationship with Him each day? Because if you aren’t purposely doing seeking the Lord, it won’t happen. (Just look at Rehoboam!)

The story of Rehoboam, and all his falls and mistakes, is placed in the Bible for a reason. I wholeheartedly believe that that reason is so that we can learn from his mistakes, and not make those blunders ourselves. And now the responsibility is on our shoulders—will I—will you—make God a first priority in our lives, and follow His leading? Do what He wants us to do?

Lessons from the Life of Solomon's Successor, Part 1

Recently I was privileged to take part in a discussion that my Sabbath School had a while back. Every week we gather to sing songs, praise God, and study His Word. This particular week’s focus was the story of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. There were so many good points that we talked about that I decided that I definitely needed to share them with you!

Here’s the setup: Solomon the king of Israel is getting pretty old. He’s going to die soon, so right before he dies Solomon anoints his son Rehoboam as king over all Israel. Now Rehoboam has a lot of choices to make. David, his grandfather, was a really good king. Solomon, his father, was a fairly good king too, although in the middle of his life Solomon got a bit carried away with idolatry and copious amounts of foreign women. So Rehoboam has both good and bad examples to look to.           

Very soon Rehoboam had a chance to show which kind of a king he would be. Right after Solomon died, a group of Israelites came to Rehoboam, and kindly asked him to lower the taxes. Solomon had exerted terribly harsh laws, way overtaxing the people. So the people of Israel had good reason to ask Rehoboam to lower the taxes, and make living at least a little more bearable.

Rehoboam listens, and tell them, “Come back in three days” (see 1 Kings 11:5). The new king of Israel then goes to his elders, the wise and aged men who had served his father, and asked them what to do. Here’s what the elders said:

“If today you will be a servant to theses people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.” (v. 7)

That was very good advice. In short, cement your subjects’ loyalty by lowering the taxes. By doing such, they will love you even more and be devoted to you forever. Even more tax money will come in!

Going to the elders for advice was a very good decision on the part of King Rehoboam. But, unfortunately, Rehoboam did not listen to his elders. Instead, he rejected the elders’ advice and went to see what his peers—the young men who had grown up with him—would say. Rehoboam’s peers finally said something that he wanted to hear—don’t lower the taxes, but raise them!

So when the group of Israelites came back to their king in three days, here are Rehoboam’s exact words:

“My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” (v. 14)

Now them’s fightin’ words! As you might suspect, those Israelites weren’t too happy. The word quickly got around, and the whole nation revolted. Rebelled.

“What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!” (v. 16)

And so the ten northern tribes of Israel split from Rehoboam, and set up shop with their own king, Jeroboam. Rehoboam kept the southern two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, and named the new country “Judah”. God’s once-unified nation had totally split in two, and all because of some sharp words.

Now this story has really got me thinking. Previously I had known about the nation of Israel splitting during Rehoboam’s reign, but I hadn’t known the reason why. Words really do build us up, or tear us down. I don’t think Rehoboam took into account the wise advice given in 1 Thessalonians 5:11—

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up”

Rehoboam did have good advice. The elders had given him wisdom, which if followed, would have maintained a united Israel for years. But he didn’t want to do what was right—he wanted to do what he wanted.

While there are many important lessons to be learned from the life of Rehoboam (we’ll discuss more next week), I think there’s an important one right here. Who did Rehoboam listen to? What did he do? While he did listen to his wise elders, he rejected their advice. Instead, he followed the counsel of the foolish young men that he had grown up with.

What can we learn from his story? I think that the lesson is obvious. We need to listen to, and seek advice from, wise and godly people. People that will encourage us to do right, and tell us the things we need to hear even if we don’t like it. In the same vein we need to choose our friends wisely, for “by beholding we are changed”. Who do you hang around? Who do you seek advice from? Pray today that you can surround yourself with godly people in your life.