what I'm learning

I like taking notes on my walk with God (I have a little green notebook that I keep them in). I wouldn't call it journaling as it's not paragraphs/sentences but I do write down highlights from my Bible readings, other books I read, prayer lists, church/sermons, and pretty much anything else that comes up. So for today I am going to share what I've been learning this week.

I Remember

I have a daily devotion about motherhood that I read about twice a year and every time I read it I say to myself I should read it more since I really like it. Well last week when I read it, it said (in short) that I should keep track of when "I Remember" God. Helpful hints were: the day I gave my life to Christ, miracles I witness, times God has come through for me, and the small things. In doing this I would remember all the great gifts from God. Most of us (and I am one those people) tend to focus on the negative so this practice gets me thinking of the positive and the fact that God is active in my life through the small and big things. In the past week I've written down 5 things so I'm already amazed to see God's work in my life. Here are a few of mine...

• I Remember - you allowing me to achieve the unachievable - weight loss, running, swimming, endurance, and a new life style.
• I Remember - feeling my temper with Wendell rising so I took a break and read the devotion that day and it (you) reminded me to enjoy my time with the kids as it won't last long before they grow up. So it was meal time and at this point he was eating alone because he was eating so slow, I was reminded that I have limited lunches to sit with my little Wendell, so I went out to sit with him. Next thing I knew we were talking about school and enjoying ourselves AND he was eating (with a little help).
• I've also "experienced" a couple of small miracles but they are kind of complicated/gross to explain.

So I would encourage all of you to take some time to think about what you Remember about God. He wants us to love him and it's much easier to do when we have some idea of what he's doing in our life.

Idolatry

One other thing I have been thinking about is from our church sermon last Sunday. The sermon was about idolatry... which quite honestly I picture the cow and gold horns or whatever it was they used to worship back in the Bible. But this past Sunday Tim (our teacher/minister of the week) said idolatry is when we take a good thing in our life that is NOT God and make it into the ultimate thing in our life before God or Love (I added Love since God is Love and that is good visual for me).

** if you are interested you can listen to the sermon on line - it's the third one down by Tim B. www.orchardhillchurch.org/resources/listen

So I translated it to be what do I put before God or why am I not loving sometimes? One thing that has really been sticking out to me is "being task oriented" or "in control". At work and at home I find myself getting frustrated when we are trying to accomplish something and it's not getting done. A big example is when we are trying to get out the door, usually we don't have to be somewhere at a certain time but once we decide to go I want the kids to get socks, shoes, coat, etc. on (and in a reasonable amount of time) so we can leave. Or at mealtime I want to eat and clean up so we can move onto the next thing (even if we don't have "the next thing" planned out yet). At work I've been kind of pushy so the ladies are ready to get out the door so they've completed all their daily hygiene and also so I can get off work/go home. But since I've decided to kind of relax at work and just say what happens happens (if they don't want to brush their teeth then that is their choice, if they miss the bus then we'll deal with it then) then my life has been better. At home, I'm still working on that. But I think those are two area's that I'm not being "loving" which means I'm putting something before God (God=love). It's just another way to look at life and it reminds me that if I want to obedient to God then I need to put him (love) first. Hope all that makes sense.

So after reading all this, I encourage you to...

1. Remember God's work in your life

2. think about what you idol (put before God/love)

***as I always, I'd like to hear your thoughts