{"id":3445,"date":"2019-05-06T13:16:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T18:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=3445"},"modified":"2019-05-06T13:16:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T18:16:04","slug":"the-empty-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/06\/the-empty-box\/","title":{"rendered":"The Empty Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is for you, I heard him say\u2026<\/h6>\n
It was an unexpected gift\u2026<\/h6>\n
Thank you, I said, but why, it\u2019s not my birthday.<\/h6>\n
Just open it and you will see, he turned and slowly walked away\u2026<\/h6>\n
I opened it curiously, wide-eyed and confused, I found it was empty.<\/h6>\n
I looked up and before I could inquire as to why,<\/h6>\n
I saw tears of contentment in his eyes\u2026<\/h6>\n
He turned, waved his hand, and said, soon you\u2019ll understand\u2026<\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
Holding the empty box I had no choice<\/h6>\n
So, I waited, and then, I heard this still small voice begin<\/h6>\n
The little box is empty, but only if you remain<\/em><\/h6>\n
Fixed on the world and its material gain<\/em><\/h6>\n
You can put within it many things\u2026<\/em><\/h6>\n
Tares will grow in the garden, weeds will multiply<\/em><\/h6>\n
When you get distracted and focus on what you, want, in life<\/em><\/h6>\n
The gift of tears will overflow; there will be lots of troubles and sorrow\u2026<\/em><\/h6>\n
Oh your box can have valuable trinkets, gold, money, and fame\u2026<\/em><\/h6>\n
You can fill it with toys and cars and homes and live your life in vain<\/em><\/h6>\n
The box will still remain\u2026empty\u2026<\/em><\/h6>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/h6>\n
I listened to His words and pondered them with great care<\/h6>\n
Then I put the box in my pocket to keep it safe there\u2026<\/h6>\n
Then I prayed\u2026<\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
Lord,<\/h6>\n
Fill this empty box with your gift of love to share<\/h6>\n
Fill it with peace that I can give to others who are tormented with cares\u2026<\/h6>\n
Let me sow seeds of kindness, in this empty box please fill<\/h6>\n
Giving away hope, and in your presence, let me be still\u2026<\/h6>\n
And when I give this empty box to someone else one day\u2026<\/h6>\n
Let it be full of blessings I received along the way\u2026<\/h6>\n
No longer, an empty box, but overflowing let them find\u2026<\/h6>\n
Gifts from heaven, of the rarest kind\u2026<\/h6>\n
Wisdom, to build their house on, pure and strong<\/h6>\n
Truth, to set them free, saved by thee<\/h6>\n
Love, that\u2019s without measure<\/h6>\n
A crown of life to treasure\u2026<\/h6>\n
Fill the empty box Lord with desires to be\u2026<\/h6>\n
Found worthy, and grateful to believe\u2026<\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
Deciding what to put inside the box that\u2019s empty\u2026<\/h6>\n
Will be your greatest accomplishment<\/h6>\n
A heart that\u2019s dark and empty will grow darker still<\/h6>\n
But a heart that\u2019s loved and cherished will,<\/h6>\n
Be a life that\u2019s fulfilled!<\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
Standing in the throne room where God\u2019s presence dwells<\/h6>\n
He handed me a box that was filled with melodious bells\u2026<\/h6>\n
They were souls, for His kingdom; each name written down<\/h6>\n
The empty box given to me long, long, ago\u2026I found\u2026<\/h6>\n
This was more valuable than rubies or gold<\/h6>\n
Priceless faces, I now behold<\/h6>\n
My empty box was laid down; I was given a jeweled crown<\/h6>\n
A new box was filled to overflowing; there were no more tears,<\/h6>\n
No hopelessness, no anger, no sickness, no anxiety, no fear\u2026<\/h6>\n
I opened the box and discovered\u2026<\/h6>\n
All I had hoped for, lived for, grieved for, prayed for,<\/h6>\n
Restored\u2026<\/h6>\n
I found home!<\/h6>\n
~Marla Shaw O\u2019Neill May 6, 2019<\/h6>\n
Jesus said to her, <\/em>\u201cI am<\/em> the resurrection and the life.<\/em> He who believes in Me, though he may<\/em> die, he shall live.<\/em> And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?\u201d<\/em> John<\/strong> 11:25-26<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is for you, I heard him say\u2026 It was an unexpected gift\u2026 Thank you, I said, but why, it\u2019s not my birthday. Just open it and you will see, he turned and slowly walked away\u2026 I opened it curiously, wide-eyed and confused, I found it was empty. I looked up and before I could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-Tz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3447,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions\/3447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}