It’s been on my mind to do for some time now, but I finally just did it.
I changed my blog address and title.
You can now find, read, and visit me at DailyCupOfGrace.com.
It is the same content, same me, just a more fitting title with more flexibility.
And this is what you’ll see when you get there….
Building. It is something that in my 9 years of married life I have spent quite a bit of time doing.
Right after we got married we spent a whole year planning and working our way through the building process on our home in PA. Then 4 years later we spent 3 very intense months gutting and re-building our current home. And now another 4 years later we have just finished an almost 2 month long addition project.
In all the time I have spent on the process of building homes I never once thought about building a Reading Priorities List. Until now; after I read a fabulous book about reading titled: Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books by Tony Reinke.
Up until last week I have always felt a bit overwhelmed at deciding which book to read next out of the many books I have in my “To Read” pile. However, taking the time to build a Reading Priorities List has changed that pressure and given me greater purpose in the time I spend reading. I now have a plan that allows my reading to build on what I have already read in order to build both godly habits and thinking into my life.
Therefore, when I built my list from the model that Reinke gives, I thought it was only appropriate that it have a building theme. Here is the basic outline. (You can see the whole list in this post on my book review blog.)
How about YOU? What are you reading?
Stay tuned next week to look at my Reading List for 2012 using my new priorities to build it!
Do you like a good, quick meal?
Is that a dumb question?!
I happened upon this video clip and now I often use this EASY and YUMMY recipe to put together a QUICK pan of chicken for dinner.
Around here we love a good chicken dinner. And this Mama likes it a lot when it’s FAST.
The time it takes to fix the dinner…not the chicken!
So how about YOU? What GOOD and FAST chicken recipes do you like?
Apparently Micah has never read this verse in the Bible:
“He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, It will be reckoned a curse to him.” – Proverbs 27:14
On Sunday mornings, when he’s up before the girls, he loves to stand at the edge of their room and in a high-pitched, 4-year-old voice, crow like a rooster….”Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
The girls don’t appreciate his sense of humor.
They groggily yell at him, “If you do that again we won’t get up!”
Ahh! *happy sigh* The joys of siblings!
How about you?
What “fun” things did your siblings make you endure?
I like to think of myself as being able to do and balance a lot in life.
But quite honestly, while I may be able to pull off looking like I am handling a lot, I often feel very overwhelmed.
Often.
VERY overwhelmed.
It’s something I battle on a weekly, if not daily, basis. I am always trying to simplify. Cut back. Eliminate. Organize.
I always think there has to be a better way…
And this morning I found that “better way”! With coffee cup in hand, I sat down to do my online quiet time and the first verse my eyes read was this one:
“Like one who takes a dog by the ears, Is he who passes by and meddles with strife not belonging to him.” – Proverbs 26:17
Before you click the little red “x” and move on to a more interesting blog post by someone a whole lot more eloquent and sharper than I…let me explain what I mean.
In this short little verse about dog ears God gives me the answer to feeling overwhelmed.
My parents have a very beautiful dog named Colt. He’s a large German Shepherd. I love that breed of dog and grew up with a lovely female one named Kitty. But Colt is only 17 months old and obviously I have not grown up with him. My relationship is different with him than it was with Kitty. When Mom and Dad weren’t around he has barked and growled at me enough to keep me from getting out of my car. Quite honestly, I love the dog, but I am scared of him. You won’t ever see me grab him by the ears.
Because I don’t want to get bitten!
However, while I would never dream of grabbing Colt by the ears, I tend to grab a whole lot of other things by the “ears”. I grab and hold onto concerns, problems, and burdens that are not mine to hold. Then through out my day I find my mind dwelling on these things that I have no control over. Before I can say “Colt” I am feeling overwhelmed and agitated.
When I feel overwhelmed it is because I am grabbing “ears” that I was not meant to hold. Instead, I need to hand it off to God.
And when someone shares a burden with me, rather than embrace the problem as a new treasure, I need to take the person by the hand and set this concern before the Lord.
It’s His.
Not mine to grab.
How about you…do grab dog ears?
This morning I made my current favorite hot drink – Café Mocha – and sunk into my big blue chair to “do the do”. You know, do the right thing….check my devotional time off my to-do list for the day.
I opened up my laptop and began to read today’s scripture passage on my Online Quiet Time Diary account and as I read the light bulb came on and the bells and whistles began to sound off – it was an “Aha! Moment”.
Today’s passage was 1 Timothy 6:1-8:
“1 All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against. 2 Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles.
3 If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. 6 But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content..”
It was verse 6 that jumped off the page and arrested my attention.
I continually strive for growth in my relationship with Christ.
I read the Bible.
I pray.
I go to church.
I read extensively to learn more about Him and how to obey Him.
I spend time evaluating my life and examining my spiritual growth.
I reach for godliness.
I beg Him for godliness in my life.
I even pursue a gospel centered life and daily endeavor to focus and apply the gospel to my life moment by moment.
And this is why verse 6 made me freeze in my seat this morning. While I am busy striving for godliness in my life I have left contentment behind.
Oh sure…I look around my home and evaluate my contentment with what I own. I almost routinely go through my cupboards, closets, and bins and give away any duplicates and extras we own in order to help us be content with simplicity.
But this is where its becomes absolutely ironic. In my pursuit of godliness and contentment I am not content with my growth. Instead I see a whole list of things that need to change, be fixed, gotten rid of, have the rough edges sanded smooth….and my heart beats faster and my soul rises in discontentment. I want my life, my husband, my children, my ministry to be better!!! I am frustrated because I should be so much more godly than I am!
And here is where I sit.
Stuck in the mud of trying to grow in godliness while not allowing contentment to grab hold and get me out of this hole I dug. I check things off my to-do list as fast as I can rather than enjoy the process of growth and celebrate each milestone of God’s grace in my life. I lust for more rather than worship Him for what He has done and what Philippians 1:6 tells me He will do.
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus”
So this is my “Aha! Moment”. I need to embrace my growth with vigor AND contentment, trusting in His perfect timing…”fixing [my] eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”. (Hebrews 12:2)
And now I am declaring this a day to celebrate God’s goodness and work in my life and trust HIM – not my own striving – to continue the good work.
Will you join me in walking this walk with contentment as our companion?
