Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NLT)

¹For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
² A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

My Study Bible notes say this about these verses:

“Solomon’s point in this section is that God has a plan for all people.  Thus, He provides cycles of life, each with its work for us to do.  Although we may face many problems that seem to contradict God’s plan, these should not be barriers to believing in Him, but rather opportunities to discover that, without God, life’s problems have no lasting solutions!” 

“Timing is important.  All the experiences listed in these verses are appropriate at certain times.  The secret to peace with God is to discover, accept, and appreciate God’s perfect timing.  The danger is to doubt or resent God’s timing.  This can lead to despair, rebellion, or moving ahead without His advice.” 

(In regards to verse 8…) “When is there a time for hating?  We shouldn’t hate evil people, but we should hate what they do.  We should also hate it when people are mistreated, when children are starving, and when God is being dishonored.  In addition, we must hate the sin in our life – this is God’s attitude (see Psalm 5:5).”

Today, I’m just going to allow the Scripture to speak for Itself.  I pray that if you are in a time of turmoil, you’ll find peace and rest in this today and always.

I have found that using the actual phone function on this thing isn’t that easy to do and I definitely don’t recommend trying to use it while driving.  That’s why I wanted the 4S, so I could get “Siri” and just tell her what to do.  Well, it didn’t take long before I pushed her button and she responded back with “I’m really sorry about this, but I cannot accept requests right now.”  My reaction was of course “Well, what good are you??” 

I know it seems silly but literally the first thing I thought about when I heard Siri say she couldn’t help me was how grateful I am that God is ALWAYS there for us.  There’s never a time when He “can’t take our requests” – there’s never a single moment that we cannot go before Him, right where we are, in prayer and petition.  I’ve had several instances lately that heightened my awareness of God’s availability and eagerness to fellowship with us, and it just makes me so happy.  No appointments necessary, no time restraints, no meeting location dilemmas, no privacy concerns. 

Matthew 28:30 – Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

The one game I really like to play on the iPhone is Free Cell because it requires me to think (just a little bit).  When I get desperate and have no idea what move to make next, I’ll click the “hint” button and it will show me what I should do next.  However, it occasionally comes back with “no useful moves detected” and that’s my queue to start a new game. 

I know it may seem like a stretch to relate lessons from an iPhone to real life but for some reason, God has made me so keenly aware of little things like this.  We are never at a place in our walk with Him that there are “no useful moves detected.”  Amen?  There is ALWAYS a way out if we just trust in our Lord and Savior.  Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the Lord and He will make your paths straight!”  When life lets you down or makes you think you are stuck right where you are, all we have to do is look UP and He will always be there and always provide.  The road isn’t always going to be easy (understatement), but He promises to never leave nor forsake us. 

Pastor Dickie gave a wonderful analogy this past Sunday and referred to God as our “Power Source” and isn’t that the truth!  But be alert – Satan wants to disconnect us from Him!  Hold fast to Him ya’ll.  He’s the One Source whose strength will NEVER run out or let us down.

I did, however, grow up with two older cousins, the closest in age of whom I was with all the time and completely adored (and still do).  He is two years older which was just old enough to occasionally torment me to no end, fight with me over who was going to “be Michael Jordan” playing H-O-R-S-E, and then throw his arm over my shoulder for a picture in our knee-high basketball socks, all in the same day.  Those are some of the fondest memories I have and will treasure until the very end. 

Years ago my husband and I had the honor of being present the day he said “I do” to one of the most precious women I’ve ever met.  I was overjoyed to get dressed up that morning and dance the night away for their special occasion.  Nearly four years ago, they gave my Grandparents their first great-grandchild and to say this little family of ours was giddy over it is a drastic understatement.  A year-and-a-half ago, the second little one came with just as much love and excitement as the first! 

It has been such a privilege to watch those two begin their life journey and even more exciting to have them go to church with us.  I cannot tell you the anticipation my Mom and I have each week as we wait out in the hallway to see that family!  Kaitlyn, the oldest (She’s “fwee.”  That’s “three” in grown-up terms.), gives the most emphatic hugs you can imagine and within the past few months, she’s started distributing some pretty hefty kisses too and it just melts my heart.  She will put her little hands on both sides of my face and plant the biggest kiss she can muster square on my cheek.    I can even feel the pressure as she squeezes my face and if I could bottle that moment up in a jar, I’d take it with me everywhere I go. 

Just this past weekend after service, my cousin set his year-and-a-half old “little man” down and the coolest thing happened.  Noah made eye contact with me and when I held out my arms, he and those pint-sized red Crocs he was wearing ran straight into my arms!  Ya’ll, there are no words.  I needed another bottle for that.

Don’t you know God feels that exact same love when He looks at us?  He is overjoyed when we run into His everlasting arms and we cannot even begin to fathom the depths of His affections for us.  The best part about it? – Nothing in all creation can EVER separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 39)!  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing. Next time you feel the sweet arms of a child, or the passionate arms of your spouse, or the comforting arms of your mom wrapped around your neck, let it be a glorious reminder of the infinite love your Heavenly Father has for you.  He loves us.  Oh, how He loves us.

April 12^th, 2012

My boss’s sixteen year old son is a few short weeks away from getting his driver’s license and is itching for that first car – but not just any car, a Ford Mustang!  Ah, a youngin’ after my own heart.  His Mom isn’t thrilled with this process because she’s had a lot of people telling her that he will wreck that car and because of that “fact,” she should get him a decent used vehicle to start off with.  I can tell she’s a little nervous about the whole idea and what good mother wouldn’t be?  However, I disagree with the naysayers that say he WILL wreck the car.  In fact, I tried to reassure her that’s not always the case by telling her I never “wrecked” my first car (and by God’s grace, haven’t truly wrecked any car…per se)! 

You see, all of my “incidents” have taken place in parking lots, drive ways, or at very low rates of speed and not only were there no injuries, most didn’t even require body shop work.  A couple did…but most didn’t.  I’m not sure I relieved her worries, however, when she asked how many “incidents” I have had over the years because to be quite honest, the list is a little lengthy.  *Grin*

Here goes…

The first was side swiping a parked car as I tried to back out of a driveway.  The second was backing straight into a car I forgot was parked behind me. (I now drive an SUV that beeps at me when something is close behind.  Technology is wonderful.)   The third was hitting a car parked over the line in front of me as I watched to make sure I didn’t hit the cars parked on the right and the left (it was the last space in the whole lot).  The fourth was overestimating the turn radius of a friend’s very nice, brand new Nissan Maxima and hitting the back quarter panel of a car parked to the right of me.  The fifth was backing into a car that was waiting on my parking space.  Now, I have to defend myself on this one since there’s no defense for the first four.   This particular instance I was driving a full size, crew cab, long-bed dually F350 and the car that was “waiting” on me was in close proximity and seemingly the size of a Mini Cooper.  I barely felt a tap when I hit him and I’m quite sure I could have run over him and thought it to have only been a speed bump. He was most likely honking the horn at me but I must have mistaken the noise as a bird perched on a nearby fence post. 

A couple other incidences include tapping a big, green trash can that was set out a little close to the road with the “fat part” of the same over-sized F350 mentioned above.  However, the trash can stayed upright (after a good bit of rocking back and forth) and there was only a smudge on the truck that came off with a little elbow grease.  There must have been something about that truck because I also dumped a load of very long steel bars out of the back of it when making a left hand turn at a stop light.  Thankfully, some nice men passing by took pity on the young lady standing in the grass beside an oversized truck wondering how she was going to get the ridiculous load of steel back into the bed where it belonged.  Once everything was back in place and more appropriately tied down (I wasn’t responsible for the original tie job, only the turn that slung it out with a racket that would have woken up the dead), I made it safely back to the shop that I was delivering it to. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking – especially friends of mine – that you’ll never, ever, let me behind the wheel of your car.  And if you specifically drive a nice, blue, Mustang GT with a convertible top (you know who you are), you can rest a little bit knowing that these incidences all took place over eight years ago and my low-speed driving skills have improved with (tough) experience.  *Wink* And by the way, my Mom (the proofreader) informed me she knew of none of these incidences and has now forbidden me to drive her car (parking lot or otherwise).  I’m sure the failure to disclose that information was strictly a minor oversight on my part.

Thanks be to God, He has kept me very safe on the roads, including my seven years of commuting seventy miles a day, and I pray He continues that blessing!  However, I certainly think He’s used those “gentle nudges” in the parking lots over the years to help me be a little more careful elsewhere!  In fact, He’s done that for me my whole life.  I believe He uses those grace-filled nudges to get our attention instead of permitting all-out disasters to fall upon us and I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather learn the easy way the first time around than the hard way the second time around!  Thank you Lord for your mercies!

Unfortunately for my boss’s son, however, his first set of wheels may be less-than-desirable by his standards thanks to my parking lot stories and everyone else’s first-car-crash stories.  I think they are now looking into out-of-service armored cars…

I viewed laying something at the cross as a permanent act…never to require repeating and when I tried on multiple occasions to give something to God yet still felt the burden of that “thing,” I felt a frustration that I couldn’t shake.  Ronnie said something not too long ago that made a lot of sense because he related it to what he had been through in his past.  He told me that when he was going through his darkest days, he constantly had to keep turning his burdens over to God because he kept “picking them back up.”  But the important thing was he kept giving them to God and kept giving them to God until he didn’t pick them up anymore.  That clicked with me and gave me a freedom I needed.  I needed to know that it was ok and even normal by human nature to struggle with something for a season.  God created our emotions and He knows that we will feel pain over any kind of loss for more than just a day.  He just wants us to rest and trust in Him when we feel that pain.  His plans are always for us.

However, I quite frankly got tired of picking up and laying down after a while.  Perhaps a little impatience kicked in.  Ok, a LOT of impatience kicked in, despite knowing I needed to trust and wait on the Lord as Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us!  Do you know that feeling?  It got so bad – and I can’t believe I’m going to admit this – that I tried something a few months ago.  I thought if I did something “symbolic,” I would truly be able to “let go and let God.”  So, I went to Party City, bought some balloons and wrote my burdens on them with a permanent marker.  Yep, you guessed it.  I was going to have a “release party” where I prayed over the balloons and then let them float away along with all the heartache that I was feeling.  Lord have mercy.  So, I blew up the balloons, myself…only to realize…yes, this requires helium.  I said “oh for crying out loud,” popped the one balloon and canned the idea, realizing it was going to take more than a balloon release to heal my hurt. 

I’m shaking my head and laughing so hard at myself.

Anyway…

In yet another recent conversation with my husband, who I thank God for every day, he presented me with a different term and concept to consider: complete surrender to God!  Surrender of my situation, surrender of my broken friendship, surrender of my desire to be Mrs. Fix-It.  Ya’ll, I got that!  The first thing that flashed through my mind was a short video clip of me not only laying my burden down at the cross, but washing the mud off my hands, holding them up to God while my eyes fixed on Him (instead of the burden), telling Him “Lord, I surrender this completely to you,” and walking far enough away that I wasn’t in arms reach to pick it back up again!  The only arms reach I want to be in is the reach of God’s ever-loving arms!

I’m going to be honest here…I’m nervous.  I’m nervous because this revelation is fresh off the page for me…like two days fresh.  I’m nervous, despite knowing God tells me 365 times to FEAR NOT.  You see, though I’ve tried to fight it, I’ve gotten accustomed to the hurt and the roller coaster of emotions to the point where I almost expect it, despite being constantly surprised by it.  I’m nervous because I feel a freedom and excitement inside of me that I haven’t had in a long time and I don’t want to lose it – again.  It’s a freedom that gives way to the faith of that tiny mustard seed Jesus speaks of in Matthew 17:20.  The faith that tells that blasted mountain to M-O-V-E in the holy name of Jesus!

I’m saying this to you today because I want to claim publically and in advance, victory in Jesus – victory over the captivity that I’ve allowed the enemy to hold me under for way too long.  I want you to hold me accountable.  In fact, I would love your prayers, as I will pray for you too.  I pray that we will place a death-grip on the praiseworthy fact that Jesus Christ is our Lord; that God wants us to experience a freedom and peace like nothing we could ever dream for ourselves; that he wants us to surrender everything, EVERYTHING in our lives to Him.  This morning I took a really deep breath and it felt so good.  I know more trials will come and heartache may rear its hurtful head yet again, but Lord, I surrender all to you, with the faith that moves a mountain.

This week, however, I got a taste of something that didn’t please the palate as much and I’m sure you’ve had a little experience with this as well…it’s called humble pie!  You know what I’m talking about…when you have to swallow your pride and it doesn’t settle so well on your stomach because you know the pride shouldn’t have been there in the first place.  Please tell me someone reading this is shaking their head in understanding and that I’m not the only one who has recently dined on this!

This past Sunday, as the women’s leadership team sold tickets to the Spring Illumination event, I found out we had much fewer women signed up to attend than we had last year and planned for this go-round.  I’m certain this was Satan attacking me because I felt the proverbial wind let out of my sails.  I, for some reason, had this grand idea of a large crowd with a powerful program and over a hundred women walking out of those doors praising God.  I was worried we wouldn’t have enough people to fill our small group break-out sessions and so on and so forth.  It was truly selfish thinking.

Several emails went back and forth during the week among us as we prepared for a smaller crowd than originally anticipated and God finally addressed my pride issue.  He did it through the very peaceful and kind words of a dear friend who said “Those who need to hear will hear.  Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”  I realized at that moment I had been viewing this event from a human heart’s perspective, not God’s heart. 

Right then and there I thanked God for putting women in my life who are deeper in their walk with Him than I am because He always provides wisdom through them.  I’m thankful that my ridiculous pride didn’t stretch so far that it would deafen me from the discernment that taught me a very valuable lesson!

There are times in life when it is difficult to look at things from a Godly perspective.  Ok, there are a LOT of times when it is difficult to do that!  Wouldn’t you agree?  You see, as long as we are wrapped in the flesh, we will struggle with balancing our own desires with God’s desires but praise Him for putting brothers and sisters in Christ in our lives to help redirect our focus.

There was a moment when I originally read that email that I dropped my head and was ashamed of myself but God immediately took that shame and gently lifted my chin so that my eyes focused on Him.  He filled my heart with a thankfulness over the fact that He loves me so much that He would orchestrate something, even if it was small, to deepen my trust and faith in Him.

You know what? Come to think of it, that humble pie just might have been the best “sweet thing” I had all week!

Anyway.  I was listening to Travis Cottrell’s version of “Just as I am” yesterday on the way home and I love the chorus he’s added in to the old, beloved hymn.  It says “I come broken to be mended, I come wounded to be healed.  I come desperate to be rescued, I come empty to be filled.  I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb.  And I’m welcomed with open arms, praise God, just as I am.”  It’s hard not to sing that last sentence without a smile on your face because it’s such a wonderful reminder that I can go to God exactly as I am and always know that He’s waiting on me with opened, welcoming arms.  

What a relief.

The recent storm I’ve been in continues to linger so this verse has a little extra special meaning to me.  I’ve had the mentality that I have to hurry up and get it together before God runs out of patience with me.  You know the Casting Crown’s song “East to West?”  Well, there’s a line in that song that says “Today I feel like I’m just one mistake away from You leaving me this way” and that’s where I’ve been living lately.  I have been putting pressure on myself to be perfect, to handle everything exactly the way Christ would and it took some people in my life gently reminding me that this journey is exactly that…a journey that takes time, and it’s a journey with God.  It’s dealing with situations that cause me to rely on Him and love Him more.  It’s overcoming anxiousness, impatience, frustration, confusion, and so on, and so forth.  It is knowing that I can go to God completely broken and in a complete mess, and He will always…ALWAYS…welcome me. 

I am so thankful we serve a God Who knows we can’t live up to the example His Son set.  Aren’t you thankful for that too?  Some of us still have a tendency to put that burden on ourselves and it’s a burden God never intended for us to take on.  If He did, there would be no point in sending Jesus to the cross.  At any given time, no matter how much of a walking disaster we’ve become, we have direct, immediate, and complete access to the Creator of the universe.  And we get to go to Him exactly as we are.  Broken, wounded, desperate, empty, guilty. 

Thank you God that I am pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb and I’m welcomed with open arms, just as I am.

I thank God that He has provided us with resources that allow us to type something that we know is in the Bible and then instantly gives us the verse it’s actually located in so I can pull out my Bible and see it in print for myself.  If it weren’t for the internet, I’d spend an enormous amount of time just looking things up to make sure what I was saying wasn’t just a good quote someone spouted out.  I earnestly want to know Him more and more with each breath I take.  I never want to confuse something someone great said with something great HE said. 

When I encourage or challenge us all to do something, please know with absolute certainty that my conviction and struggle over the topic is considerable and I never present something to you from a place of perfection, or anything remotely close to it.  You can rest assured that nine times out of ten I bring something up because the Lord is moving me toward change in my own life.  Please know that everything I say in this blog is meant with whole-hearted love and affection for our Heavenly Father and for you…whether I know you personally or not. 

I had a scare a few weeks back where I thought I may have said something in a particular blog that wasn’t Biblically accurate and I remember very vividly the flood of fear that swept over me.  I even asked God if He wanted me to give this up.  The thought of leading someone away from God instead of toward Him paralyzed me.  I shared this with no one and just prayed it out until much to my relief, God assured me that He knows my heart, even when no one else does.  I promise you, my heart is always for Him.  Unfortunately, my flesh doesn’t always reflect that and my prayer is that you will hold me accountable just as you would those closest to you. 

As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, our walk with Christ is not easy.  He didn’t promise us it would be.  But what He does promise us is that He will never leave nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6).  Anytime we have any opportunity to share God with someone else, whether they are a believer or not, we run the risk of inadvertently sharing ourselves or the world instead of Him.  The most powerful thing we can do, however, is get on our knees before Him, pray, and meditate over His Word to fight off Satan in Jesus’ mighty and powerful name!  We’re not always going to get this thing called “life” right, but God knows our hearts and I pray that they will always be focused upon the One Who breathes each and every breath into our body.  Let’s be about Him and for Him in everything single thing we do.

This past weekend Ronnie and I finally sat down to watch the movie “Courageous” and if you haven’t seen it yet, allow me to assure you that it is worth every second of your time.  It’s a wonderful movie for couples, it’s a wonderful movie for teens, and it’s an especially wonderful movie for parents. 

I think most of us would agree that the “big screen” is not the typical place we see God glorified.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.  Think of all of the Hollywood blockbusters that have blown the box office wide open compared to the number of films we see that honor God, His Word, and Biblical life values…and then get “awarded” for it.  The ratio is highly discouraging and it’s so bad that we have to assign a rating to movies so families know what their children “could” and should not see.  How wonderful would it be if every movie released was not only appropriate, but Biblically and soulfully beneficial for everyone of all ages to see?  What if each time we walked into theaters, we walked out with our hearts full and hands held high in praise of our God who was lifted up in the movie we just spent money and precious time to watch? 

I guess that’s why I’m so excited over movies like “Courageous,” “Fireproof,” “The 5^th Quarter,” “Facing the Giants,” and so on.  How awesome is it to sit down in front of the big screen that quite possibly just finished showing a horror film that now gets to be washed by the purity and joy of a story centered around Christ.  Praise God for that “cleansing” because let me tell you, this world desperately needs it.  WE desperately need it. Our eyes and ears are caked with the crusty mud of violence, profanity, pornography, drugs…you name it.  We are exposed to it every single time we turn on a television.

This week I’ve been thinking about what the movies I have in my house represent and I have considered talking to my husband about doing a cleansing there too.  I have to admit, however, it would be tough.  If you’re like me, you have some “favorites” sitting there beside your TV that make you laugh but if we really evaluated the principles behind those movies or TV series, do they point us toward Christ?  Or do they promote the world’s agenda and all the stuff God’s Word says isn’t beneficial to who we are in Him?

I tell you, this is hard stuff.  When we start really looking at all the “little things” in our lives and what it all represents…even just the movies in our TV cabinet or the music on our iPod, it’s tough to let go.  I say this admitting that cleaning out my movies is probably not a process that will take place this weekend.  It’s something that I would have to do slowly and prayerfully.  Silly, huh?  We are so assimilated to this world and the stuff in it that we find ourselves attached to even the smallest of things and letting go seems impossible and unfair.  I mean why shouldn’t we be able to sit down and enjoy a good chick flick from time to time?

I pray that you and I will get to that point where this world just doesn’t appeal to us anymore (and I’m certainly not there yet)…that all we want to see and hear is words and actions that lift up the mighty name of Jesus and encourages others to seek Him more.  1 John 2:15 says “Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you.”  I’ll say it again that this is tough stuff because I know myself well enough that if I end up with a lazy day on the couch, I’ll most likely pop in one of my favorite chick flicks and enjoy it just like I did the first time I saw it.  I guess I would like to just challenge each of us to be less passive and more proactive in what we “take in” on a day-to-day basis.  Be more aware of what we’re allowing our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our souls to meditate on.  How I wish we could go to the theater each weekend and have several options of Christian movies to choose from instead of having to wait a couple of years for one to be released.  

This is the world we live in but we have the choice of whether or not we are saturated with it.  I have a long way to go with this one and my guess is there’s someone reading this who has a long way to go too.  God wants us saturated with Him alone and He tells us in Romans 12:2 to not be conformed to the “pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  This “renewing” process is something that will take time but is absolutely possible with God.  Let’s encourage and support one another.  Hold each other accountable for what we’re doing, saying, and watching.  What a difference He can make in us and through us.

Over the last handful of months, I have been engaged in a situation that has truly tested me.  This “thing” I’ll call it has tested my patience, ability to love, and everything you can imagine in between.  It has brought out the best of me and the worst of me all at the same time.  I have been angry, hurt, shocked, disappointed, frustrated, sad, humbled, uncomfortable, forgiven (by God)…you name it, I’ve felt it. 

Recently I reached a point where it was time to “unload” and get all the nastiness out.  By “nastiness” I mean an unprecedented amount of emotion that I’ve never experienced all at one time and it all came out on the keyboard.  Three pages worth to be exact.  I’ve never been so convinced that I’m “right” in my life and I was ready to prove it.  I didn’t care what the cost, I was ready to bring up everything that would exalt my case and there was no backing down.   Thankfully, however, God had a different plan.

I have read over, and over, and over again throughout the Bible but specifically in Proverbs that a wise man seeks counsel.  If you’re like me, sometimes we just don’t want to hear it.  We’re either doing something we know is wrong and don’t want to be challenged by anyone on it or we’re so convinced that we’re right that we don’t want someone else to tell us to reconsider our approach.  Whatever the case, it’s just hard to ask for guidance sometimes.  Praise God, throughout this “thing,” I’ve had a few people close to me who I could talk to who would point me directly to the Bible and God’s direction on how to deal with what was going on.  This weekend, after taking everything out on the keyboard, I had a couple of people in my life suggest that though my points were valid and “well said,” the approach was wrong.  Guess what.  They were right.  After much discussion and prayer, a much more appropriate route was taken and a peace came over me that could only be the result of God providing me with real-life Biblical counsel. 

Back to the tweet. 

After all was said and done, I sat in the waiting room at my dentist’s office yesterday and came across these two statements from Travis Cottrell:  “Sometimes we have to forfeit being right in order to do the right thing.  When we dig our heels in because we’re right, we better be ready to explain why we think our justice should trump mercy.”  Wow.  I was speechless.  You see, I’ve never wanted to “argue” my case regarding anything in my life more than what I do now.  I’ve never wanted to prove my “rightness” (not righteousness) so badly.  I’ve never been so worked up over anything in my life.

I can’t tell you how thankful I am that God put people in my life to point me toward Him because if it were left up to me and my emotions, I’d be a royal mess.   Throughout the process of dealing with this, a dear friend shared this excerpt from her daily devotional:  “Peace be with you!  Ever since the resurrection, this has been my watchword to those who yearn for Me.  As you sit quietly, let My peace settle over you and enfold you in My loving presence.  To provide this radiant peace for you, I died a criminal’s death.  It is a rare treasure, dazzling in delicate beauty yet strong enough to withstand all onslaughts.”  (ALL OF THEM…DON’T MISS THAT!)  “Wear my peace with regal dignity.  It will keep your heart and mind close to mine.”

If anything will appropriately put us in our place, that will.  Who am I to get in a tizzy and insist on proving myself “right?”  Now hear me on this…this doesn’t take away the fact that I still have an enormous desire to be right.  I’d be telling you a story if I said otherwise.  What this does is lay a blanket of gentle humility on me that reminds me of Who my God is, and what He did for me.  I certainly didn’t deserve it and never will.  He has provided us with a grace and mercy over our lives that is impossible to match.  I pray that He will continue to remind me of that mercy and allow me to share that with others.  I pray the same for you.  Sometimes being right just isn’t worth it and we have to let God work, where and when He’s ready.  His ways are ALWAYS higher than our ways.