Laundry Day

The laundry is piled in a heap on my bed, an all too familiar scene. If I would put each load away before I pulled out the next one, then the pile wouldn't grow so high. Honestly, sometimes it seems so daunting that I go to bed and attack it the next morning when I am feeling braver. Today I did five loads of laundry and still have yet to put it all away. I'm certain there is a lesson to be learned here. All suggestions are welcome. I have a feeling, though, that I know what you'll say. "Just do it!"

Staring at my pile, I can't help but think about how other things can pile up in my life - chores that need to be done, messages needing to be sent, bills to be paid. The list could go on. But the worst kind of mess that I get myself into is the one created when I let sin go unconfessed. The Bible says that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). Thankfully, God gave us the Holy Spirit, and a conscience, to make us aware of our sins. God is fully aware of our sins as well. His desire is that we confess those sins so that He can wipe our slates clean and free us from all guilt and fear. (I John 1:9) At least that is the plan. But, have you ever noticed what happens when you let your sins pile up? The burden of those sins becomes almost too heavy to bear. I've seen men and women crippled in their ministry because they had sins they were unwilling to let go. You start to feel like God couldn't possibly want to use you. You feel dirty and, to say the least, unworthy. I assure you that I am speaking from experience. But our God is patient and kind. He lovingly waits, anticipating the day when we will tackle our pile and be made free once again.

If you are staring at a heap of unconfessed sin, make today your clean up day. Confess before God. Name those sins, one by one, and feel the burden being lifted off your shoulders. Don't leave a single piece of dirty laundry for tomorrow.  It's time.  Just do it!  He's waiting.

Step into the Light

Have you ever tried to put on makeup in a hotel bathroom?  It never fails.  You think your face looks just right only to go outside in the sunlight, see your reflection in your rear view mirror, and discover that you don’t quite look like you thought you did.  The lighting in the bathroom fooled you into thinking that you had achieved that soft, natural look and now you see the truth for what it is.  You either resemble a harlot with your overly bright lipstick and bold eye color, or you look pale and sickly because the sunlight has a different hue than the fluorescent lighting in the hotel bathroom.  We’ve all been there.

I experienced this recently and it occurred to me that there are times when I think I appear better to God and to others than I actually do.  I’m not referring to makeup and hair this time.  I compare my actions and behavior to others and to the standards of the world and I feel like I’m measuring up.  In actuality, I’m just standing in poor lighting.  Then I step into the light of God’s Word and it reveals a whole other set of standards that are a bit higher than mine.  I start to see myself as God sees me.  I see the way I treated that person at work, how I yelled at my children, or how I was selfish with my spouse, and suddenly I am not looking so good anymore.

Praise God that He doesn’t let me go around wearing blinders.  Instead, He shines His light right on my heart and opens my eyes to  the real me that He, and surely others, must see.  The question then becomes:  how do I respond?  Do I walk away from the mirror and do nothing about my hideous appearance?  This is the very scenario that James addressed in James 1:22-25. 

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror  and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

My prayer today:
Lord, open my eyes to my true appearance and help me not to walk away forgetting what I have seen.  Instead, help me respond in obedience so that I can become a true reflection of You.

The Stubborn Seed

 A crazy thing happened to my daughter in Science class this year.  She was given the assignment to grow something.  You probably remember doing this yourself at one time or other.  You plant a bean or, in her case, a piece of potato in a cup with some dirt.  Then you place it in the windowsill where you water it once a day and hope for a sprout to appear.  Not too complicated.  It’s not supposed to be.  Teachers know that this is pretty much a no-fail experiment if the student follows the directions.  Well, it didn’t go so well for Rebecca.  She followed her directions carefully and never saw a hint of a sprout.  She tried again with a different seed, to no avail.  After the third try, Rebecca threw her hands up in the air and declared defeat.  The teacher didn’t penalize her because he had seen her efforts and believed it was a terrible stroke of bad luck.  He’s still puzzled by what went wrong.  Ironically, my daughter just started a job that requires her to try her hand at gardening once again.  This caused us to revisit the Science fiasco.  After getting a good laugh, I began to reflect on those stubborn little seedlings.

Many of us have people in our lives who need to hear about Christ.  Maybe they have never heard of Him, never set foot in a church, or never read a single page of Scripture.  Maybe they have heard of God but have a warped view of Him or have chosen to ignore Him.  According to Matthew 28:19-20, our job as Christians is to go and tell them the truth about Jesus.  If you’ve attempted this more than once, then you know that the results of your efforts will vary.  Try as we might, some people will just refuse to sprout.

To put in Christ’s words, the seed falls “by the way side” (Matthew 13).   When Christ’s words were not received well, He moved on.  This is hard to do when you care deeply for the person in question, especially if he/she is a family member or your child.  Ultimately Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit does the convicting.  That is not our job.  So we plant a seed, water it, and stick it in the windowsill praying that one day a sprout may appear.  What we shouldn’t do is let it tear us up if we never see it happen.  Paul said that some will be planters, some will water, but only God can give the increase.

                        _______________________________________

   

Another idea that strikes me when I think of Rebecca’s little experiment is that I can also resemble that stubborn seed at times.  God speaks truth to me and I reject it.  I simply refuse to grow.  Growth is hard and sometimes painful.  I don’t like it when God points out to me my failures and character flaws.  I don’t like being told that I’m lazy, selfish, unfaithful, jealous, undisciplined, and the list goes on.  But God’s purpose in pointing out my failures is not to make me feel bad.  His purpose is to make me more like His Son.  With that goal in mind, I think I can tolerate a little pain or difficulty.  Bring on the rain Lord, I want to grow!

                      __________________________________________

Can't I Just Get By?

Yesterday I promised a second nugget of truth from the book of Ezra regarding work.  Here it is:

Nugget 2:  Work with great energy.
In chapter five, a comment is made about the work that is being done on the new temple.  It states that "the work is going forward with great energy and success." (NLT)  In other translations this phrase "with great energy" is seen as "with diligence" and "great care."  Regardless of which translation you prefer, there is a lesson here about HOW we are to do our jobs, and the jobs on which we choose to "pitch in."

Remember in school how frustrating it was when you were paired with someone to do a project and all they wanted to do was the bare minimum?  Maybe your partner was willing to settle for a passing grade when you were really going for the "A."  That was me anyway.  What kind of effort would you put into your job if you knew you were going to be graded?  Some of us who are homemakers or who have worked for ourselves can tend to think that we can get away with the bare minimum.  What does God think about that? 

The apostle Paul said "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." (Colossians 3:23 NIV)

This includes washing the dishes, raising your children, keeping your house, and doing your outside job, all "energetically," "with diligence," and "great care."

This is a great lesson for my daughter regarding her new job, but a great reminder for myself, as well.  I wonder what grade God is giving me.

It's Not My Job

My daughter started her first job last week.   I don't believe it was by coincidence that God led me to read the book of Ezra the same week.  In the book, the Israelites are given permission to rebuild the temple.  The work took many hands to complete, but the people were excited to get the job done.  What does this have to do with my daughter and her new job?  Well, there were some nuggets of truth in that book that I believe she, and all of us too, can apply to the work that God has given us to do.

The first nugget is:  Pitch in wherever you can.  It's easy for me to look at a job, identify my responsibilities, and carry them out.  It's also easy to identify others' responsibilities and point the finger at those who may not be doing them.  I know that the words, "That's not my job," have crossed my lips more than once over the years.  But in Ezra 5:2 the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, jump right in to help with the temple rebuild.  I'm sure that they could have easily said, "That's not my job," and no one would've questioned it.  That's not what they did.  They saw an opportunity to help out and rolled up their sleeves to do some dirty work.  Incidentally, that four word phrase always seems to show up when there is "dirty work" to be done.  I'm finding myself evaluating how often I am willing to "pitch in" when I see trash that needs to go out, dishes that need to be done, grass that needs to be mowed, bathrooms that need to be cleaned, and the list goes on.  My husband is so good at this.  He's the one you see picking up trash in the parking lot on the way into church.  I think I could stand to be a little more like him and to "roll up my sleeves" a little more often, regardless of whether or not it's "my job."

Tune in tomorrow for nugget number 2!

Child, Get Wisdom!

How do you measure success – perhaps a plan carried out or a goal met?

How can you know you’re succeeding if you have no plan or goal?

It's hard to imagine my teenage self having a plan or a goal for my life.  But, if I were able to go back in time and tell my teenage self something, I would tell her to make it her goal to "get wisdom!"  This instruction comes straight from Proverbs 4: “Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them.” (NIV)

I was never a reader as a child.  I have always been a very slow reader, always the last one in the class to finish.  This made me despise reading.  In my college years I discovered that reading was not so bad if the books were ones I enjoyed.  So I read a few dozen of Janette Oke’s Christian romance books and felt pretty good about myself.  But after I finished her books, I never really made the effort to find another author that I liked.  Consequently, I can count on one hand how many books I read, outside of class, in the next ten to fifteen years.  Sad, I know.

As a woman getting very near to age 40, I have now realized that there is a wealth of wisdom recorded in books.  To not tap into that wisdom is very unwise!  In the last few years I have noticed that nearly all of the women, and men, that I know and consider to be “successful” in life have been readers.  In fact, they continue to be readers no matter how busy their life gets.  At any given time I could ask them, “What are you reading currently,” and they would have an answer.  This is my new aspiration, my goal to be attained… to always be reading something.

Lest you should leave any comments about how just reading “something” isn’t enough, I want to point out that I am referring to reading outside of Scripture.  Without a doubt, Scripture should be read in tandem with anything else.  In addition, it’s important to evaluate the kind of books that you consume.  Proverbs 15:14 addresses this issue. 

“A wise person is hungry for truth, while the fool feeds on trash.” (NLT)

That’s what I would tell my teenage self.  How about you?

 Proverbs 8:11  “For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies. Nothing you desire can be compared with it.”

To view more entries in this "Hearts at Home" Blog Hop, go to: 
http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=93218"

Let's Talk About "Made to Crave"

I recently began studying the book, “Made to Crave:  Satisfying Your Deepest Desire With God, Not Food,” by Lysa Terkeurst.  Since then, many have asked my thoughts about the book. Let me just say that there's some great stuff in there for anyone struggling with food issues.  During this 6 week journey that my study group is taking together you may see me share a few thoughts from the book.  The thought for today is a statement that Lysa makes:  "God made us to crave."  Here's the catch, the object of our craving should be Him.  Often we try to satisfy our cravings with other things like food, relationships, hobbies, computers, facebook,  etc…  I have found this to be very true in my life.  I have used all of those replacements at one time or another and have always come up short of true satisfaction.  This is the battle that I fight on a daily basis.  The times in my life when I feel the most fulfilled are those times when I am walking closely with my Lord.  That is no coincidence.  God offers “abundant life” to those who stay attached to “The Vine.”

So how does the craving for God come?  A craving is a feeling, and feelings are fickle.  They come and they go as quick as the tides.  If I wait to feel the "craving” for God before I seek Him in prayer, then I am likely not to be faithful in following Him.  I feed myself physically when I am hungry, but if I haven’t eaten all day and I don’t “feel” particularly hungry, am I wise to wait for the feeling to come again before I eat?  Of course not.  Our bodies need nourishment.  This is true of our souls as well.  In that sense it’s not a “duty” to pray and read The Word of God daily, but a necessity to maintain a healthy spirit.  In this age of abundant vitamins and supplements, I need to make sure I get my daily “God dosage.” 

Still, if you long for that feeling of “craving God” as much as I do, let me suggest that once a day will never be enough.  How do I get that craving?  First, I beg God for it. Then I “fake it ‘til I make it.”  Many experts have studied the power of suggestion.  They say that we can only achieve that which we envision ourselves achieving.  And many companies have employed mantras to motivate their employees to succeed.   “I am powerful, I am confident, I am …blah, blah, blah.”  You get the picture.  Why, even the “Little Engine That Could” had to tell himself “I think I can” several times before he was able to get over that mountain.  I say all that to say, I have found my mantra.  Ps. 73:25-26.

             Whom have I in heaven but you?
               And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
            My flesh and my heart may fail,
               but God is the strength of my heart
               and my portion forever.

If I can say these verses every morning, and perhaps every time I go to one of my “replacement” foods, then one day I will be living it.  I actually recited these verses in college every morning and it did wonders for me.  I don’t know why I stopped.  These verses help me keep my focus on what truly is most valuable in life.  I’m excited to see how battling my food cravings with this weapon is going to bring me closer to God while I reap physical benefits as well.

How about you?  Do you crave God or a replacement?

If you can identify that replacement, you’ve won half the battle.

The next step is to seek Him and pick up your weapons every time you find yourself craving that replacement. 

Who’s willing to try this with me?