But this year?
This year I have a 10-month-old, and I’m able to wear clothes from my college
days. This year, I’ve been able to chase
the kiddos around the yard and be active during the summer months. This year it
was the right “stage” to host 20+ people in our home. And we had an amazingly rewarding, fun time
doing it, too! Leis, fresh pineapple, a
hilarious skit, water games . . . I wouldn’t have missed it for the world! It was an opportunity to serve alongside my
husband in a ministry, and to further connect with the precious young people in
our church.
I wasn’t ready those
other years . . . I needed to say “no” to a lot of ministry opportunities. Sometimes, I was doing all I could just to
teach children’s church for a month, every 2 or 3 months, and get myself up in
the choir loft once in a while. And that
was alright! I was doing what I NEEDED to be doing! I was delivering babies, recovering from labors,
caring for newborns, being there for my other children, homeschooling
preschool, potty training, trying not to fall under the weight of the overwhelming day-to-day .
. . And you may be there, too, right now!
You can’t do it ALL, and the Lord doesn’t expect you to! There are STAGES! Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To every
thing, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the
heaven.”
In what “season
of life” do you find YOURSELF? Are you
doing what God has asked of you, TODAY?
To do less is sinful, and to do MORE is sinful! What?! Yes!
Remember Mary and Martha? Martha
didn’t NEED to be rushing about cooking and cleaning for everybody – it wasn’t
the right time! The LORD was there! In
her own home! She should have been
sitting at his feet and LISTENING! Gleaning, growing . . . There were other
days to focus on the housework. And
those “other days” come to all of us, in various areas of our lives. It makes me think of the parable of the
sower, where “ . . . the cares of this world . . . choke the word, and it
becometh unfruitful.” (Mark 4:19) I'm certain that the majority of those Christian ladies
who run about, trying to be involved in every ministry and activity possible,
truly DESIRE to be spiritually fruitful! But they CAN’T BE, if it is just “too
much”! It doesn’t do THEM any good, nor their families, nor the people they are
seeking to minister to!
My husband and I
are diligently praying about a certain country in a particular region of the
world, where we could minister to literally millions of people who are lost
without any hope in the Savior . . . We have so many “circumstantial evidences”
that this may be what the Lord has for us to do, so many words of godly advice
that have been given to us - but we desire a Word from the Lord – a verse from
God’s Word to stand on, in this. And as
we have been reading about “seeking God’s will”, “finding God’s will”, “hearing
God’s voice” . . . we have been learning, over and over again, that so much of “finding
God’s will” for the future, is DOING God’s will, today! Being OBEDIENT to Him,
today! Letting Him use the “stage” of life that He has us in, RIGHT NOW.
Are you doing ALL
you can do for Christ, TODAY? Are you
doing “TOO MUCH” – way more than God EVER intended for you to take upon your
own two shoulders – and, perhaps, neglecting the most important things of all?
Sometimes God’s
will involves taking on more than you THINK you can handle, because GOD is the
source of your strength and your power (Philippians 4:13). Sometimes God’s will for your day will
involve “putting off” and “saying no” to things YOU felt were important,
because God’s ways are “higher than your ways” and his “thoughts than your
thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). But are you
SEEKING His will for your life? Not necessarily a calling to the mission field or to
Christian service of some kind . . . Are you seeking His will for YOUR DAY,
TODAY?
It is a familiar
passage to many, but just this week, the Lord used Proverbs 3:5-6, once again,
in my own life: “Trust in the LORD
with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” May we each be able to pray along with the
Psalmist David, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is
within my heart.” (Psalm 40:8) DELIGHT
in it! Whether it be nursing, or
homeschooling, or frosting two dozen cupcakes . . . “I delight to do thy will, O my God” . . . and I promise not to ADD anything
to my day that You don’t want me to! I
promise, with Thy help, to ENJOY this stage of my life to the fullest . . . May
I be a vessel fit for the Master’s use (II Timothy 2:21), TODAY!