Meekness: The bridle of God on the heart

Posted from the archives.......

Teaching meekness when I'm not meek leads me to the cross alot this week.

Crying out for forgiveness and guidance to a Father who is meek.

I search the scripture for His footsteps of meekness and

I see his examples everywhere. Matthew 11 is just one of the examples.

Meekness is

an attractive disposition,

mildness in temper,

patience in long suffering,

easy to be entreated,

forgiving.

We're supposed to put on meekness Col 3v12

Meekness is

the opposite of

self-assertiveness, self-promoting, self-interest.

The world at large does not promote meekness.

The church at large does not say much about meekness, in fact

the churches around me seem the opposite of meek. Bigger buildings, more things, you

would think it was a competition "the one with the biggest church wins"..  

---

The world teaches be first in line. Have more,

pitch a fit if you don't get your way, and when you're

older just pitch bigger fits. 

 We have such opportunities in our world to change things we don't like, Buy things we don't need,

and do it all in the name of bettering ourselves. We have positioned ourselves

or fooled ourselves

that we don't need God. That we make our future, we decide

our fate, not God.

 I believe the first time I felt meek was

when we lost our baby. I had empty arms, empty dreams,

and an empty heart

and there was not one thing I could do to make it all better.

I walked around and just thanked God for everything I had

left because I realized that I controlled nothing.

I remember feeling very very small.

For a long time I felt like that but then the days turn to months

and the months to a year and the brokenness heals and I forget how

very small I am.

Being meek is not having to be first,

not having to be right,

not having to prove you're wrong.

It's living with God's bridle in your heart and knowing that

He is in control of all of your comings and goings. If we realize

 that nothing happens without Him knowing

then we would worry less and quit fighting His bridle.

Lord make me be Meek

The missed fingerprints

The week is a busy blur at times. Going through the day to day of raising children

and trying to 'count it all joy' when things don't go as I think they should. Learning to

laugh more and more because it really is funny..

The sun so bright that the smears of finger prints are heavy on my panes.

Places that didn't get the cleaning. Places that stand out in the sun.

Places like my heart when I don't love. The secret places that I haven't confessed,

unseen until the Father shines His perfect love on those places. Then I go

running to Him and fall before Him and confess.   

Forgiven..

On Sunday morning one of the men in our church said a prayer that

gave me chill bumps but the Lord used him to talk directly to my heart.

He said,

"Father thank you for being so kind to us that you've placed us in a world

so full of magic that we can only begin to scratch the surface of it in our time here.

Open our eyes to see this magic all around us- to see how a few pieces of wood

are transformed into something extraordinary- into a dining room table, where we gather daily

with our families and share our lives until that wood groans from the weight of the stories

it contains. To see how a simple bed transforms into a refuge of love and intimacy, where entirely new generations are created from all but nothing."

Does your table groan from the conversations that take place there?

Does your bedroom speak of the love you and your beloved share?

Does your home, the wood that is nailed together, reflect a deep love for each

other and others? 

Do you see a boy that will one day be a man and treat him as if he's already that man?

Do you challenge him to be the man that God requires and made Him to be?

Do you see the beauty in the growing up process and how gentle

the Lord is?  How gentle the Lord has seen fit to be with me. 

 Thankful...

Your family, keep seeing them through the eyes of the one who crafted each and every

one of them. Think of the beauty He must have saw as He made each of our children different.

As He spoke life into them and said, "This, Channie-Mae, is how you're going to be."

Cooper, you will be kind and loving.

Cullen, you will be soft spoken and loyal.

and so He speaks into our children the special blend that makes them unique.

Find that in each of them and you will see the finger prints of God on the souls of your children.    

  

He wants you and me to find that secret beauty that He gave each one of them and delight in it. He wants us to see half of the story and know He knows the generations to come....
He knows my grandchildren and my great-grand children.

He knows the place I hold in this short time I have growing the next generation is so very important

 and He wants me to enjoy it, but be diligently doing His work.

Spend more time at your table.

Make your bedroom a place of refuge for you and your beloved.

" Grant us the ability to see all of this magic so that

we may better appreciate the fierce beauty we've

become so blind to, that we may better laugh at ourselves and the

smallness of our complaints and ingratitude, that we may better understand our

place in your plans, and that we may better engage ourselves in service as a tool meant

to be used up."

Thank you, Christopher.  



Love is in the air

Our table set and our friends on the way.

Our house buzzing with the excitement of fellowship with friends.

Cooking, cleaning, and setting our table is always the hard part.

But, oh how we love it.

I always have a theme.... and my table, flowers, and music adds

to the theme. It could be mexican, or Italian, or like on this night,

a love theme, because it's so close to Valentines day.

We have laughed so much around this big ol' table and the friendships

that we have bonded here are priceless.

Taylor and I always serve courses to our guest and

behinde the scenes we are laughing and giggling like school girls.   

I love candles and I love a well set table.

We have stainless steel cups and plates so they look beautiful

with everything.

We had wooden place cards so everyone would know where

to sit and they would have a treasure to take home.....

I'm all about the memories..

The music had channie dancing with all her brothers.

She loves to twirl and dance under their little arms and 

there is no way she would let them lead..

I still have work to do with this one..:) 

Yep, love is in the air..and I'm loving my world..

Now get out there and plan your own Valentine dinner

and make some memories..