Forgotten?

 

"Be still and know that I am God..." Psalm 46:10

Sometimes I wish I could always hear God audibly.  It would be so much easier to know what God wanted if He could speak to me.  Sometimes I wonder why He doesn't usually speak to us that way.  But then I think, would I even listen if He did always speak audibly to me?  

In the Old Testament, we read of the miracles God performed through Moses to let His people go free from the life of slavery they had lived under Pharaoh.  We see some pretty miraculous things take place from the plagues to the parting of the Red Sea.  And yet, even when the Israelites see these miracles first-hand, they still doubt God and still want to create for themselves an image to which they can bow down. 

Even when they saw miraculous things happen, they began to doubt God. Why?  Maybe it was because things were not happening as they would have liked.  They did not like that they were wandering around in the desert and that they were hungry and thirsty.  Doesn't it seem like we begin to doubt God when things do not go the way we want them to go?  We begin to feel as if God has forgotten us when life gets hard and when things do not happen in our time frame.  But, maybe we are the ones who have forgotten.  

Faith like a Child

"I want to be as a child, delighted in life, at peace with God, living in the grace of the moment.  I want to live above the pull of depression and cultivate a heart of joy from which others can draw.  I want to learn what it really means to be filled with the reality of God, and the joy of God every day, no matter what else is going on in my life." 

-Sally Clarkson

Since I have become a mother, I have learned so much spiritually.  I am able to catch just a glimpse of the love our heavenly Father has for us as I compare my own love for our children.  I am better able to understand discipline, and what the Bible means when it says: "For the Lord disciplines those He loves..." (Hebrews 12:6).  Just as my husband and I must discipline our children because we love them and want what is best for them, God must discipline us.  This past week I learned an important lesson by watching our children.  

Our family suffered a loss this past week as we lost a precious child through miscarriage when I was almost 10 weeks along.  It is hard to go through trials and a lot of questions filled our minds as we saw a heartbeat at 7 weeks and then learned that it stopped beating a few days later.  Life. is. hard.  Heartache is not fun, but I am learning that God can teach us through these battles if we will open our eyes and look to Him for our answers.  This does not mean we will always understand why things happen, but that He can teach us through them and He will never leave us.  

Entitlement

“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.” 
-Revelation 4:11

As imperfect human beings, many times we cling to entitlements.  We feel entitled to a paycheck because we have worked a day’s wages.  We feel entitled to good healthcare because we pay for our insurance each month.  We feel entitled to a good meal because we gave a restaurant our business.  The list goes on.  This self-entitlement can even carry over to our relationship with Christ.  Because our life on earth is constantly measured by this give and take mentality and the idea that if you work for something, you are due your reward, we can even begin to feel like God owes us something.  

Talking Too Much

 

“A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much." 

Proverbs 20:19

This verse caught my attention today as I was reading my Bible.  Yes, I know it is a sin to gossip and I work hard not to do this, but what about talking too much?  Talking too much is what leads to gossip in the first place, so just maybe if I worked on this part, I wouldn't struggle with gossip in the first place.   

I thrive off of people.  It seems like a lot of women are this way.  We love friendships and we love sharing our experiences with others as well as learning from the experiences of others.  While this is a good thing and these conversations can provide encouragement and affirmation, conversations can get us into trouble too.  When we are busy talking away and/or when we don't have a purpose with our words, we begin to talk about things that we should keep to ourselves.  

I am all too guilty of this.  When I look back at the conversations that have gotten me into trouble, many times it's because I did not keep a tight reign over my tongue and I just kept talking and talking and talking without first thinking about the words that are coming out of my month. Here are some questions I'm learning to ask myself before I enjoy the conversation of others:

My Daily Battle

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:26

We just returned from an amazing few days with our youth group.  We were able to attend summer camp at Orange Beach with about 50 of our youth.  We had such a challenging speaker and a wonderful worship band.  As we are all immersed in God's Word for five straight days, it was hard to imagine not living for Christ every moment of every day.  Nothing else competed with my time and attention.  It seemed like we all left there feeling empowered and motivated to live every moment for Christ. 


Now, less than 48 hours later, I can feel the inner struggle going on inside of my heart.  I want to follow Christ with all of my heart more than anything else, but I can feel the world and sin trying to choke out that desire. I can feel my sinful attitudes trying to take over and squelch the joy that lies within my heart. 

The Critical Wife

As women, I believe we have a tendency to be critical of life.  Because we analyze everything, many times we get hung up on the things that we don’t like instead of looking at the good things that surround us. 

In marriage, it can be a temptation for us to continually analyze our husbands.  Even when they are doing the best they can and/or trying to be a good husband and father, we can easily pick out their flaws.  And, many times, we are all too quick to point them out to them!

Today, as I was reading in 2 Samuel 6, I saw how Michal did this to her husband, David.  David had just done a wonderful thing by going to Judah to bring back the Ark of the Lord, which contained the Ten Commandments.  As he was returning home, he was leaping and dancing before the Lord. Instead of focusing on this great thing her husband had done and instead of seeing her husband’s actions as unto the Lord, she is embarrassed at the way he is seen in public: ^“But as the Ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him” (2 Samuel 6:16).

Making Our Children (and Ourselves) Aware

When I look around at the way our nation is raising its children, I see a lot of kids who are growing up thinking the world revolves around them. I see children who are led to believe that they can have everything they want and that they are all that matters in life.

While I want my children to know that they are loved, I want to do all that I can to keep them aware of the needs around them.  If all I ever do is give them what they want and if my top concern is keeping them happy, then chances are, they are not going to learn this. 

For Vacation Bible School this past week, I had the opportunity to teach about the persecution that goes on in North Korea.  I taught Kindergarten – Third Graders.  As I was preparing my materials, it hit me that I need to start teaching my children these important truths now.  It may seem a little overboard to think about teaching toddlers about our Christian brothers and sisters who are suffering as Christians around the world.  But I think this is where we get caught in the trap of not making it a priority. 

Doing Things My Way...or Not

"Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as he is and adjust our lives accordingly.  We insist on trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image."

-A.W. Tozer

 It can be so very frustrating, at times, to try to reason with a child.  Probably because they don't care what your reasons are, they just want what they want.  Tonight, as my family and I were taking a walk through our neighborhood, our three year old was begging us to let him get out of our double stroller so he could walk too.  Since we live in a low-traffic neighborhood, we decided to let him walk beside us.  First, however, we explained the importance of walking near the grass, looking for cars, staying right beside mom and dad, etc. We explained to him that if he disobeyed he would have to get back in the stroller.  At first he did pretty well, but then he began pushing the limits.  At one point, after looking back with a mischievous look, he darted right into the middle of the street.  We immediately scolded him and back in the stroller he went.  We tried to explain to him why he could not run in the middle of the street, but ultimately, he was just mad because he did not get to do what he wanted to do.  In my mind, I was thinking, "why can't you see that we are just trying to protect you?"  I wanted to open up his eyes to the reason why I wasn't allowing him to run in the middle of the street. 


As I was thinking these things, another thought occurred to me.  Is this how God feels when He's trying to get our attention?  I can think of so many times in my life when I didn't want to take the time to see what God was trying to teach me...I just wanted what I wanted and did not want to see things from God's perspective.  As women, I think we are more prone to take matters into our own hands when things aren't happening as quickly as we would like or the way we would like them to turn out.