Where You Lead

Foundational Trust

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.

Jeremiah 17:7

One of my biggest challenges is trust. I have a tendency, as do many of us, to want to control situations and outcomes. I want to step in and do something to make things work out right. At the same time, or at alternating times, I find myself longing for someone to take care of me as if I were I child. I just get tired of being a grown up. I want someone I can trust.

I know I need to let go of control and turn everything over to God. God is the only one deserving of my trust. I’ve learned through the years that you can’t trust a job or career, that drugs and alcohol are not reliable, that other people are only human and will likely let you down. Only God is there for me always and only God will never let me down. I must trust God for the big things and the little things in my life.

Today, I will trust my Lord.

Looking Forward

One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14

There is much to be learned from the past, no doubt. Once we learn that lesson, though, we need to walk away from the experience and not dwell on it. We need to move on.

In my own life I have been guilty of getting stuck on a mistake or sin, being unable to move on. I beat myself up over it and regret my wrong choice. I forget that God has forgiven me and that I need to forgive myself. By forgiving myself, I can look ahead and continue on the path toward my goal of a life in God’s kingdom.

I’m going to make an extra effort to forgive myself and to start each day anew, working toward my goal.

All Or Nothing

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

Have you ever wondered why you don’t feel some sort overpowering joy when you think of God? I used to wonder that all the time. I knew people who seemed to be overcome with emotion at the thought of Jesus. I was jealous of their faith and spiritual life. I thought that God had touched them in a way that I just couldn’t fathom.

It took many years and much prayer to realize that what I was seeing in others wasn’t “more” than what I had, but was simply different. My love of Christ and my faith in God was just as real as anyone’s. It didn’t matter that my own faith was more quiet and relaxed; what mattered was that God could look in my heart and know that I was sincere in my love for Him.

We much each set our on our journey to seek God, knowing that He will find us and be for each of us just what we need. God will look into my heart and know that despite the mistakes I make, my desire is to please Him. God knows the truth in my heart. And in yours.

Ultimate Choice

For to Me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Plilippians 1:21

To live is Christ. I keep thinking about this. I’ve pondered it all day and figured I should just write what’s in my head regarding it. Not sure if it will make sense, though.

Do you remember the WWJD? bracelets and shirts and things from several years ago? It was all about trying to make choices based upon what we know or what we suppose Christ would do. As we muddle through our day, we must choose and choose and choose. With prayer and conviction, we will choose Christ. When we stray, when we forget the prize, we often regret our choices.

And then, “to die is gain.” Every choice we make with Christ in mind is another step closer to our reward. By dying, we gain eternal life with our King. Remembering the real prize makes choosing Christ in our lives so much easier.

Today, I made an effort to choose to live for Christ. I must remember to do that each day.

Number One Priority

“Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

Wow. That’s powerful.

Jesus said that we must give up everything to be His disciple. Everything. He didn’t say “most stuff” or shiny things.” He said everything.

I don’t think that Jesus wants me to walk away from my husband or my children, my granddaughter or my parents. What Jesus is saying is that God must be first in my life. I must be willing to walk away from anything that keeps me from my first priority – God. As long as I keep God as number one in my life, everything else will follow suit.

The problem is that some things in my life don’t enhance my relationship with God and other things just get in the way of it. Those are the things that I need to discard. I don’t make changes easily and I don’t like throwing things out, so pruning my life is quite a task. I know that God’s pruning of my life will make my entire existence more abundant and fuller than I ever imagined. I just need to make God my top priority and everything else will work out just fine.

Constant Trust

Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.

It’s been quite a while since I thought about trusting God. I used to pray about trust almost every day. You see, I decided a long time ago to trust God to the planning of my family. I figured that there was no way that husband and I could know better than God how many kids we ought to have. For many reasons, it took a leap of immense faith to continue to trust Him after the birth of my daughter. But we did. And He took care of us.

Sometimes doubt clouds my mind and I reason that God is so busy with other, more important issues that I shouldn’t expect him to tend to my life just because I’ve decided to trust Him with the details. That thinking is flawed, of course, since God just doesn’t fit neatly into the human box that I’ve built around Him. He wants to be a part of my life, regardless of how mundane or inconsequential it is in the grand theme of things.

Trust. I must remember to trust His love and His care for me. I must remember to trust that He knows better than I do in every situation. I must work on trusting Him enough to not worry, not stress, not pore over every detail of every dilemma I face. I must trust Him to show me the answer because His answer is always right.

Striving For Excellence

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

Colossians 3:23

Excuses. I have excuses. I’ve been mothering for nearly 30 years. I’ve cooked and cleaned and I’m burned out. No one appreciates the things I do around the house anyway.

None of that matters, though. God has blessed me with a husband who goes to work every day, children who are healthy and good, a home that is warm and food on the table. These are blessings and tending to these blessings should be a labor of love, not a point of resentment. When I fold my fifth load of clothes from the dryer, the folds should be as neat and crisp as those from the first load that morning. When the dishwasher finishes, I should gladly empty the clean dishes and start reloading the dirty ones, grateful that we have food to put on those dishes.

I really need to stop doing half-hearted jobs and start to strive for excellence in all I do. Every job is important and should be made into a song of praise to God who has provided so much to this family. God has entrusted this family and our home to my care and I must not disappoint. I must strive for excellence as a testament to God’s blessings.

Family Goals

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua 24:15

Sometimes I feel like I’ve failed my family.

We women often set a tone in our homes that the rest of the family follow. No matter what’s going on around here, if I’m unhappy, the rest of the family senses that and follows suit. I think families tend to follow mom’s lead in priorities, too.

I attribute my own spirituality to my mom’s example throughout my life. Serving God was important to her so it naturally became important to me. I’ve just not been as vocal about my faith as my mom was.

I never really pushed my kids to go to church and I probably don’t give a very good example of living a Christian life, either. I curse, I say mean things, I sometimes behave badly. I miss Mass. I didn’t make God, church or spirituality a priority in my family and now my kids are very lackadaisical about their faith. In this way, I have failed my family.

I must set my priorities and share them with my kids. It’s never too late to do the right thing so I’m going to begin today to do the right thing. I want my family to feel the love of God that I do. It’s time to turn this family around and set our priorities right.

Important versus Urgent

He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done.

Proverbs 19:17

I’m a list writer. When I have things to do, I write lists. I always feel so good about my lists, and I love marking things off of them. And yet, I complain that I just don’t have enough time to do all the things I’d like to do. Just one problem with that.

I spend an awful lot of time doing things that are not on any of my lists. In fact, I spend more time doing the things that aren’t at all deserving of placement on my lists than I do on the lists themselves. That sure does make me wonder how much more I could get done if only I’d stop doing the things that are just not important.

Yes, I blog and I write that activity on my list. But why must I take time from my blogging to read over the celebrity gossip sites or eavesdrop on the latest forum fight? Isn’t watching a football game with my son more important? Or playing with makeup with my daughter? They’re not on my lists, either but they ought to be.

I want to give my time to those in my community touched by addiction but I’m always “too busy.” I want to get to Mass a few mornings each week but I never seem to get moving in time. All those things that aren’t important enough to put on my list are keeping me from the things that are important. It isn’t that I don’t have enough time; it’s that I don’t manage my time properly. It’s that I waste time doing things that do not enrich my life and sometimes actually bring me down.

Today, I’m going to try to eliminate as many of the time wasters from my day as I can. I’m going to spend time really listening to my sons and daughter about how their day was and I’m going to sit down and really talk to my husband. Today, instead of doing the things that bring me down, I’m going to do at least one thing for someone else. I’m going to reach out and make some kind of difference, even if it just means making eye contact with someone who is trying to share their day with me.

I’m going to let God guide my priorities.

Time To Praise

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.

Psalm 92:1-2

For quite some time now, I’ve been setting aside time each day to specifically pray. It’s true that I pray throughout the day – little prayers, quick prayers – but I’ve also made a habit of praying every morning when I wake up and every evening before I sleep. But what do I pray about?

My typical morning prayer is a plea to God to keep me and those I love safe this day. I pray for special things I know will be happening and for God’s guidance and safety. At night I pray that tomorrow will good and then I throw in a quick thank You for prayers that were answered.

And all that sounds like a monologue from one very spoiled child.

I know that God wants me to be happy and to prosper. God wants all good things for His children. God also wants His children – us – to praise Him. I do great in the praying and asking for stuff department but I’m failing miserably in praise for my Heavenly Father.

God has given so me so much already that the fact that I’ve neglected to praise Him is a point of shame. From this day forward, I intend to praise Him each day for all that He is and all that He has already done for me.

Please join me in praising God and let me know how your day is different when you remember to give praise.