Get To Work

In my continuing study of the proverbs 31 woman, today I am looking at her "vigorous" work. I am reflecting on my own work. I've noticed that I am great at making a plan but not following through. I do the easy part but not the vigorous work. That's got to stop! So I don't have the money for paint for my kitchen. I will scrub it and make it look like its been painted. I will got through my plans that I have made and DO them, not just look at them. It's time to stop "talking the talk and walk the walk". God did not choose the easy way out for me, why do I think it's ok for me to do that. "Whatever you find to do with your hands, do with all your might" Ecclesiastes 9:10. "In all hard work there is profit, but merely talking about it only brings poverty" Proverbs 14:23. I am not going to live in poverty! I am not going to just talk about it anymore. It's time to get to work!

Sometimes It Takes 40 Years

I am working on the challenge to read the Bible in 90 days. I have been reading Leviticus and Numbers. We wonder why it took the children of Israel 40 years to get to the promised land when they could have gotten there in 11 days. Have you looked at all the requirements that they had to fulfill? I can barely read them in 11 days, they had to act on them. It took them 40 years to PREPARE to enter the promised land. They had to learn God's way and not the world's way. The sad thing is, all but two could not do it. They could not leave the world's way behind and just follow God.
I am so glad that I live in a time that does not have to follow so many laws of God. I do not have to offer a special sacrifice for the different sins that I commit. I just have to accept Jesus and His forgiveness.
In a way, I am like the children of Israel. Sometimes it takes me "40 years" to get that I am forgiven and my sins are forgotten. Sometimes it take me "40 years" to get prepared for what God has for me. Just as the children of Israel, God is going to bless me in "His time" not mine. He is preparing me. I can choose to let Him and not take as long, or I can choose to "wander in the wilderness" and take longer than need be.
I need to allow Him to prepare me. No matter how long it takes! If it takes 40 years, then so be it. God knows best! I just have to allow Him to work and learn from Him. Do it His way.

Change

Change; it's a part of life right? So why are we so afraid of it? Why does it cause so much conflict? I know the standard reasons; we are afraid, we just don't want to change, we are comfortable the way it is. But if there is a better way is it not worth the effort to change? I don't want to be this way forever. I want new things, excitement! Something different. I am not a robot who does the same thing over and over.
I just finished a three day workshop with other teachers in the same content area. We were presented with new teaching methods and grading methods. There was such an uproar over change. Why? We think our way now works, and I agree it is working. But what if there is a better way?
We are like this in everything. We get in such a routine that we don't want to get out. Actually, we are so comfortable in our life that we don't see a reason to change. But what if there is a better way? What if God has a better plan than ours? Yes it may seem hard. Yes it may seem scary. The "un-known". But why not at least try, and I mean really try. Give it a chance. Instead of arguing and complaining about change, let it happen. See where it goes. Who knows, we may just like it!!