Steeping myself in God's reality

One of the things I struggle with the most is worrying about things that are beyond my control. Of course, I am a self-admitted control freak and everyday I get up and pray that God will help me to not worry and trust Him for that day. And yes, I have to do this everyday.

I have been spending the last month going through Matthew and man there were some people who worried about things that were out of their control. I think it's awesome that Matthew devoted part of Chapter 6 talking about not worrying. I enjoy how Matthew 6:30 - 34 reads from the Message translation -

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

After reading this I envisioned a picture of steeping tea. When you steep tea, you have to wait so that your tea will be rich and full of flavor. I wonder how rich my life could be if I would spend less time worrying about what I think is really important and more time steeping my life in God's reality?

Lord, I struggle with worrying about things that don't really matter. I know at times these things seem huge to me and I have no idea how "I" am going to solve them problem. Please help me to keep my heart and mind focused on things that have eternal value and to let go of the things that keep me from living for You. Thank you for giving me your words in Matthew to encourage me and teach me how You desire for me to live my life.

The Motions

After reading our pastor's blog (www.brianmayfield.blogspot.com) tonight about preparing ourselves for communion this coming Sunday, I was drawn to the lyrics of an amazing song by Matthew West called "The Motions". The words that jumped out at me are highlighted in the song lyrics below. I ask you as I ask myself these questions, Do I even realize the changes that I need to make in my life? Am I giving everything I got or am I just playing around and going through the motions? Am I willing to let God take me all the way...let Him have full control? These are the questions that I will ponder as I prepare myself for communion this Sunday.

This might hurt
It’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care
If I break
At least I’ll be feeling something
‘Cause just ok
Is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions

No regrets
Not this time
I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love
Make me whole
I think I’m finally feeling something

Take me all the way
Take me all the way
Take me all the way

Do-Do Disease

For years, I have been battling with a disease. It's called the do-do disease. I do, and do, and do until there is nothing but scraps of my life left for my husband or my family. And when my husband and kids would want to chill out together and not want to go and do-do-do, I would get angry and resentful towards them.

Well I was challenged on Saturday with a word...simplify. When you put it out there it seems so...simple. But when you began thinking of applying it to various areas of your life, simple can become complex. My mind reeled on Saturday afternoon as I prayed about what God wanted to teach me through this.

On Saturday night over our V-day dinner, I confessed to my husband that I have spent more time doing things for everyone else and spending less time with him. And while this isn't a problem that I can fix overnight, it is something that I am conscience of AND willing to admit to God, my husband, my family and my friends. I believe this is the first step in healing from this horrible do-do disease.

Stunned

Even as I write this, I am still stunned. You see the other night my 17-year old son, Bobby, walked into the kitchen, opened the dishwasher and began unloading the dishwasher. The part that stunned me is that I had not asked him to unload the dishwasher that night.

I asked him in a very baffled voice, "What are you doing?".

Bobby replied, "I thought I would beat you to the punch and unload the dishes before you asked me to."

WOW...that is all I have to say.

Things that make me smile

Admiring God's creation
Knowing Christ died to save me
Back rubs from my honey
Watching Bobby worship God through music
Listening to Tommy's laugh
Shopping with my mom
Watching my dad shoot photos with Bobby
Seeing my sister become an RN
Playing beauty shop with my nieces
Throwing around the football with my nephews
Trying to get back into shape
Serving at my church
Goofin' off with the peep
Hugs and grins from the Britt boys
Scrapbooking with friends at Red Rooster
Chips and salsa from Rosie's
Solving a problem at work
Helping the underdog
Relient K 'In Love with the 80s' song
Throwing a party
Friend requests on Facebook
Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks
Brown Sugar Cologne
Camping and smores

She's walking with Jesus

Early Tuesday morning, 2/3/09, my friend and former co-worker, Carlene Hall passed away.

Over the past three years, Carlene has been a quadriplegic. Before she was crippled, she ran in marathons, volunteered at our company sponsored events, was on the board of directors for the Big Spring Jam, and encouraged many people as she lived a life that showed her love for Christ.

After her accident, she learned to paint with her mouth and many of her watercolor paintings were reproduced into greeting cards, posters and calendars. She was never one to be inactive. She had to be doing all that she could.

Today she has no more pain. Today she is in her new heavenly body. Today she is walking with Jesus!

I love you and will miss you, Carlene!

My world is ending

Kids are so funny. My Tommy just cracks me up.

The other day he got in trouble for not listening to me and continuing to play on his Nintendo DS. I told him that he was grounded from playing on his DS for a period of time. You would have thought I had chopped off his leg. He ran to his room and proceeded with the dramatics.

At first, he started with the screaming crying so that I could hear his pain and anguish from the living room. Then he went from screaming crying to my feelings have been hurt crying. At this point, I came into the room. I laid down beside him and through alot of tears he pleaded his case. I told him that because of his actions and not listening to me that the consequence was losing the privelege to play on his DS. As soon as I said that, he went from my feelings have been hurt crying to uncontrollable crying.

Between his cries, he uttered the words, "My world is ending."

Being the super supportive mom that I am, I laughed (out loud). That made him go back to the my feelings are hurt crying. Well I knew at this point I would not be able to reason with him so I just held him close until he stopped crying. When he stopped crying he was able to tell me that he was sorry for how he acted and that he would listen next time.

Don't you think that is how it is with us and God sometimes? We don't get our way so we cry out in anger and get mad at God. Then we may feel that God is somehow making us go through this to hurt our feelings when in fact He may be making us stronger. And when we figure out that this might just be a consequence for our actions, we might just get a little dramatic about the situation and want everyone else to feel sorry for us. But if we will let Him, God will gently wrap us in his arms of unfailing love, forgiveness and grace and hold us until we are ready to humbly accept the consequences of our actions.