Oops. This is a day late. I think I needed a day to recover from my slave driver husband who was on a mission this past holiday weekend. We spent hours in the yard and then rearranging and deep cleaning the house. I wish I could say I was a willing participant to the mass cleaning, but by 9pm on Monday night, I was trying every method I could think of to get him to stop so I could stop. But he was focused, and there was no stopping him. I am thoroughly enjoying our clean house and perfect yard though and was pretty thankful he didn’t listen to any of my attempts to distract him from all the projects over the weekend.
As I sit here enjoying my deeply cleaned house, I am reminded of how much I did not want to work this weekend. Every muscle ached, I was tired, and all I wanted to do was stop and say “its good enough”. I wish I could say I pushed through without complaining and with a joyful spirit, but honestly, if Brent hadn’t been so focused, I would have easily quit only to sit here this morning wishing I had pushed through.
Most of life seems to be this way. All the good things I desire, take work to achieve. I want to be in shape so I must keep running, even when my feet hurt, my body aches, and it is so humid that I can’t see because of the sweat dripping into my eyes. If I want to achieve my end goal, I must push through the pain and the overwhelming desire to quit.
Our relationship with God follows the same path. Most of life I wallowed in the thought “I wish I was just disciplined enough to get up in the morning” or “I’m just so tired” or ” life is so busy” or any other number of excuses. But yet I still desired to be intimate with Christ.
I sit and look at my clean house and yard and am reminded to keep pushing forward. I must work at pursuing Christ while at the same time submitting to Christ so that He can do what He wants in me. I must get up when I don’t want to, sit down and be still when the work around seems to be calling my name, read when I desire to veg in front of the TV, pray when I desire to play, and listen when I desire to talk. Intimacy with Christ, just like my clean house, is not achieved by being lazy. Intimacy with Christ is achieved when we force our desires under the submission of Christ and push ourselves to pursue him rather than the world around us.
Father, keep me submitted to you and listening to you rather than my flesh which hourly cries out for me to be lazy in my relationship with You. Let your Kingdom reign over my emotions and desires today.
Goals: (completely forgot to post them last week! oops!)
- Still reading Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur. Its taking me longer than I thought to work through this book. It is an incredible book but lots of food for thought in it. I’m finding I have to read a few pages and then think about it and then read a bit more. I’m only through the 3rd chapter so far but learning so much about the disciples. This might be one of my new favorites.
- Also reading Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas again. I needed to change my perspective on parenting again. Every time one of my kids hits a new “phase” I need to refocus myself and my parenting and this book always helps. Its so good to get a perspective change which always leads to an attitude change.
- Also reading Have a New Kid by Friday by Kevin Leman. Yes, I’ve read this one in the past as well. Its good, and as I said, one of my kids is currently going through an interesting phase =)
- Wasn’t able to run outside last week. Brent was out of town so I couldn’t work out in the morning. I’ve come to depend on those early morning workouts! Going to try for 5 miles again tomorrow morning. Last time we ran 5 miles in 42 min. and I would love to keep that pace for now.
- Still getting up early and sitting down at lunch with God. This really isn’t a goal anymore as much as just part of life. I pray it continues to be part of life and a part of me and doesn’t go back to being something I force myself to do. I know how easily I can fall though so definitely praying the Lord’s grace over my desire and time with Him.
Happy Wednesday everyone. Hope your day is amazing and full of the joy of the Lord. Fight for that joy today. I know I am! =)
