The little things...

Good Morning!!! I hope it's a good one for you. The weather is beautiful that always helps put me in a good mood. I must confess that I have been kind of dumpy lately... but, this weekend I have been reading a really good book.

One of the things I have struggled with over the years of becoming wife and mom is there is so much mundane, everyday stuff to do, and not enough time to offer anything to the Lord, or the world, or the church anything of any real value. Through the years I have always been comforted by the Spirit's small voice in this thing that as long as I am doing my duty I am doing something for the Lord. I have become convinced that the Christian life is one that we often times neglect to live privately. What I mean by that is that we forget to be kind, loving, patient, gentle, and self-controlled in our families... For me I have no choice, but to exercise my christian life at home because I lack the opportunity to practice it in public... It takes a lot of time and effort to keep my home running in a some-what efficient way so I am forced to concentrate on this... I say forced because if left up to me I would find (and have tried) other ways to "minister to the world". I have seen for me often time this ministry is "self-love" and "self-promotion". It makes me feel good to be seen as loving God and serving Christ. Every time I have done this my family has been neglected in some way or with busyness my temper has flared. I lose the "Christian cloak" when I'm in my home.

Well, I recently took a good hard look at my life. I had to put things in priority and order. It seems that after the top few things... God, Husband, Children, Home I don't have a lot of energy left for other things... So, I say to the Lord is this OK??? How do you feel about this. I'm not making any impact on the world around me for YOU. I'm not ministering or giving you anything of value.

I was reading this book "Stepping Heavenward, One Woman's Journey to Godliness." It's a fiction journal written by Elizabeth Prentiss (a hymn writer in the 1800's). It starts with the girl at 16 and follows her walk with the Lord throughout her life. I can't help thinking even though it's a fiction book that the writer was telling her own story in a lot of ways. I KNOW that God has used this book in a profound way in my own life and I feel her Katherine's story is my own story. Even with a century separating us I feel VERY connected to this fictional person. Through the joys and struggles of life.

This is a quote at the end of a the book. Taken from a Seventeenth Century French writer Francois Fenelon...

"The most indifferent actions cease to be such and become good as soon as one performs them with the intention of conforming one's self in them to the will of God. They are often better and purer than certain actions that APPEAR more virtuous. First, because they are less of our own choice and more in the order of Providence when one is obliged to perform them; Second, because they are simpler and less exposed to vain complaisance; and Third, because if one yields to them with moderation, one finds in them more of death to one's inclinations than in certain acts of fervor in which self-love mingles; finally, because these little occasions occur more frequently and furnish a SECRET occasion for continually making every moment profitable."

"EVERYTHING which God wishes us to do, and which enters into the course of occupation suitable to our position, can and ought to be offered to God."

So every little thing you do brings glory to GOD... Every service to your family, every diaper you change, dish you wash, every mundane act becomes a gift to God. Every SECRET thing that our occupation requires is a gift to the God of heaven seen by him alone, but rewarded by him alone as well. When we are doing what God has given us to do we are serving Him. Now let us do it joyfully. O please Lord help me do all things as unto You with a joyful, cheerful heart!!!