Quick on My Toes

"Where did you get those cute shoes" I inquired? 
She responded "Bed, Bath and Beyond."
Shocked I repeated "Bed, Bath and Beyond."
She flippantly replied "Yeah that must be the beyond part of the store."
We laughed! "Wow your quick on your toes, did you just make that up?"


Most confidently she chuckled "Yeah". I had to laugh with her. I never thought of the "Beyond stuff" in that title.

How many times in my life do I hear a prayer, title or a bible verse and not focus on each word. A prayer in the end is just babbling to God; if I don't really know who I am praying to and what it is about. A prayer like "Our Father" is beautiful. The first part “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name”. Do I recognize and honor God as holy?

Suddenly as I grasped and focused on the beyond of Bed, Bath and Beyond title, I began to put it in spiritual terms; Here, Now and Beyond. The here and now is staples of every day but the beyond is the part I forget to focus on. It came to my mind that there are two spiritual ways to look at beyond.

One is eternity or my time after my death. Where will I go and why? How could I be living my life daily with the understanding of "eternal security with Jesus in heaven" or "Beyond"? The Our Father prayer goes on to say "Your Kingdom come." The eternal security I experience when I focus on the cross and Jesus second coming.

Secondly, the beyond is not more things I want or have. It is the need God grows in me to be in relationship with Him. The Lord's Prayer that asks “give me today my daily bread” which is the essential fruits of the Spirit that I need daily.

If I trust in the Lord with all my heart daily I can experience the "beyond" that the Lord freely wants to give me. I was "quick on my toes"; a pun intended by God as I went from shoes, to toes and "Beyond."

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:9b-13 NIV).

"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words" (Matthew 6:7 NIV).