One of my spiritual goals in honoring a Sabbath day. Its hard for my situation because my job requires that I work weekends and my budget requires that I work 7 days. One commitment I made to honor a Sabbath is to work extra hours in 6 days and take off work one day. Its a small step, but hardly a Sabbath. Especially the amount of stuff that I have to fit in that one day off.
I have another spiritual goal along this same line. My Pastor talks about the importance of spending time alone with God as well as one on one with individuals. I know I need this, but with four kids, by myself, 54 hour work weeks, volunteering at church, volunteering at schools.........where can I fit it in?
I started this week. I committed to spend a min of 2 hours alone with God or a friend every tuesday morning. Today was my first day.
I forced, I mean forced, myself to grab a book, notepad and my bible and sit at a Starbucks for 2 hours and just read, write and pray. It was awesome! .....and as you would guess, I still got the same amount of things done today as if I didnt spend this time with God.
God spoke to me a lot about service today. I have a new favorite word now....It's Zeal.
Zeal
Zeal is birthed from passion.
Servants must be Zealous!!!!
Servants must be Zealous!!!!
Serve with joy! Serve with pleasure! Serve with Dignity!
and another favorite word....Conviction.
Conviction convinces you to do something.
If a situation doesnt move you, then you cant move heaven.
.........and know who you are serving. You are always serving God! No matter how dirty of a job you are doing, you are ultimately truly serving God.
If Im zealous about my God, with a conviction to serve him....how can I not serve anyone without joy and pleasure.......and dignity in the fact that I am serving God?
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2 comments:
Amy- I just love your heart. There is a rare, pure honesty in your words. A couple of years ago, I took a mom's Bible study at church. The children's ministry leader taught the class and she clearly told us that during your children's young years, THIS IS YOUR MINISTRY. This may be the most important ministry in all of God's Kingdom. During this time, she said, try to lay Bibles OPEN around the house, in the car, in the bathroom, wherever. When you pass by, read what God has laid out for you and then continue on with your day. The Bible never tells us how much time to spend each day and what time of the day or where to read the Bible. God is much more complex. He knows our hearts. He knows that a single mom with 4 children who works full time and gives of herself to others in her church and community.... doesn't have 2 hours a day to leisurely sit around and read her Bible! He knows you and He can see that you love Him. It doesn't mean that 2 hours once in awhile isn't an awesome time, but He knows you can't do it every single day and a few minutes here and few minutes there is better than nothing at all.
I love your ZEAL and your CONVICTION for Jesus. I hope you keep writing. God can use you to inspire others.
Many blessings to your family. I will keep all of you in prayer. Specifically, I'm praying for God to raise up a perfect job for you that will relieve some of your stress and I'm praying that, when you're ready, God will bring forth your prince charming. (There sure are a lot of frogs but when we wait on God, He can bring forth a prince charming.)
Love in Jesus,
Amy in Atlanta
Oh, sorry.... I forgot to add in that the teacher of my Bible study learned that from none other than Ruth Graham Bell! Mrs. Graham said that she did not have hours to devote to reading her Bible at one sitting when her children were young, so she just read it a few minutes in between loads of laundry and naps, etc. She said that she believes God always had the Bibles open to the exact page she needed to read in that minute. Now that's a woman we can all copy.
Blessings!
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