Enjoy your work…

I’ve been struggling lately.   I’ve been looking at things in a negative light and it makes it really hard for those closest to me to be around me.  I have been looking at homework, chores, and work as things that HAVE to be done and it becomes this huge pressure over me.  I thank God that this was brought to my attention.  There is no need for a bad attitude.  It will destroy everything that means something to you.  So, I am praying for God’s strength and a different mindset.  A mindset of gratitude and joy.  Why not sit down to do homework and enjoy it?! I tried it yesterday evening and guess what, I actually did enjoy it!  I pray for the Holy Spirit to help me to speak only positive words and to be still and listen.  I pray to think positive thoughts and to approach life with joy.  Here are the scriptures that really spoke to me this morning:

‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness,
and you will harvest a crop of love.
Plow up the hard ground of your hearts,
for now is the time to seek the LORD,
that he may come
and shower righteousness upon you.’ Hosea 10:12

As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.
Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool.
When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. Don’t let your mouth make you sin. And don’t defend yourself by telling the Temple messenger that the promise you made was a mistake. That would make God angry, and he might wipe out everything you have achieved.
Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead. Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20

Amen!

Birthday Presents

So amazingly, I turn 30 today.  I say amazingly because I don’t feel like what I imagined 30 would feel like.  I think back to when I was fifteen and how I pictured myself at 30… “a grown-up.”  Now in my mind at fifteen “grown-up” meant someone with kids and a house and lots of responsibilities… someone very different from who I thought of myself then.  But now that 30 is here, I find it kind of funny that I still don’t feel like a “grown-up.”  I mean, yes, I am married and I have a lot of responsibilities, but I still feel the same. I didn’t wake up this morning and the whole world had changed.  I am happy and I feel blessed and grateful.

There is one huge difference in my life from when I was 15; I now know Jesus. So, I guess I am a different person, but not in the “grown-up” sense, in the sense that I have been given a new life and hope.  I was 25 when I gave my life to Christ, now 5 years later my relationship with Him just keeps getting better.  Of course, I have stumbled and taken some backward steps, but once I felt his love, I don’t want to live without it.

It got me thinking about gifts that we give to each other on special occasions and sometimes for no reason at all.  Why do we? Out of obligation or out of love?  The presents given out of love are always the best ones.  It could be something that has little monetary value or is kind of ugly, but you love it anyway because it reminds you of the love that someone has for you.  My best birthday present is God’s unfailing love. His open arms for me even though I screw up all the time.  Nothing can compare to the gift of eternal life and hope that he has given me.  He even gave me my second best birthday present, my husband.  He poured out his love on us and he gave me my husband’s love. He blesses us to overcome the obstacles that we face in our marriage; that every couple faces in their marriage.  That is why the vow says “in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health,”  there are hard times in every marriage and I thank God that he helps us to get through them.

I thank God for all of my family and friends.  Those are the priceless birthday presents.  Of course it’s nice to get gifts, but they are never as valuable as the people who gave them.  It reminds me of the scripture that we had read at our wedding (and that lots of people have read at their weddings):

Love Is the Greatest
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13

Amen!

The River of Healing

So this morning I read Ezekiel 47:1-12.  Ezekiel was a visionary.  He received many visions. It seemed to be the first time that I have read this particular one….I say seemed to be cause I do have a tendency to read things and then completely forget ever reading it.  I was struck by the river that he describes; a river of healing.

–Ezekiel 47:1-12-

In my vision, the man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple. There I saw a stream flowing east from beneath the door of the Temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side. The man brought me outside the wall through the north gateway and led me around to the eastern entrance. There I could see the water flowing out through the south side of the east gateway.

Measuring as he went, he took me along the stream for 1,750 feet and then led me across. The water was up to my ankles. He measured off another 1,750 feet and led me across again. This time the water was up to my knees. After another 1,750 feet, it was up to my waist. Then he measured another 1,750 feet, and the river was too deep to walk across. It was deep enough to swim in, but too deep to walk through.

He asked me, “Have you been watching, son of man?” Then he led me back along the riverbank. When I returned, I was surprised by the sight of many trees growing on both sides of the river. Then he said to me, “This river flows east through the desert into the valley of the Dead Sea. The waters of this stream will make the salty waters of the Dead Sea fresh and pure. There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows. Fishermen will stand along the shores of the Dead Sea. All the way from En-gedi to En-eglaim, the shores will be covered with nets drying in the sun. Fish of every kind will fill the Dead Sea, just as they fill the Mediterranean. But the marshes and swamps will not be purified; they will still be salty. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. The leaves of these trees will never turn brown and fall, and there will always be fruit on their branches. There will be a new crop every month, for they are watered by the river flowing from the Temple. The fruit will be for food and the leaves for healing.”

What do you think this vision symbolizes?

It made me think of Jesus and the spring of living water.  That with Jesus all who drink of the water will be healed and given eternal life and will produce fruit for the Lord.  The fruit being the gathering of more of his children.

What do you think?