So, I just had to take a moment this morning to say how much it makes me smile that God cares about the little things.
I had a photobook at Shutterfly ready to order with a pretty good coupon already waiting to be used. As I open my e-mail this morning I pray, "Lord, if you wouldn't mind sending just one more Shutterfly coupon this morning that would be great." Because I mean who ever pays full price at Shutterfly? It's pretty much a rule just like Hobby Lobby. Anyways, two seconds later, waiting in my inbox is a 40% off your order for Shutterfly which is pretty much about as good as the discounts get there (believe me, I've tried all sorts of combinations, it's rare that they add up to any more than 40% off). Not only that, but it was the rare occasion where I could combine this coupon with the one I already had which is a miracle in and of itself.
Yes, I am waxing poetic about online coupons and photobooks BUT, the point is, God cares about the little things, even bringing a smile to my face with an e-mail. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
This is not a Joel Osteenian plug to get down on your knees and ask for a million bucks, this is a thank you for the little reminder that I need to be taking all things to my gracious Father and not fretting over details I can't control anyway.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
When both Ann Voskamp and Hannah Whitall Smith write this morning about anxiety, I begin to think God is trying to get something through to me. I don't feel as if I have been particularly anxious lately, but maybe the thing lies more in the wording that Mrs. Smith uses: that I'm maybe not anxious about things, but I'm trying to "manage" it all on my own rather than giving the management of it over to Christ. Even, and first of all, the "management" of myself.
"In laying off your burdens, therefore, the first one you must get rid of is yourself. You must hand yourself and all your inward experiences, your temptations,your temperament, your frames and feelings, all over into the care and keeping of your God, and leave them there. He made you, and therefore He understands you and knows how to manage you, and you must trust Him to do it. Say to Him, "Here, Lord, I abandon myself to thee. I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed..."
Isn't that what I spend much of my time worrying about? The management of my temptations, my feelings, etc.? Mrs. Smith goes on to point out how Christ calls us to be as little children in regards to trusting our Father to manage everything. And how it grieves Him when we do not. How would I feel if I saw my children living as if they could not trust me to provide for their needs? If they feared where their food and clothes would come from; could not rest securely that they would have a warm bed tonight; if I outlined the plan for the day and they said, 'I'm not sure, maybe we should do it my way'? They run to me with every little problem; sometimes painfully so. But would I not be sad to see them instead struggling to solve everything themselves because they feel they shouldn't bother me with it? I want my children, to a healthy extent, to enjoy the carefree mindset that blesses childhood, knowing without a doubt that their parents have their best interest in mind. And God calls us to trust like children, knowing without a doubt that our Father has our best interest in mind.
Even in regards to food and exercise.
I'm sorry if you're tired of it always coming to back to that for me. Feel free to insert your personal "thorn" here.
Wouldn't it be ridiculous to here a child, when offered dessert, say "Oh, I shouldn't"? Or hear them guiltily confess,"I can't eat that, I haven't run today." Instead, they either receive it with joy or they turn to their parent and ask if it would be good and wise for them to have it. Maybe those are the exact boundaries I have been searching for.
Mrs. Smith goes on from there in the same vein, "Next, you must lay off every other burden, -your health, your reputation, your Christian work, your houses, your children, your business, your servants (my yes, those servants are such a burden ;)); everything, in short, that concerns you, whether inward or outward."
Yes, this is a scary world we live in, but this has caused me to wonder: I want my children to be able to live at peace knowing that I, and ultimately God, will protect them; not hiding under the bed in fear of ISIS. How much more so doesn't our Father, who actually can affect complete protection and ultimate victory want to "keep (him) in perfect peace he who's mind is stayed on Thee"?
"Be careful for nothing" that is what Christ says to us through Paul. Can you paint a picture any more child-like than that? Not in an irresponsible sense, but in a sense of complete trust of the one that holds our world in His hands.
P.S. Have you noticed my lapse into old-English style of writing? Sorry, that's what I get from reading a book written in 1832. If I were reading an Irish book you would probably pick up on a certain brogue. ;)
"In laying off your burdens, therefore, the first one you must get rid of is yourself. You must hand yourself and all your inward experiences, your temptations,your temperament, your frames and feelings, all over into the care and keeping of your God, and leave them there. He made you, and therefore He understands you and knows how to manage you, and you must trust Him to do it. Say to Him, "Here, Lord, I abandon myself to thee. I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed..."
Isn't that what I spend much of my time worrying about? The management of my temptations, my feelings, etc.? Mrs. Smith goes on to point out how Christ calls us to be as little children in regards to trusting our Father to manage everything. And how it grieves Him when we do not. How would I feel if I saw my children living as if they could not trust me to provide for their needs? If they feared where their food and clothes would come from; could not rest securely that they would have a warm bed tonight; if I outlined the plan for the day and they said, 'I'm not sure, maybe we should do it my way'? They run to me with every little problem; sometimes painfully so. But would I not be sad to see them instead struggling to solve everything themselves because they feel they shouldn't bother me with it? I want my children, to a healthy extent, to enjoy the carefree mindset that blesses childhood, knowing without a doubt that their parents have their best interest in mind. And God calls us to trust like children, knowing without a doubt that our Father has our best interest in mind.
Even in regards to food and exercise.
I'm sorry if you're tired of it always coming to back to that for me. Feel free to insert your personal "thorn" here.
Wouldn't it be ridiculous to here a child, when offered dessert, say "Oh, I shouldn't"? Or hear them guiltily confess,"I can't eat that, I haven't run today." Instead, they either receive it with joy or they turn to their parent and ask if it would be good and wise for them to have it. Maybe those are the exact boundaries I have been searching for.
Mrs. Smith goes on from there in the same vein, "Next, you must lay off every other burden, -your health, your reputation, your Christian work, your houses, your children, your business, your servants (my yes, those servants are such a burden ;)); everything, in short, that concerns you, whether inward or outward."
Yes, this is a scary world we live in, but this has caused me to wonder: I want my children to be able to live at peace knowing that I, and ultimately God, will protect them; not hiding under the bed in fear of ISIS. How much more so doesn't our Father, who actually can affect complete protection and ultimate victory want to "keep (him) in perfect peace he who's mind is stayed on Thee"?
"Be careful for nothing" that is what Christ says to us through Paul. Can you paint a picture any more child-like than that? Not in an irresponsible sense, but in a sense of complete trust of the one that holds our world in His hands.
P.S. Have you noticed my lapse into old-English style of writing? Sorry, that's what I get from reading a book written in 1832. If I were reading an Irish book you would probably pick up on a certain brogue. ;)
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Ah, a new year. So tempting! I love resolutions, lists, new starts. All those things a whole new year promotes. "This is the year I will become my best me! The rules that I put into place will do this for me. I can keep them ALL this time. By my own sheer will power. What I need is the right rules with just the right catchy wording and new book or pen with which to pursue them!"
Run away!
I cannot head down that path again. It is where I have lived for too long. And it obviously does not work.
As I was reading in Genesis this morning (yes,I just couldn't resist, I had to start at the beginning.) I was struck how God spent the week creating boundaries; for the land and the sea and the sky and the peoples. And they were good. The trouble starts when the woman tacked her own addendum to God's boundaries: "...But God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden (God's boundary), and you must not touch it (woman's boundary), or you will die.'
Why did she do that? Was that her way of saying that God was not enough? That His boundaries and His help to keep them was not sufficient and she would need her own little extra rule in order to measure up? Ah, the law and us legalists that love it!
All that to say, I'm not making any resolutions this year. Go ahead if you want to, you will probably be just fine and they will be helpful as they are intended to be. I have just learned that they are dangerous for me. Instead I'm pondering what I read a few days ago from Hannah Whitehall Smith, "Man's part is to trust; God's part is to work." This is so hard for me, but it is where I want to be. It's so much more restful than my own striving.
And not to contradict everything I just said, but there are two boundaries that I am convicted are God's and I want to keep my focus on. It might just happen to be a new year, and they might look like resolutions...but they're not...:) Because resolutions are life changes I try to make on my own strength. These are things that God calls us all to and I tend to forget. I'm writing them here for a little accountability from that impersonal universe that is the internet and my impressive collection of two followers. :)
1. Memorize scripture daily. I love it when God's word is constantly on my mind and love to see how it weaves its lessons throughout my day. Why do I forget to practice this so quickly?!
2. To say nothing negative to or about my husband, including to myself. This is not going to be a denial of reality, but rather a discipline of focusing on the many blessings I can see through Him and sometimes just shutting my mouth.
There you have it. All those things that are tumbling around in my head on this first day of the new year.
Run away!
I cannot head down that path again. It is where I have lived for too long. And it obviously does not work.
As I was reading in Genesis this morning (yes,I just couldn't resist, I had to start at the beginning.) I was struck how God spent the week creating boundaries; for the land and the sea and the sky and the peoples. And they were good. The trouble starts when the woman tacked her own addendum to God's boundaries: "...But God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden (God's boundary), and you must not touch it (woman's boundary), or you will die.'
Why did she do that? Was that her way of saying that God was not enough? That His boundaries and His help to keep them was not sufficient and she would need her own little extra rule in order to measure up? Ah, the law and us legalists that love it!
All that to say, I'm not making any resolutions this year. Go ahead if you want to, you will probably be just fine and they will be helpful as they are intended to be. I have just learned that they are dangerous for me. Instead I'm pondering what I read a few days ago from Hannah Whitehall Smith, "Man's part is to trust; God's part is to work." This is so hard for me, but it is where I want to be. It's so much more restful than my own striving.
And not to contradict everything I just said, but there are two boundaries that I am convicted are God's and I want to keep my focus on. It might just happen to be a new year, and they might look like resolutions...but they're not...:) Because resolutions are life changes I try to make on my own strength. These are things that God calls us all to and I tend to forget. I'm writing them here for a little accountability from that impersonal universe that is the internet and my impressive collection of two followers. :)
1. Memorize scripture daily. I love it when God's word is constantly on my mind and love to see how it weaves its lessons throughout my day. Why do I forget to practice this so quickly?!
2. To say nothing negative to or about my husband, including to myself. This is not going to be a denial of reality, but rather a discipline of focusing on the many blessings I can see through Him and sometimes just shutting my mouth.
There you have it. All those things that are tumbling around in my head on this first day of the new year.
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