Please Pray

So I would just like to ask a quick prayer request for a friend of mine on a mission trip in Africa for the summer.  Some things are not quite as she planned, which of course God can use, but it's caused some struggles, and she's having trouble finding time for time with God.  Please pray for that for her, we all need that recharge time, especially when in ministry.  I'll post more later this week, hopefully Tuesday.  Thanks!

Treasures

As the summer tries to get a little less hectic in the next week I want to have a weekly post called Treasures about a treasure I've found that week.  My creativity may branch out and rename this at some point but for now it's calling a spade a spade for me!

This last week's treasure was a bad thing.  In fact learning that a bad thing like that could be a treasure was really where the treasure was.  But I'm confusing you.

So on Tuesday I had a meeting with the professor of an independent study class I'm taking right now and he went over some assignments with me with their problems, some problems I could not possibly have known about without this long overdue feedback.  Regardless of that fact I left feeling very depressed because I felt like I was really failing at the class.  The class is a pretty core part of my major in some ways and yet I've felt from start to finish like I just couldn't do anything right.  Don't get me wrong, grades wise I think I'm fine (I haven't actually heard) but I don't enjoy doing it because its hard and it takes me hours on the computer, often, to accomplish the littlest task it seems like.  So its discouraged me because I thought this might be an important part of what God is wanting me to do with my life, and it doesn't look like I was right about that, and I just don't handle defeat, or changed plans, easily.  

Enter horseback riding.

I got home freaking out because of the huge final assignment my professor laid on me that terrified me in its enormity and relative difficulty compared to what I've been doing, and just feeling generally like I needed to spend every waking moment (and some sleeping, ha!) working on this for the next week (stuff will be due on Wednesday and Thursday next).  But we had to go horseback riding.  Members at our church are very graciously giving me and my friend who is living with us this week horseback riding lessons this summer.  It has been so much fun, but in the face of my attitude on Tuesday, I didn't feel real great about going last week.

and it seemed like everything went wrong there too!  I rode Bubba who is 17 hands tall and incredibly intimidating and I was just shaking, something didn't feel right in the saddle.  Bubba is pretty stubborn and difficult sometimes and he as in fine form Tuesday night.  Finally our friend and teacher saw what was going wrong and explained what I needed to change in how I was handling the reins and my spurs and suddenly something click.  He knew because the look of satisfaction and approval I got when I finally got Bubba to go over the wood bridge (one of the most terrifying exercises to me even though the bridge only spans level ground!) said it all.  I did it, I succeeded.  And after that I really had the tools I needed to control Bubba.  Our teacher pointed out that riding Bubba really makes you a more skilled horseman, because he is so difficult it teaches you a lot, and riding any other horse is easy in comparison.  I left feeling jubilant and like God had just sent along some much needed success to my wounded ego.  That's all I thought it was, until the next morning that is.

Wednesday morning is when I read this:

"We can rejoice, too, in when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment.  For we know o dearly God loves us because he has give us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." Romans 5: 3-5 (NLT)

Wow!!!!

This is forever proof that God knows what I need each morning because if I ever needed to be convinced that God was working in the doldrums and the storms of my summer, this was the proof I needed.  This means that I can be thankful for riding Bubba because he makes me a better rider, producing endurance and strength of character to hang on and push till I get it and feel more comfortable in the saddle and out of it as I take on and off bridle and halter and saddle etc., and the confident hope of becoming a good rider some day.  And I can be thankful for this class because if I can hang on through it, and learn to manage my time well and not give up when I feel defeated with a hard assignment, I have a greatly strengthened character, and with that comes the confident hope that next time this happens, I'm prepared because I have God at my side and the character He has carefully whittled and honed during this time of frustration and difficulty.  

So that is my treasure this week, endurance, strength of character, confident hope, and Bubba.

p.s. I highly recommend Romans for reading through, it's amazing!

Time

GREAT THINGS I DID WITH MY TIME THIS WEEK:

• Read The Buck Stops Here, a great mystery by Mindy Starns Clark
• go hiking in the gorgeous mountains God made with my mom and best friend
• pray for my dearest friends around the world serving God
• bake the best cookie recipe in the world (well...at least the lowest fat best)
• read my Bible
  
• sit at my granddaddy's feet and hear about his day

NOT SO GREAT THINGS I DID WITH MY TIME THIS WEEK:

• get impatient in a conversation with my mom
• wish away my time at work wishing I was at home relaxing
• drive to and from work on auto-pilot, not using that time for something good
• oversleep when I could be rejoicing in God's great day
• stay up late because I didn't use my time during the day to get homework done
• eat lunch at work when I should be working

Have you ever thought about what a precious, precious thing time is? God has given us so much of it...and yet so little.  For instance, it has now been fully a month since I last found the time to write on this blog because of a summer class that lasted through June and seemed to take every second of my time, not to mention family and construction on our house and a friend coming to stay...all three WONDERFUL treasures, and also sharers of my time.  

Of course, this blog is not particularly life or death and no one will suffer greatly for my having missed a month.  In fact, I don't know if anyone would even notice at this early stage of my blogging "career".  But the thing I've realized is that unless you make time for the important things, they disappear.  The blog isn't the only thing that has suffered.  There's also time with my family and dear best friend who is here (!!!!), sleep, and, most importantly, time with God.

The Bible (one of Paul's letters I think?  I can't find the reference right now) says to "redeem the time because the days are evil," (obviously not an exact quote).  These days are evil aren't they?  We face uncertain times in our economy, our government, our world.  There are poor people one every corner, and hurting, spiritually broken people on every single inch of our cities and towns, needing us to reach out to them, and yet I've let my activities the last month snatch all of my time from more important things.  We let our lives rush us from pillar to post stealing our time without stopping to help others.  And so since "redeem" means buy back, let's buy back our time this week, take it back and repurpose it.  I'm doing this by carving out a few minutes to write this post, another worthwhile thing I've done this week since I know that God has called me to write this blog, at least for the summer.  

How can you snatch back some of your time this week?  Ask God what He wants you to do this week and then worship Him by using your time to do that very thing.  

Celebrate the treasure of time and thank God for it by praising Him for it, and then using it well.  It doesn't last very long so we need to value it while it is around.  Go read Isaiah 40 for words on how fleeting our time and space is in comparison to God's eternity.