What do you call the machine that wakes you in the morning? I don't mean the personal name or how you refer to it, but what is it called?

An alarm clock !

Of all things to identify the thing that most of us wake up to in the morning! Good grief.  Do you know the definition for alarm?  A device for giving a warning of danger. Fear caused by the perception of imminent danger. A call to arms or summons to prepare to fight. As a noun it means fear, apprehension, terror, anxiety distress, panic.  As a verb it's defined as frighten, terrify, scare or distress.

Do you want your day to start like the definition suggests? With the alarm telling you to 'bear arms' because the enemy is coming? No doubt that the enemy is out there. Traffic jams with idiots who don't know how to drive, delays at airports, complainers and whiners, frustrations, and long lines just to name a few. Who knows what else lurks on the 'other side' of that alarm clock?

Why not rename the clock? What's wrong with a possibility clock? Or you are going to lose five pounds clock?  My personal favorite: You're not going to believe how incredible a day this is going to be clock (YNGTBHIADTIGTB).

Your clock that goes off shouldn't be a warning for the worst that can happen, but the best. I read somewhere that "this is the day the Lord has made, let's rejoice and be glad in it". And, "Give us this day our daily bread." Wouldn't one think if He made it He knows every day has possibilities for more victories than defeats? And daily means what it says. Today.

Todays are like my the pickup truck I drive.  It was built FORD tough to carry just 'one load at a time'. Not a dump truck or eighteen wheeler load but one just big enough for my truck. Days are like that. They're not weeks or years but one single day. Not any more, not any less. Just one load. Just one day. Today. Not yesterday, not tomorrow but today. That's it. 24 hours, one thousand four hundred and forty minutes, one sunrise, one sunset. That's it.

So tomorrow morning, when your opportunity clock goes off, jump out of bed with a grateful heart and look forward to the opportunities that await you. I like what my friend, Max Lucado, suggested.  The next time you are mired in a bad day check your outlook with these three questions:

1. What do I feel guilty about?  That was yesterday....forgiven.

2. What am I worried about?  That is tomorrow....surrendered.

3. What am I about?  That is today...clarified.

So, what have you renamed your alarm clock?