During this rare quiet time, I came across several posts that I want to remember and ponder...
Lysa TerKeurst, a writer for Proverbs 31 Ministries, wrote Embracing Who I Am. Here is a great, insightful excerpt...
And while I still fall short at times, I'm finally learning that being fully me is so much better than an imitation version of someone else. I have the exact qualities God knew my kids would need in a mother. So, each day I hold up my willingness and ask God to make me the best version of me I can be.
I also love John Piper's Blog, Desiring God. In an interview with John Tripp, he discussed obedience and community.
Excerpts from "How Does God Motivate Obedience"...
God's warnings and encouragements are not just tools to manipulate my behavior, because it's clear that God is not satisfied with that. I think that what he is after is my heart.
Isn't that exactly why God rages through the prophets against Israel? He says, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. I won't take that. I don't want your holy days. I don't want your solemn assemblies. I don't want that stuff! I want your heart."
If I had the heart in view, I would never motivate that way because it's damaging to the heart of a child. God's warnings, on the other hand, are never damaging to the heart. They're after the heart, because he knows if he doesn't have my heart, he doesn't have me.
In the Old Testament, we see that God's people would actually, on the way to the temple, make sacrifices to Baal. On the way to the temple! That's how deep the idolatry was in their heart. If God is zealous after our hearts, he's never going to allow that.
This happens when I'm focused on doing whatever I can do to get my kid to do what I want him to. But if I could get at his heart for a moment, then when he goes to bed with his room still messy, it's still a victory. Maybe we haven't gotten to the room cleaning yet, but we've gained ground in the most important thing—the Lord ruling his heart.
Excerpts from "What Hinders Community"......the highest value of materialistic western culture is not possessing. It's actually acquiring.
And so we've bought an unbiblical definition of the good life of success... That doesn't promote community.
I've talked to a lot of families who literally think it's a victory to have 3 or 4 meals all together with one another in a week, because they're so busy. Well, if in that family unit they're not experiencing community, there's no hope of them experiencing it outside of that family unit.
So we've just been confronted with how all of those things that aren't evil in themselves become the complications of life that keep us away from the kind of community that we need in order to hold on to our identity.
These are only excerpts...I encourage you to read the original posts!
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