As For Today

We often mistakenly think that things are always going to be as they are now. We have difficulties imagining how the changing seasons of life will affect the habits of today. We wake up in the morning had have our hour plus long devotions and rarely treasure the time as we ought.

I don't know about you, but as a single young adult I often forget that this is just a season of life. Don't get me wrong, I pray that one day God will bring a special man into my life and that we will have a family of our own, but in those dreams I rarely quite grasp the reality that with becoming a wife and mother my focus will shift. What I "have time for" will change. We like to think that the older we become the more efficient we will be at time management and the more time we will have. Wrong. While we may develop better time management skills, we will have more responsibilities so the time we now imagine we will have then will seem laughable when we actually get there.

Someday you may have a family to feed a cloth and to lead in the ways of the Lord. You may have little feet pattering after you all day long, and little faces to wash and ouchies to kiss. You may find that quite hour quite elusive during certain seasons of life, especially if young children are in the picture. What am I trying to say? Treasure these moments. I know the grass may look greener on the other side of the fence, but it's going to get here faster than you think. When those moments come, treasure them too, but for today, treasure the longer devotion times, the sweet hours of prayer, and your ability to focus on God a little more whole-heartedly. And don't just treasure these times, seek them out. Make time, because if you don't now, you won't then. Waiting for a time when you aren't busy is like waiting for the day you will no longer need oxygen. It's not going to happen.

Each day is a gift. Let's live it in such a way that our thankfulness is reflected back to the Father. Let's not long for what we don't yet have, but thank the Lord for what we do have. What are some other things that you take for granted?  

Strength in Weakness

Within each of us is the desire to stand strong, to be the one that others come running to for a comforting hug in hard times, or for a prayer when they feel discouraged and weakened. Each of us longs to be a "hero." Only our perception of what a hero is can become quite skewed. We want to be this strong and courageous person who never falters, who doesn't show weakness, who is always faithful. The thing is, we all falter, we all fall because we are all broken people, sinners saved by grace.

God does not call us to be macho. He calls us to be broken. It is in our brokenness and in our weakness that He is made strong. We don't have to hide our brokenness, we don't have to pretend be who we are not, perfect. Oftentimes it is our very brokenness and our willingness to let that brokenness show which encourages others. No, this is not an excuse for us to whine and complain, this is just to encourage you to examine your motives for hiding the things that God is using to refine you just so that you appear strong in the eyes of others.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).