Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Random Incomplete Thoughts for 2010

I can't believe there is already a 1 in the tens place of our new century. Remember all the hubbub surrounding 2000. The fear of doom caused by the crashing of computers worldwide. It would seem that we are heading into a new decade quietly. And for that I can only be grateful.

But it would seem that heading into a new year has me all discombobulated. Lots of random things floating around in my head waiting to become goals and plans and the will to be transformed in the light of His Word.

Romans 1:20-22
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
I was reading the other day, just reading, not studying, and this hit me. They knew Him. They did not honor or thank Him. They fell away. Now I am not talking about the sureness of salvation. People far more well-educated and spoken than I can sound confused about that subject so I stay away. But, think of the danger, not honoring God and not giving Him thanks allowed their hearts to become dark. I don't want that. Yet, I forget the thanks and the honor due Him.

Philippians 4:11
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
I feel like I am not enough. That I haven't gotten everything done but I don't know what is left to do. That I am behind. I don't know what triggers those feelings. And I don't know how to combat said feelings. There is just a nagging sense of inadequacy and of insufficiency. I want to overcome it.
We go out to eat alot. We go to the store alot. I think I have a messed up idea of need. I mean really do I need it or would it make life easier or more pleasant or improve things in some ways. What would those two more round laundry baskets really do? And do I really want my children waking up to say where are we going today? And when we look at their toys do we want to be completely overwhelmed by what they have to the point of not being able to comprehend picking them up?
I think they're linked. Giving Him honor and thanks and being content not just with what I have but with who I am and what I do.

Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
And what is education? What is home education? What does God want me to worry about when educating our children? Where does academics fall and what of discipline and character? What of developing heart in the children--how do I give into their desire to serve and love others, how do I encourage and teach that?
I used to say that I didn't want to be a weird homeschooling family, but in a world where we have forgotten faith, maybe we should be a weird homeschooling family one where God touches all we do. Not in some closed-minded, narrow dogmatism, but where considerations of His pleasure are in the forefront. Where hearts and minds and wills are being trained to love Him with everything. Oh my, then I join the learners.

James 1:27
Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
And what of myself in these areas? I looked through the World Vision catalog and our Samaritan's Purse catalog and heard from Compassion International this Christmas season. I read of friends who have adopted and people I don't know who love those children born differently-abled and rejected by their parents and their culture. I listen and weep at Steven Curtis Chapman's All I Want for Christmas. And those things I want, I claim as needs, pale. And I wonder where that leads me?

Matthew 25:35, 36, 40
`For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' . . . "The King will answer and say to them, `Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

So what of my life? What is 2010 bringing? How have I been shaped this last year? In these areas penetrated by the Light, what will the work of the Word be? For He is working.

2 comments:

  1. We are thinking the same things...

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  2. by the way, try this service: https://e-mealz.com/index.shtml
    It has revolutionized our eating out issue!

    ReplyDelete