Living Life for Christ Alone

 "Come and talk with Me." The whisper of the Father echoes in the mundane. It rustles through the soul in the chaotic.       As I wash dishes...       As I clean up messes...       As I wipe tears over and over...       As I start yet another load of laundry...       As I ponder the things about my children that perplex me...       As I long to go away and be alone...       As I force myself to get up off the couch (after having just sat down) to meet yet another need or to clean up another mess....       As I wonder how to point my children in the right direction...       As I take my daughter to the potty again after just doing it 15 minutes before.       As things I try to get done constantly get interrupted. "Come," He says, "tell me all." But I don't hear. "This doesn't matter very much to Him," I say, "I'm just a mom doing mom t...

It is so easy to assume certain things about God, to assume certain things about the way He views me.  This meditation below encouraged my heart along this line of thought this morning.  Be encouraged as you read along. Maybe read it as though you yourself had written it.  I needed it. It lifted my heart towards Him.  May it do the same for you.  "...He rescued me because He delights in me." (Psalm 18:19) HE delights in me: The God of the Universe. The King of kings. The sinless, perfect One. The One who sees all and knows all. The One who sees me. The One whose glance makes the earth tremble and whose touch makes the mountains smoke. The One who needs only to utter a word and things are created out of nothing, miracles happen, lives are forever changed. He DELIGHTS in me: That God (the only God) delights in me. He smiles when He thinks of me. There is pleasure in His heart over me. He rejoices over me with singing.  I bring Him joy. He is not sad about me,...

"The Lord rewarded me for doing right. He has seen my innocence." Psalm 18:24 I have been giving this verse a lot of thought lately.  Maybe it's because it makes me question who in the world could possibly claim such a thing before God. Yet at the same time, I'm strangely drawn to the confidence with which the psalmist said it. I mean, seriously though. If you think about who God is, and how He knows us through and through, it seems almost foolish to make such a claim to Him. In case you're not tracking with me, let me explain... Remember that day when you went the whole day doing everything perfectly?  You got up right when the alarm went off and shouted, "Praise God!" rejoicing the whole day while simultaneously doing everything He had for you to do that day for His glory AND serving every person you came into contact with by pouring out every ounce of strength you had with the right motives, while still wearing a smile on your face and not having a hi...

"Who will go for Me?" The voice echoes in the chambers of my heart. I raise my hand. "I will go for You, Father."  He smiles and nods. "Yes, you, my daughter, may go for Me."  But as I go on the mission that He has assigned to me I find that I cannot execute it without failure. It seems that the farther I go, the more aware I become of my own weakness.  Shame rises up within. He could have picked someone far more qualified. Why did I volunteer myself to pursue those things that matter to Him when I can't even do it right? I become like Adam and Eve and try to cover up my weaknesses with coverings of my own making. I weave together a covering of self-made righteousness and move further along into the mission assigned to me, but again I trip and fall. Even the self-made righteousness cannot hold me up.  I weave together another covering of more rules to live by -boundaries set to keep me from falling off the pathway and leaving the mission He gave me. Ag...