With Grace and Joy

In my weekly Bible Study we are studying Beth Moore's "Daniel: Lives of Integrity and Words of Prophecy".  I cannot tell you how much I am learning!  I spent a lot of today thinking about "friendly captivity" and how I play right into it! 

I have spent so much of my life doing what I thought I needed to be doing by everyone else's standards.  My parents, my husband, my neighbors, my friends!  But I wasn't paying enough attention to the standards God had set for me.  WOW!!  It seems so silly!  I should have known that I needed to be paying more attention to what God wanted from me and not what the world wanted from me.  But for whatever reason, I wasn't.  Well, I am paying attention now!  I want to receive the knowledge and understanding that God desires to give to me.  And I know that someday, I will hear the voice of God. 

I am reading the book "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp.  She has brought into my live a new word... Eucharisteo.  It flows so sweetly off my tongue and its meaning is just as sweet.  It means "thanksgiving", however, Ann goes even farther into its meaning.  "Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis.  But it also its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning "joy"."  The word means thanksgiving, with grace and joy! 

That got me thinking.  Do I give thanks to God with grace and joy?  Do I really?  Do I thank Him for days when nothing goes the way I want it to?  Do I thank Him for the hard times that have happened to me?  I know I thank Him for the good stuff, but do I thank Him for the not so good stuff?  And even further, since I am not sure that I am giving thanks with grace and joy, am I being obediant to what it is He wants for me? 

I think I know the answers to those questions and I feel shame.  But I also know that today is not over and there is no need for shame, only the need to fix it.  To go to my Father, on my knees with thanks for everything. 

Melinda

Looking Deeper

Okay, so it's been a while AGAIN!! 

A gracious friend of mine blessed me and my family with some venison from the game ranch her husband manages.  And we have eaten it at every meal since!  We had deer tacos, deer chili and tonight my greatest materpiece... back strap strips with peppers served over beef rice... YUM!!  My husband is in love with deer meat.  I think he may take up hunting after eating the meat! 

I have been following a blog called A Holy Experience (http://www.aholyexperience.com/ ) for a while now and have decided to take up her challenge to see gifts in everything and write them down.  I will put my first ten gifts at the bottom of this post.  Ann Voskamp has, unknowingly, been helping me to see gifts in all that I do in my home, at work, at church with everyone I encounter. 

Ok, so my walk with to Christ has been more intense this time around.  The easiest way for me to descibe my education before is like a small child learning to paint, using a big brush with broad strokes. Now, I am more "grown up", I am trying to use a small brush and watercolors!!!  I left Fort Stockton and our wonderful church family with a relatively basic understanding and now I am refining it.  Looking in the minutia of the Word for beautiful little nuggets God left there just for me, instead of just reading the Scripture which was the basis for Sunday service.  Looking deeper is what I am searching for right now, along with God's purpose for me.  I hope to find the gifts that God gave just to me to enrich His Kingdom. 

I have also just started a new bible study with a little group that was started in town.  Beth Moore's Daniel Study.  We have only done the first session and I am so ready to find out how to live in our modern day "Babylon".  I will be sharing more about that on Thursday, after we meet again!

So for my One Thousand Gifts List:
1. A kitchen to create a nourshing meal for my family.

2. My husband... who brings me comfort and laughter

3. A daughter... who brings me joy

4. A son... who reminds me everyday of who I am

5. A hug...

6. My sunday school class... those kids definitely taught me something today!

7. A friend... who brings me meat and her peaceful spririt

8. Joyful laughter shared with my kids today!

9. A Son... who gave himself to save me

10.  A creative mind...


Melinda