still sad

I can't seem to shake this feeling of sadness and grief over the death of Steve Irwin. I'm not sure why, except that I'm one of the millions of people who felt like they knew him even though I didn't. My heart aches for his wife and kids and I keep putting myself in Terri's place trying to break that news to an 8yr old that adores her daddy and a 2yr old that really has no understanding what it is all about. I, myself have a daughter that absolutely worships the ground her dad walks on and the thought of having to tell her that he is gone is beyond what I can bear to think about. But, thank God, I don't have to tell her that, and starting now, I am going to try to stop obsessing about it. So, I am going to follow Paul's advice to the Philippians in chapter 4:8 "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." To that end, I am going to turn off the TV!!
Speaking of TV, I have been convicted by the Spirit in the last few months that TV & the newspaper have become idols in my life that I put before God. I confess that I don't read my Bible every day, but I NEVER miss a day reading the paper, I am a total news junkie. There's nothing wrong with that, unless it gets in the way of deepening your relationship with the Father. Which, for me, it does. So, as we begin this new school year, I have committed anew to lay down the newspaper and turn off the TV. I know I don't even want to know how much of my time that I waste staring at the TV. It's time to wean off.
Another verse that has really jumped out at me lately is Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Before, I had always focused on the "God's workmanship" part of that verse, which is awsome, but lately, I have been struck by the fact that IN ADVANCE, God prepared good works for us to do, but, you notice it doesn't say that He will force us to do those works. I firmly believe in the prompting of the Holy Spirit and I think that there have been many times that I turned my back on that prompting and the good work that He had prepared for me to do, either went undone or someone else did it, because I was either hesitant or afraid of looking foolish, or possibly I was just so busy being caught up in day to day, insignificant details. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating any kind of "works-based" salvation. On the contrary, I know that we are saved by faith, and that based on that faith we in turn, do good works. But, I do think that, once in heaven, we will be called to account for the good works that we have done (or not done) and possibly (just my thoughts here) we will be commended for the good works we have done, but will be shown all the things that we could've done but didn't. What would have been different had we done those things. I am praying to be more attentive to the Spirit's leading and not leave anything "on the table" so to speak.