Where have you been?

I was asked this question the other day. It has been quite a few days since I have gotten to sit down and write a blog. Life has been a little crazy just lately.  Rodney was in Guatemala and I had a Craft Show that I had some things in. Then, of course there were things to do at the church. 

Of course I allowed some of the crazy schedule to happen to me. I sometimes have trouble saying no. Hey, sometimes I just don't want to say no. I enjoy doing some of the things I do and am willing to be busy. But is it for my gratification or the Lord's?  

Don't get me wrong. It is OK to enjoy the activities that are in our life. I don't think that we would find ourselves in the places we find ourselves in, without some Divine intervention. I'm sure that God wants us to do our best in the legitimate and goodly places and jobs we are involved in. We are to shine Him in everything we do. But if you are like me, sometimes, I think we are doing things just to look good or to impress others around us. 


This kind of busyness just makes us exhausted and worn out. We take our eyes off of the mission we are on and turn our thoughts inward. The Bible Study from our ladies group took us, this week, to the passage in Luke 10 where Martha and Mary had Jesus come to their house. During His visit Mary sat at His feet listening to His every word, but Martha was running around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to make everything perfect. She didn't feel free to sit with Mary. This made her unhappy and distracted. She felt like she was missing something and of course she was.

Not everything in our lives has to be perfect. Things can be "good".  Sometimes we just need to sit at the feet of our creator and listen, not try to rearrange the whole world. 

Hey I am talking to me more than anyone, so today I made myself take a day of rest. I needed to refresh and to catch up on a bit of quiet. It has done a world of good on my joints and my mood. It helped me stop worrying about getting everything perfect and to refocus on what my priorities truly need to be.

This passage in Philippians really spoke to me as I read it today...

Philippians 4:6-7

The Message (MSG)

6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

So, ladies, don't forget that we are human. Perfection is a very hard thing for us to reach. So instead of trying to do it all and then fretting when you can't, make sure that whatever you are up to, it is for the glory of God and not the glory of you.

Then we can stop fretting and let God give us the peace of knowing that what we are doing is "good" and really going to make a difference without wearing and stressing us to the point of frustration, disappointment and exhaustion.

If your remember, even God rested!

Blessings!

LUNCH WITH A GREAT GUY!

Today Rodney's schedule was crazy. Four meetings in the morning and three more in the afternoon and into the evening. I figured that we would not see him until after 10:00 pm. At 1:00 this afternoon he calls and asks if we could come to the church and pick him up and go to McDonald's for a quick bite. He was feeling bad that he wasn't going to see us all day. 

Did you know that God feels even worse than Rodney does when He doesn't get to spend time with us each day? He gave us the gift of life because He loves us and wants of have fellowship with us. He wants to give us blessings and show His love everyday.

Ephesians 5:1-2

The Message (MSG)

    5 1-2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.



Yes it was only fast food and yes we were only with Rodney for about an hour but the fact that he really wanted to be with us made us feel loved and appreciated. We reveled in Rodney's company. It made our day.

Keeping company with God makes more than just our day. It makes our life. God is love! He created it and gave His all for it. You can find peace and contentment and an assurance that you are loved more than you can even imagine. 

Just thinking about this gives me goosebumps. Knowing the Divine doesn't want to miss a moment with us. Wow!

If only we could learn to love, even just a fraction, like that.


Blessings!

So Glad To See You!

Our two dogs, Rossalynn and Breesy had to go to the kennel this last week while we were at the Methodist Annual Conference. We got home on Saturday, but after the kennel had closed and they were not open on Sunday, so I picked them up this morning. Boy were they excited to see me. They whined and cried and kept jumping up on me. Not a huge deal when the poodle puppy was doing that but when our lab decided she needed a hug, too, I was just about knocked over.  

It is wonderful to be loved like that?  Unconditionally and no worries about who sees the affection. We humans forget that sometimes and are more worried about what others think than the person that we love.

Don't you think that we hold back on loving God too?  We should be loving Him as he loves us. But we all worry about is what our families will think, what our friends will think and even what people that we don't even know will think!!

In our minds we wonder, will they be convinced that we are weird or crazy if we pray in public? Or if we set our schedules so that our kids sports and activities do not interfere with our worship time, we will be thought of as fanatical? What will they think if we choose to show affection and respect to our spouses? Will we be thought of as strange because we are ethical in our working practices? Will they think we are off our rockers if we truly treat our neighbors like we should?

 And we are especially shy about speaking of our God!!!! Wow, really "What would people think of us then"???

Mark 12:30

New International Version (NIV)

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a]

1 John 4:19

New International Version (NIV)

19 We love because he first loved us.

The scriptures are pretty clear...we are to love. God will not force us to love Him or anyone else, but He sure has given us a great example on how to. From creation to Calvary, He has done nothing but love us, without holding back. Why can't we try to be more like that?

Rossalynn and Breesy have followed His example. Wouldn't this world be a much better place if we all did too?

Blessings!

Stretching our Abilities

This last weekend I was installed as the treasurer of a local charity that our church supports. Now, I have never really considered myself to be a numbers person. I can add and subtract, of course, but math was just never my favorite subject.

The person whom I am replacing has been the treasure for 15 years and is very organized. When I first started feeling like I should do this job I thought God must be crazy to be laying this on my heart. I just didn't feel adequate for the job. The feeling, however, would not go away. It became stronger and stronger.  

Then one Sunday Rodney preached on this very thing. Well not the actual charity, but on God trying to get us out of our comfort zones and getting us to grow and stretch ourselves in the work that we have been called to do. 

That was the Sunday I couldn't hold back on this anymore.  I mentioned my feelings to the outgoing treasurer and that was all it took. The board jumped on this and before you knew it I was elected. 

Have you ever had something that keeps coming to mind and it just won't go away? What do you think that is? I think it is the Holy Spirit nudging you and getting you ready to step up to the plate for the next thing in your life. Sometimes we are in denial about our feelings, sometimes we can't wait to get started and, like me, sometimes you think that God has gone crazy.

But you know what? God will not call you to something that He won't help you through. I love this passage from Isaiah.....


Isaiah 41:9-10
Common English Bible (CEB)

9b “You are my servant;
I chose you and didn’t reject you”:
10 Don’t fear, because I am with you;
don’t be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
I will surely help you;
I will hold you
with my righteous strong hand.

Also my favorite verse, of the whole Bible, comes to mind....  

Philippians 4:13

New International Version (NIV)

¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

These are wonderful reminders that if God calls you to anything, He will not desert you after you get there. He will hold on to you and help you through the challenges of learning new and different things.





I pray that you, and I pray that I, remember these passages as we move ahead into our new adventures. Who knows we might learn something about ourselves and realize that we are stronger and smarter and wiser than we ever knew. 



Of course God has known this all along!!!


Blessings!