• honest enough to admit all my shortcomings;
• brilliant enough to accept flattery without it making me arrogant;
• tall enough to tower above deceit;
• strong enough to treasure love;
• brave enough to welcome criticism;
• compassionate enough to understand human frailties;
• wise enough to recognize my mistakes;
• humble enough to appreciate greatness;
• staunch enough to stand by my friends;
• human enough to be thoughtful of my neighbor; and
• righteous enough to be devoted to the love of God.

1. If you must envy, envy the woman who hugged the feet of the eternal God, or envy the children He held in His arms.
2. If you must steal, steal more time away from your daily routine and spend it with Jesus.
3. If you must murder, work on crucifying the “old man” who lives inside each born-again believer.[Caution: The old reprobate is extremely hard to kill and does not tend to stay dead very long.]
4. If you must lie, tell the “old man” he can do as he pleases today.
5. If you must be a man of strife, put on the whole armor of God and remember that we war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places.
6. If you must “get high” be intoxicated with the Holy Spirit.
7. If you must fear, fear that within yourself which can cause you to fall.
8. If you must be angry, rage against those sin-weaknesses in yourself.
9. If you must covet, covet those things that be of God: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
10. If you must hate, hate the works of the flesh: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, etc.
11. If you must be overly ambitious, reach for a star: ” … To him who overcomes, I will give the Morning Star.” (Rev. 2:26, 28).
12. If you must be lazy, lie down in His green pastures and walk beside His still waters.
13. If you must be shameless, walk this earth boldly, having no shame of your King or His gospel.
14. If you must be gluttonous, open your mouth wide for God to fill. (Psalm 81:10)
15. If you must be stubborn, trust in the Lord and you’ll be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but which abides forever.
16. If you must be nosy, poke your nose into the gospel of Christ, which is something angels desire to look into. (I Peter 1:12)

The little girl’s father had just given her a silver dollar to put into her bank. She excitedly ran off to her room to “deposit” the coin.
However, in a few minutes she returned and handed the silver coin back to her father.

“Daddy,” she said sadly, “here’s your dollar back. I can’t get it into my bank.”

“Why not?” her concerned father asked.

“It’s too full,” she said, obviously disappointed.

Her father accompanied her back to her room and, sure enough, her bank was too full to accept even one more coin. It was filled with pennies!

It is so easy to fill our lives with “Pennies” and leave out the “first” things and big things of life.