A Christmas Funny - Mr. Bean

Gotta love Mr. Bean! :)

Why the wait?

Soon I will be going back to work.

I feel like there are a million things to do before that happens! I see my house and I want to get it completely clean before I am gone for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week.

It makes me wonder why I didn’t do this before now. I have been home for about a year, and not once have I felt the urgency to get cleaning like I’m feeling this week. So, I will be spending the next few days making sure my home is in order…

I think this a good wake up call for me. What other things in life am I putting off until the last minute? What about my spiritual life? Am I waiting until the last minute to get my house in order?

On Sunday, my pastor was talking about our bodies, and how God sees them. It’s no secret I’ve been overweight for years, and recently I have begun to do something about it. I’m actually worried less about the way I look, and more about my health for the first time in my life. But why did I wait so long? Why did I wait until I had my gall bladder removed before I started paying attention to my health and what I was eating and how much exercise I was getting?

I need to stop waiting and start doing…. I will not wait for the perfect moment to invite my friend or neighbor to church, I will do it. I will not wait to start my daily quiet time and bible reading each morning, I will do it. I will not wait for the perfect weather before I start my jog, I will just do it…

You get the idea. I have a lot of things I just need to start doing. What about you? What have you been putting off that you just need to start doing?

I pray that today we will all be reminded that life is short… Let’s not waste it!

Doormat? or Radically Submissive?

Matthew 1:24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.

We all know the story of the birth of Christ. We know that the angel appeared to the virgin, Mary, and she was obedient to God in saying yes to His will. For much of my life I have considered her a role model for me, especially after I became a mother.

Recently, however, I was reading through the book of Matthew in my quiet time, and as I began, I was struck by the obedience of Joseph. We don’t often hear much about him and I think he deserves more of our attention. We know that Joseph was a just man (Matt 1:19) and upon learning of Mary’s condition, he chose not to disgrace or shame her publicly, but intended to privately and quietly break their engagement.

Can you imagine what he must have been feeling? At that time, he had every right under the law to make a public example of her. I am sure that he was heartbroken, and maybe even angry at what had happened to him, but instead he had compassion on her. He was a good man.

It is only AFTER he is faced with this situation and AFTER his compassionate response that an Angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. God allowed Joseph to wrestle in his humanness and respond to the situation before laying out His divine plan.

And Joseph obeyed the Lord in complete submission to His will. I am willing to bet that Joseph’s family and friends thought he was crazy. Can you imagine trying to explain to them that his betrothed had in fact NOT slept with another man, but was carrying a Son, who is the Messiah? They probably thought he was insane, allowing himself and his reputation to be ruined by this girl. They would have seen him as a doormat – being completely walked on.

So that leads me to my thought today… Doormat? Or Radically Submissive?

How often are we submissive part of the way, rather than all the way, for fear of being seen as a doormat? I know I have been guilty of that at times. I worry about how I will be perceived and I am afraid that if I look like a doormat to the world, then the world will treat me as such. This kind of thinking is lacking one thing: Trust in God. If we truly trust our Lord, we should know that He will not allow the world to treat us as doormats when we are radically submissive to Him. He will keep us safe and protected from the world.

John 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

I pray that all of us who find our identity in Christ will trust God enough to be more like Joseph. Not just obedient, not just submissive, but Radically Submissive to His will. If we can do that, without fear of what the world will think, we can find ourselves living a life free of judgment and full of the Joy of the Lord. We are not called to live as the world lives, but to live for Christ alone. We live in the world, but are not of the world. I challenge each of you (and myself) to remember the words of Jesus when He said, “Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world…” These words of Truth can make all the difference in our walk with Him.

Time to be ME

I'm not special.

I am a woman, a Christian woman to be more specific, and I have a desire to write.
What you will find in this blog is the whole truth of me. I will at times be funny, or rather corny. I will at times be spiritual. I will at times make no sense at all, but I will always be real. I will be me.

I make mistakes, I am imperfect and I love God with my whole heart.
I am not proud of everything I have done in my life, but I am not ashamed either.

I am not sure anyone will read what I have to say, but I will write it anyway.
If you are reading this, then I have already accomplished more than I anticipated... I hope you enjoy it.

We'll see where this journey takes me, and I hope you come along for the ride.

Signed -
Me