God sure does like to drive a point home hard sometimes. I read several devotions on obedience and felt like I needed to work on not complaining. Apparently praying for help in not complaining is like praying for patience. Don't ever resolve to reduce complaining on a day you have to go to the doctor. After going from one doctor to the next to the next for an entire afternoon, just to get a simple problem started on the path of being taken care of, you get lots of opportunities to be irritated and frustrated. I told the receptionist at one office I thought about using a rubberband on my wrist to snap when I complained, but that would probably give me a bruise and something else to complain about! My praise is that I was nice to all the people I dealt with and never completely lost my sense of humor during the test.
The next day I was feeling stressed over getting things done and putting things in my file cabinet that is so full it has no room for a single piece of paper (yet another thing on my to do list!) and dear hubby has something to tell me, "because he loves me and wants to help me be better" (ever heard that one before? Make sure you take a deep breath before they speak.) He felt I had been complaining about some small things instead of being grateful for the nice things he had done. GRRR.
This morning, the devotion says "Do not quench the Holy Spirit by complaining." OK OK, Uncle!
Now, do I go for a nice Havarti with dill or maybe some baked Brie?
Friday, August 31, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Lessons from Bad Girls
Just finished a book called "Bad Girls of the Bible" by Liz Curtis Higgs. I knew about Liz as a Christian speaker and comedian, but I had never read one of her books. I enjoyed it.
I will admit I basically consider myself a "good girl" most of the time. Yeah, I mess up and have never claimed to be perfect, but by the world's standards, I'm pretty good. Then you read about Jezebel, the ultimate Bad to the Bone Bad Girl, Lot's wife, Eve and more and the lessons learned and questions at the end of the chapter struck much closer to home than I wanted. I wanted to read about all these bad girls and feel good about myself. But God would not let me revel in self rightousness. He reminded me that we all sin and we all need a Savior. I am special, but not exempt. How often do I allow discontent, selfishness, doubt, blame, and disobedience to seep into my life? More often than I would like.
There have been times when I wish I had one of those stories with a big, dramatic transformation when I came to Jesus and turned my life around. But I don't really want to go through what people had to go through to have that story, so I am grateful for that. Then I realized one time, that most people don't have the made for tv story and that my everyday struggles and variety of crisis can be just as powerful a story. God is there in the big tragedies and also in the dirty diaper, carpool moments of life. That what makes Him such an awesome God.
I still wonder what sort of an impact I have or will have on the world around me, but more and more God is showing me that I need to focus on Him and Him alone. So whether I am being a Good Girl or a Bad Girl at any given moment, what I want most is to be God's Girl.
I will admit I basically consider myself a "good girl" most of the time. Yeah, I mess up and have never claimed to be perfect, but by the world's standards, I'm pretty good. Then you read about Jezebel, the ultimate Bad to the Bone Bad Girl, Lot's wife, Eve and more and the lessons learned and questions at the end of the chapter struck much closer to home than I wanted. I wanted to read about all these bad girls and feel good about myself. But God would not let me revel in self rightousness. He reminded me that we all sin and we all need a Savior. I am special, but not exempt. How often do I allow discontent, selfishness, doubt, blame, and disobedience to seep into my life? More often than I would like.
There have been times when I wish I had one of those stories with a big, dramatic transformation when I came to Jesus and turned my life around. But I don't really want to go through what people had to go through to have that story, so I am grateful for that. Then I realized one time, that most people don't have the made for tv story and that my everyday struggles and variety of crisis can be just as powerful a story. God is there in the big tragedies and also in the dirty diaper, carpool moments of life. That what makes Him such an awesome God.
I still wonder what sort of an impact I have or will have on the world around me, but more and more God is showing me that I need to focus on Him and Him alone. So whether I am being a Good Girl or a Bad Girl at any given moment, what I want most is to be God's Girl.
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