Monday, July 9, 2012

Shortcomings

Living fully now, perspective, and the inevitability of death have been on my mind recently. My priorities tend to be far too mixed up. When I worry more about the junk food I just ate and the damage it could do to my body than the sin I just committed against my husband or in my heart, there is something wrong. I desperately need my heart to turn toward Jesus first.

I feel an urgency to seize the day, the moments that I have. To live outside myself more and to serve and move in more impacting ways. Nothing grand, only simple ideas come to mind, and that is okay. I just must be faithful with the talents I've been given. First this means loving my family well, serving them by my faithfulness to Christ. It means bringing my children alongside me when I love others outside the family, demonstrating how to live a faithful live. It means prayerfully beginning my day, seeking out wisdom and an open heart that is sensitive to the Spirit's guidance. It means having grace, neither being puffed up by my good works nor discouraged by my faults and shortcomings.

From the Valley of Vision, "Shortcomings:"

I fall short of thy glory every day by spending hours unprofitably,
by thinking that the things I do are good,
when they are not done to thy end,
nor spring from the rules of thy Word.
My sin is to fear what never will be;
I forget to submit to thy will, and fail to be quiet there.
But Scripture teaches me that thy active will reveals a steadfast purpose on my behalf,
and this quietens my soul,
and makes me love thee.