Sunday, May 24, 2009

Declutterized


The past week and the week ahead will call for major declutterizing of our house.  We geared up for Prom, more graduation parties, a quick visit with my dad, Senior Sunday at church.  Now we are gearing up for Bekah's graduation party here at the house, arrival of family and finally graduation on Friday.  As I took down some memorabilia from Bekah's room I remembered her youth, laughed at her wonderful personality reflected in her room decor and relished in the beautiful young woman she has become.  One filled with compassion, wit, determination and creativity.  A very well rounded woman of God getting ready to take on a new life in the mountains of Montana.  She is driven to excel in the passion of film and photography.  A love we share together.  I am anxious and excited to see what God will do with her once she gets even more instruction and even better tools in her belt.  It can only get better from this point forward.
As the world and life seems to be moving at a rapid and fast pace I am wanting to "stop this train, I want to get off".  I noticed a woman yesterday when I was at a stop light in Fredericksburg who was waiting impatiently for the light to change so she could walk across. She seemed like she was in a hurry and genuinely put out by the slower pace the lights were keeping her in.  Then when it was her turn she started across and must of realized how silly it was for her to be moving so fast and caught herself to slow down.  I chuckled at the thought of being on a weekend vacation and being in a hurry.  Last night Bekah was TeVoing Star Wars so when we sat back down to watch it she was fast forwarding through the commercials.  As the familiar commercials raced across the screen my head began to hurt, so I just closed my eyes til the movie came back on.  These modern conveniences are wonderful tools, but once again pushing us at that faster paced life we desperately would like to slow down.  This thought of fast took me to the Word and this is what I discovered.  I am thankful for the opportunity to fast on His Word today as I move fast to get ready for the week.
In this declutterizing of our house, it has made me aware of the things I hold "fast" to.  I did a word study on the word fast and it is interesting that when God talks about fast it is usually paired with holding.  Basically being still and has more to do with diligence than speed.  It does take diligence and strength to move in a fast pace and keep it up.  Other words that are paired with fast are bind, abide, keep, proclaim, cleave, stand, stick, held, and stuck.  None of these reflect any mention of moving fast.  There is also the fast of abstaining, but even then I feel as though that is a form to remain steadfast at something whether it be a fast with food or something else.  My point is that even though our world may be moving fast our God tells us to hold fast, to be sure we act quickly to His calling, to respond immediately to the things of God and not let go.  Be diligent in our pursuit of Him and the calling He has placed on our lives. Stand fast in it, not necessarily move fast through it.
As I wish this week would go in slow motion I am blessed to get my house in order, to watch a young woman step into her next phase in life and have my house full of the ones I love dearly.  I do not wish to hold fast to "things" too tightly.  I became lazy living with clutter that seems so irrelevant now.  William is so great about clutter patrol, as he calls it, cause he makes me laugh all the way through it.  Yesterday he asked me if this copper ladle that had been sitting outside for goodness knows how long was one that Davey Crocket used to sup water at the Alamo?  I was laughing so hard I was speechless.   I get my house in order, one cause we are planning on putting our house on the market soon, two we are having a party (always a good reason), and three cause one is leaving the nest and its time to purge the stuff.  God instructs me to keep my house in order and I don't mean just my physical house,  I mean my spiritual house as well. The word order means to get set, make ready, prepare and direct.  I must hold fast to the order God has placed in me, on me and through me.   Time is fast approaching as my desires remain to hold fast God the Creator.  So, I remember to stand fast steadfastly so that when life moves too fast I stand.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Taking the Initiative


I could not have asked for a more perfect Mother's Day.  It was perfect in the sense that I truly felt honored by my family.  I was missing two of my six children for they could not be with us, but relished my time with the other four in their absence.  I am finding as time goes on, the changes that life brings, our times together need to be savored.  
I helped a friend who owns a flower shop deliver all over town for Mother's Day is one of her biggest days.  She had us going all over the place.  I learned more about the layout of our streets than ever before.  Delivering flowers is a wonderful thing cause everyone greets you with a smile.  Not like a bill collector, doctor or home repair professional who I would guess is greeted with uncertain and fearful faces.  No the pleasure is all in the deliverer who gets to see how loved and blessed others are by the gift.  So true of our Savior.  I imagine His Glory is His grin.  He takes great pleasure in being the deliverer as well when we rejoice knowing how loved we are and blessed by the gift of Himself. The feeling we get when we receive flowers we should feel everyday knowing we are a much loved child of God.  This is how I felt on Mother's Day.  More loved by the gift of my children that God has loaned to me than anything else.  He loves me so much to have given me six gifts. Well actually seven, cause my husband was my first gift.  So my seven gifts from the Lord bless me seven times over.  
They make me want to take the initiative to take  better care of myself.  I read recently in Oswald Chambers: May 10th: "God will not give us good habits, He will not give us character, He will not make us walk alright.  We have to do all that ourselves. We have to work out the salvation God has worked in us.  We must get in the habit of doing things, and in the initial stages it is difficult to instruct yourself in the way you should go".  
For this very reason I must lean not on my understanding, but on God's understanding.  I must train, get in the habit of the way I should go and there is where God meets us. He meets us initially, along the way,  and see us through, all the way to the end. We know the way and really don't need to ask when we know perfectly well.  I have to take the first step in taking the initiative without hesitation especially when He tells me to do something.  If I am calling out to God when a crisis hits then the habit is formed.  "We have to take the initiative where we are, not where we are not".  I read all this on Mother's Day and have paraphrased some of it. That day I had taken my first step, my initiative and determination to listen to God, to take better care of myself, and to heed His Word even more. How many first steps do we all take in a lifetime?  Each first step, I believe, is a step toward everything.  This day I went on a 5 mile hike with my family as part of my Mother's Day celebration and it was marvelous.  It gave me confidence and I am not alone in the process.  My family is behind me and so is God.  Then on May 12th I read, "The right thing to do with habits is to lose them in the life of the Lord, until every habit is so practiced that there is no conscious habit at all.  Our spiritual life continually resolves into introspection because there are some qualities we have not added as yet. Ultimately the relationship is to be a completely simple one.  Your god may be your little Christian habit of prayer at stated times( that was a hard one to read), or the habit of Bible reading.  Watch how your Father will upset those times if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes. 'I can't do that just now, I am praying; it is my hour with God'.  No, it is your hour with your habit.  Love means that the habit is not visible, you have come to the place where the habit is lost, and by practice you do the thing unconsciously.  If you are consciously holy, there are certain things you imagine you cannot do, certain relationships in which you are far from simple; that means there is something to be added.  The only supernatural life is the life the Lord Jesus lived, and He was at home with God anywhere".  
I am hopeful the initiative taken draws me closer to God that leads me to a simpler way away from my habitual reservations and into full throttle adventure with Him.  I have taken the first step and I know He is right here beside me.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Beauty Treatment


I sit before my computer unable to sleep or lay these weary bones to rest as the thoughts whirl around in my head of all that I would like to say.  As women who agree and disagree sometimes avoiding conflict sometimes not, we abide in God in a world filled with differences, yet we are all the same to God.  We say we crave to be a slave for God yet we enslave ourselves to the very things God detests in our own lives.  We congregate and congegate professing the latest news that has captured our attention long enough to grab the latest news of our sisters demise or rise.  Holding our breath as we enter a room wondering if they see you, do you dare look.  Filing into a room filled with women who are weak and who are strong, who are brave and who are scared, women who love and women who hate, those who are filled with passion and those who are fried and used up.  Together we gather young and old silently filling our pots with treasure and our stomachs  with pleasure. Pushing our food around with our forks, sipping on our tea and coffee sometimes wishing we were somewhere else.  Engraved on our hearts however, is the obedience of Christ that teaches us the sacrifices of grace. Whispering and wondering, laughing and crying, rejoicing and groaning all for a cause to further this deluge of joining together in one accord as the Father would want for us. Romans 15:5-7 "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of  our Lord Jesus  Christ.  Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepts you, in order to bring praise to God".  Nowhere does this happen that something huge doesn't happen.  When this force of commitment to One and to one another comes together the air is suddenly fuller.  An unequally matched component never to be duplicated.  O we try year after year, but it is always different as we gather much in the same way.  A tweek here and a pinch there tightening up the finishing touches of a never ending masterpiece.
A woman of noble character, who fears the Lord, who prays to God, who learns, who is blessed among women, who remains silent and dresses modestly and teaches the younger women how to be women of the past.  She teaches us how to die, how to live, how to grow and persevere. Long suffering for the betterment of others, for the faithfulness to God and of God that sees us through.  1 Peter 3:5 "For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful".  O that we all would strive for such a beauty treatment.