My Purpose

So, this morning I did not get a call to go in and sub today... it's a Monday, so no surprise.  Although I would like to be working a little more, I am enjoying the long mornings I have to spend reading, thinking, and journaling.  Every time I don't get a call, I have every intention of getting up early and using my day to accomplish things..the cluttered basement, my excessive closet, a trip to the dog park, that smell in our trash can...but alas here I sit going on my second hour of being awake with stil nothing accomplished.  Well, I guess I haven't not accomplished something, I spent 30+ minutes trying to figure out this blog site and I still don't know if it's going to work.  However, in all my laziness these past few weeks, I have spent more time with my heavenly Father than I have consistently in probably the sum of my life.  There are days where I look forward to these quiet moments, and there are days when I want to get going with my day...but you can see how well that works out for me.  For I find on the days that I want to have plans, God has others for me, and on the days I am ready to dig in, I have more time for my plans. Whichever way I blow these days, I am learning one thing: I need that time with God, even when I want to be selfish.  I am finding that if I don't spend the time with him, my attitude is off, my heart is heavy, and I am left to my own resources to conquer the day...which usually doesn't turn out so well.

Over the past few months, I have felt that God is calling me to get the word out about what He is showing me and doing in my life.  My heart and prayer is for everyone who reads this blog (so probably just my mother) that you will develop, stregthen, or be encouraged by this same relationship in your own life.  My desire is that we will all experience God's amazing grace, but even more importantly, that we will take that grace and learn how to extend it to others.  I think that our world is a scary place, and everywhere you look there is corruption. But, I have seen, and I believe that God is still alive and well, and that we as Christians need to really start living as we are called.  I am by no means close to being that kind of Christian, but I know I want to try and I want to learn and grow, and I hope that you will too.  So having said all of this, I would encourage you to repsond to these posts, to look at my pages and comment, but mostly to use this space as a spot to encourage each other and show that there is hope in this dark world.  I love you all my fellow bloggers (mom..and maybe my dad :) ... Thank you for taking the time to stop by, I hope it's worth it!

My devotional thought for the day:

Ecclesiastes 11:5-6
5Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother's womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. 6 Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you do not know if profit will come from one activity or another- or maybe both.
We discussed this verse in Sunday school yesterday, and I love what is says and what we can take away from it! First off, in verse 5, it talks about putting our trust in God.  In recent weeks, Clinton and I have experienced some challenging circumstances, and so have some of our other family members, and at times it's been difficult to trust that God is in control.  However, this verse encourages us to trust.  We don't know why our baby was taken, or why things aren't working out for some of our family members, but this verse tells us that we can't understand God's activity, but we need to trust that he is in control.  He makes the wind blow and those tiny babies form!  Even though our human minds can't grasp why things happen, faith is believing that God knows and that He has a plan, and someday we will hopefully understand and see. But in the meantime, I think we move on to our second verse here, verse 6.

What I love about this verse is that it says you need to keep busy all day and that you don't know if profit will come from one activity or another.  We aren't told to be faithful and work hard at our job only, or in our family only, no, we are told to keep busy in all the activities we do.  We don't know if that conversation, or that relationship, or even our everyday boring stuff is going to be a blessing or a seed for someone else.  Therefore, since we cannot understand God's activities, we need to be making sure that we are living in a way that keeps us open for those activities to be accomplished.  As Christians, we should live every aspect of our lives according to His word, and be aware of our attitudes, actions, and words.  Sometimes we may get to experience that joy of seeing fruit from our faithfulness, and I get so excited thinking about when those moments might come! But other times, we may never see how our actions affected someone. However, we need to trust and be aware, that we are here for a purpose and that God will move in us if we let Him. Let's be open to how God can use us, it could be as simple as a friendly hello.
May the love of God fill your heart today, and may you pass that love on to someone else.