Time Moves On

Well, here we are into a new calendar year, but continuing our school year. We are in the down hill stretch now, ladies! We can see the light at the end of the tunnel! That is some serious motivation for me. This is also the time for the infamous new year's resolutions. Some of these might include being a better homeschool mom (there is no one harder on a homeschool mom then herself), to manage our finances better, to eat healthier and get more exercise, and to spend more time with the Lord. Those are just a few of the miriad resolutions that may go through our minds. Almost always our resolutions come from something that we feel we are deficient in.
But what if we changed our resolution thought process this year. What if we simply prayed each day with our children: 'Lord, please bring us opportunities to minister Your love to someone today. Bring to us the people You want us to reach out to. Bring us situations that will give us the opportunity to choose to handle it in a Godly way and teach us to be more like you.' Then lets actively watch for those people and those opportunities. They might be the check out person at the store, the drive thru person at a fast food restaraunt, the teller at the bank or maybe, just maybe, that person will be your husband or a sibling. What might happen if we kept in our minds all day, 'Jesus show me how to minister to this person (no matter who it is), shine your light here and give me the courage to speak in love in your name.' This requires courage and selflessness on our part, and a whole lot of trust that no matter who God puts in our paths that day that is exactly the person the Lord wants us to love and to minister to. This is what the Lord is working in my heart about right now. He wants me to live all of my life looking for opportunities to serve Him and love others. So often I am in such a hurry and I am so busy with what I think is important that I miss what God says is important. When I think about the hearts I might have reached in some way by loving them with Jesus love, it makes my heart sick. All those people I passed by and never gave a second look to that desperately need to know that God loves them and by showing them God's love maybe they will want more. It's not my job to know what ministering to them through a smile and a kind word or an offer to pray with them or a blessing will do in their lives. That's God's job. My job is to be obedient to Him. And so let's make our resolution this year to serve the Lord in any way and to any one He will give us the opportunity to, to change our homes and our lives by living out the love of Christ to all those who need it, and by the way, everyone needs it. You will never find anyone who doesn't need it. What a full life we will have if we obey God in this way!