What I Don't Do
Yesterday in Bible study we looked at this: Out of nowhere, after a lengthy passage on the fruit of the Spirit and finding freedom in our battle with the flesh, Paul randomly adds,
Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Gal 5:26)
Seems out of place, but perhaps what Paul’s saying is this: We’ll never win the battle with the flesh until we quit competing with each other. Until we quit keeping up the perfection front. How much more free are we when we’re simply walking in humility.
Then, yesterday, I visit dear Tsh, and find her refreshing post: Imperfection. She shared the things she doesn’t do. A little transparency in a website-world where it’s all too easy to keep up the front.
I just had to join in the fun and I hope you will too. Like she said, this isn’t a one-upping contest of who doesn’t do the most, it’s just a fun reminder that we all have areas where we excel and we all have areas where we don’t.
What I don’t do
- I don’t keep my floor spotless.
- I don’t wash my children’s sheets unless they actually smell.
- I don’t remove my mascara before I go to bed.
- I don’t ever move furniture to vacuum. (I just wait until we move!)
- I rarely wash my cast-iron pans. (A little leftover scrambled egg in the quesadilla is not the end of the world.)
- I can’t knit, quilt, or scrapbook to save my life.
- I haven’t exercised since September.
- I don’t always wear clean clothes. (My favorite routine: Take it off, drape it over the chair, get up in the morning and put it back on!)
- I don’t make my kids wear jackets or socks. (Dutch has an aversion to both and I just don’t care.)
- I don’t always do the dishes right away.
- I don’t know how to twitter.
What about you? Don’t leave me hanging, ok? What things can you smilingly and joyfully admit that you don’t do? A little levity for our journey along this life of faith … Thanks for reading.
When you're trying to find balance …
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
(Gal. 5:25)
How many times have we been asked to do the exercise? List out your priorities as you want them to be … Of course we’re supposed to put God first, then family second, or wait, maybe we’re supposed to put ourselves first, but then what about our spouse, and then work is a must so where does that fit in? I’ll tell you what:
No matter how many times I’ve listed out my priorities it’s never revolutionized my life.
Here’s what’s revolutionized my life:
Understanding that it’s not knowing my primary priority that matters but knowing my primary identity.
We do what we do because we are who we are.
I love how the NIV translates Galatians 5:25 (above). Essentially Paul is saying, “Because you live by the Spirit, have been made alive by the Spirit, because your identity is a Spirit-birthed individual, live like one! Keep in step with the one who gives you life and you will have life.”
Who are we? We are, of course, children of the Most High God, chosen and redeemed, set free from sin and alive to God, called according to His purpose that we would walk in good works every single day of our lives, bringing Him glory, delighting in His goodness, displaying His power to a lost world hungering for hope. We’re servants, we’re worshipers, we’re family, we’re learners, we’re missionaries. We are, first and foremost, disciples of Jesus Christ.
What if I look at my to-do list with that in mind? Keeping in mind that everything that I do I do as a disciple of Jesus Christ, called to fulfill His great commission and be His ambassador here on earth?
No where in Scripture are we called to find balance. Our notion of “finding balance” is cultural. Christ calls us to take our whole life — work, play, service, both sacred and secular — and drench it in the water of His Spirit so that as we move about this world we’re soaking wet, dripping all over the world, spreading the gospel not because we’re handing out tracts but because we’re handing out hope. We’re kind, patient, loving, gentle … our life displays the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-24).
What is our identity? Are we citizens of earth or citizens of heaven? Our identity determines how we live. We can walk in step with the world, running to keep up with the passing pleasures of each new year, or we can walk in step with the spirit, knowing that in His presence is fullness of joy.
{How does your identity shape the way you interact with this day? Thanks for thinking on this, and for reading.}
How houses are built (and how they fall apart)
Sometimes all we need is one verse.
Ya’ll know by now that I love my Bible. I’ll blab ’til I”m blue in the face that we all need to be reading our Bibles. But lately I’ve been camping on the fact that we don’t need to know much to “get” this life of faith. In fact, at a recent conference we looked at this:
Our aptitude for God’s word matters less than our attitude toward God’s Word. The most important thing is how we approach His Word. If you know one verse of Scripture you can obey that verse and memorize that verse and ask yourself what does this verse tell me about God? And then hold up that verse and look through it every single day and let it clarify the world for you. Let your world come into focus based on what that verse tells you. Sometimes we got so many verses rattling around in our brains we’re not using any of them. Whatever it is that you’ve got hold it up and look at it. Do it. Obey it. Pray it. Think about it. And look through it.
So here’s what I’ve been looking through, still trying to “get” it:
A wise woman builds her house, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands. (Prov 14:1)
I love this word-picture. I remember, when I was 10-years-old, we built a house. My dad did the building, but we all contributed. I carried 2×4’s and swept up messes and my brother drove nails and my mom did whatever Dad asked. I can still picture my mom holding up plywood while Dad shot it full of nails. (I also remember, on a freezing cold morning, when he nail-gunned his hand to the plywood. That was a day.)
But my mom was always there holding something up.
Can you imagine if she’d been doing the opposite? If she’d been walking around the house tearing down fixtures or taking a sledgehammer to whatever work Dad had just finished. Or now, can you imagine if I walked around our house with a baseball bat smashing windows and knocking over furniture?
A wise woman builds her house.
It doesn’t say “A wise woman builds her business” Or “a wise woman builds her church” or “a wise woman builds her friendship-base” or “a wise woman builds her blog.” All those things are wonderful, but our first order of business, ladies, is building up our house.
There’s a reason God’s put this verse on my heart.
Because I need to be reminded.
Why is there such a constant temptation to build up everything except our homes? Perhaps because our homes are so mundane, so ordinary. The home is a humble kingdom, to be sure. It needs a queen who is small in her own eyes.
So if the woman’s not building, what is she doing?
Tearing down. How? With her own hands.
How sobering is this? Woman, we have so much power. The words we speak, the attitude we embody, the choices me make a thousands times a day. Everything we do is either building up or tearing down our house. With our own hands.
Am I creating order and beauty or chaos and confusion? Am I building up or tearing down?
A simple question to return to each day: Does this activity benefit my home and the people who live in it?
There are myriad reasons why houses fall apart. But this verse highlights the most important factor:
Our hands. We can blame society, peer pressure, culture and bad TV. But our hands are what build up or tear down our homes. Our words, our attitudes, the work we do each day. So the question for us:
What are my own hands doing today? Am I building up or tearing down?
{Friends, blogs, and businesses come and go. I want my house to stand. You too? Thanks for reading.}
PS In the middle of this post, Jeff and the kids said, “Mommy will you play with us?” You better believe I shut this laptop and we, all four, went outside for some serious playing! Dutch dressed the kids — it was Beaver football in our front yard! Here’s a peak:
Week's end with (your) thanks
So the more I got to thinking this week the more I thought it’s just not fair that I do all the writing and you do all the reading *smile* … So can we make this week’s list of thanks together? And, I’ll admit, the week was full and it’s late and I’m pooped. Can your gratitude help fill up my own? I’ll start us off, then will you please list 3 of your own grateful items (or more if you want!) in the comment space? We can make a mighty list if we all contribute. It’d be fun to see. Thanks for helping me sing songs of praise this week, it’s a gift to do it together. Thanks.
- Steaming cups of Trader Joe’s spiced cider. It might be my favorite part of fall! {PS Anyone have a great spiced cider recipe? I’d love it!}
- Hello Somebody athletic gray hoodies — benefits Africa New Life children and these things are so stinkin’ cute. Jeff and I bought them for each other for Christmas. Surprise!
- Kids so tired they fell asleep with graham cracker in hand.
- … And yours?