Well, nuts!

Well, it has taken me more than a few more days to write a new post. What can I say, I've been otherwise occupied. It's funny, you get a new job and all of a sudden, you just don't have as much time to blog as you once had. Huh. Weird. Unfortunately, when you read this post, you're going to wish I had waited a little longer to post until something more profound came along. I would be lying to you if I told you that when this topic presented itself, I didn't think about it for while. A long while. More time than I care to admit honestly. Again, money to those who can explain how my mind works and why it is the way it is.

Ready? Here we go.

Today is supposed to be a BEAUTIFUL day. "Spring-like" they said. While thinking how awesome it was going to be today, I was walking to work and I saw an overweight squirrel. Perhaps we should call it a "chunky" squirrel or more like a "husky" squirrel. It wasn't quite to the obese stage as far as squirrels go, at least not in my 30 or so years of squirrel observation. I noticed him because I was watching the construction that I walk by everyday on the way to my building and some movement caught my attention. I looked down in front of me and noticed that little buddy had trouble picking up his hindparts and moving them out of the way before I stepped on him. He lurched at the last second across the sidewalk and made it into the bare shrub bush to "safety". I promise you, as I watched him, he turned around and looked at the potential "scene of the accident" as if to say, "Sheeesh! That was close!" I feel pretty confident when I say, I bet he was sweatin' it underneath that new spring growth of fur. What happens next, embarrassingly enough, is true. I actually thought I was just thinking until I realized that I was speaking, actually audibly verbalizing my thoughts. This is what exited my mouth.

"Well, buddy! You almost didn't make it. You better lay off those nuts you've been inhaling for the last several months. You know, they are full of fat. I know, it is considered the "good" fat but let's focus on the operative word "FAT". And it looks like you weren't eating Walnuts or Almonds all winter either but probably the really high fat content cashews or peanuts."

And when I turned around, and realized that the person behind me thought I should not be working at this medical center but quite possibly ADMITTED to this medical center, I had to agree. Their face was priceless and I walked briskly along, covering up my name badge so as not to be reported to the powers that be. Seriously, how do you get out of a situation like that gracefully and with any shred of dignity? I have just monologued with an overweight squirrel. I insulted him and gave him diet tips. Can I be really writing this down for you to read? This is reminiscent of another rodent story from my past. What is it with me and vermin?

From the Library of...

One of the things that I truly love doing is reading. I love it. Love the cover, love the contents, love the pictures, Love everything. Love it! (In honor of the Oscars this evening, I am channelling a movie. Bueller? Bueller? Who wants points, people?) To me, there is nothing much like getting lost in a good book. Hot tea in one of my favorite cups, flannel pants, fuzzy socks, view of the outside.... (sigh)... happiness on the horizon. My discipline goes out the window when I am reading. I lose sleep. I almost miss appointments. I choose not to clean my house. It is almost a bad habit. Is that possible? From time to time on the blog, I want to share about books that have really spoken to me or say something that I think some of you would really like.

I have not quite finished this book yet, but I will be finishing it this evening. It is a great book by Elyse Fitzpatrick called Idols of the Heart: Learning to Long for God Alone. (P&R Publishing, (c) 2001) Even if the last chapter is completely out of character for this author and is totally off the mark (and I can't imagine that it would be anything less than stellar as the rest has been), I would still recommend it because the first 11 chapters are well worth reading. I first heard of this book at a "Reviving Your Heart" conference with Nancy Leigh DeMoss in Memphis last year. She highly recommended this book for all women no matter what stage in life you are at: college, career, single, married, with kids, without kids. The book is written...

"for those of you who desire to live a godly life and yet find yourself in a recurrently disappointing struggle against habitual sin. This book is written for you who find yourself constantly tripping over the same bad habit, the same embarrassing weakness and the same sinful slavery that you hoped to be free of years ago. In this book you'll learn that idolatry lies at the heart of ever besetting sin that we struggle with." (p.15)

Are you a people pleaser? Do you struggle with your thought life and the war that Satan has waged on your mind for months or even years? Do you desire holiness? That sounds like an easy one BUT... do you desire holiness more than you desire comfort, approval, friends, a spouse or children, a better job or living with your own "small sins" that are "no big deal"? You, my friend, could be struggling with idolatry. After reading this book, I had no other choice but to face the fact that I was struggling mightily with idolatry in my own life. I am going to be honest, that was an eye-opener for me. I know in my life, like you do in your life, what my personal areas of weakness are. I did not count idolatry as one of them. This book is very insightful and if you will allow it, very revealing about where we honestly stand before a holy and righteous God. It is appropriate for individual study as well as small group Bible study as it has study questions at the end of each chapter and plenty of notes to promote additional study if one so chose to do so.

I want to list the chapters of this great read to give you a taste of what could be to come for your own personal library.

Introduction: Observing the World's gods
1. Rachel's gods and You
2. Undivided Adoration
3. Of First Importance
4. The Heart Changer
5. Better Than Life
6. Knowing Your Heart
7. Thinking About Your God
8. Longing for God
9. Willing to Obey
10. Resisting Your Idols
11. Crushing Your False gods
12. Delighting in God

See, doesn't that sound like good stuff? Not sold yet? Let me give just a little excerpt of wisdom in this book. (It's hard to choose what passage to put in here because I have so much of the book underlined or highlighted!)

"Man looks to idols to calm his fears and produce desired benefits - to bring him happiness. To identify your idols, begin to look at the thoughts and imaginations that bring you happiness...

Instead of fashioning idols out of wood and stone, we fashion them in our imagination - worshipping that which we believe will bring us happiness. We don't carve a good spouse out of a piece of pine, but we worship the thought of the joy that one would bring us. We don't chisel out a facsimile of the successful man or woman, but we believe that's where our joy can be found. We believe that our happiness is bound up in having our expectation fulfilled. These beliefs function as gods just as surely as if we had carved them from wood or overlaid them with silver." (p. 114, 116)

I am excited about getting her other books because this one was so good. Heavy on truth and not stuffed with fluff. Thank you, Elyse, for being so forthright and honest about an area that had gone unnoticed by me but not unnoticed by the Lord. It is in these books of reflection and revelation that it becomes clear that although the truth can be hard to hear, my life and my walk are better for it. May the Lord receive all the glory due Him through your impact on your readers.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

When I first started this job, I was put in an office with 8 cubicles and nine office mates. I was excited because my previous job was a lot of travelling and really, no colleagues to speak of. That was one of the reasons I was so excited about this job. I am at the very back of the office and I kept noticing how quiet it was in the office, no music (not even elevator music) pumped through a muffled cubicle wall, not much talking and even the phones were not ringing - they were "purr-ing". Just for my own information...did you know that phones could purr? Me neither. I've got my phone at home set to the tune of "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" at the loudest volume. I actually didn't know I could adjust the volume on these old (you know, looks like a rotary but has push buttons) phones until I was out of the office for a minute and an office mate kindly told me that my phone was so loud that she thought the next office could here it. Oops! The main thing that bothered me was that I missed my phone call - a sign that there was life outside of these silent puffy walls.

I finally decided to go out on a limb after about 4 days and ask some questions. I felt like I should prepare for what the next 40 years would look like for me in this office. I had to ask if this lack of sound was typical, was the noise maker of the office out for a while, or are my cubicle walls really INCREDIBLE, top-'o-the-line, noise-reducing panels. I was told, "Oh yeah, you are in the 'quiet' (air quote) office." REALLY?? My response was, "Well, I think that I have been misread and therefore misplaced unless I was hired to liven the 'quiet' (air quote) office up."

I want to say here that I truly do love my job and the noise level has risen above silent a few times and for that I am thankful. I do really like all the people in my office. There are some really sweet girls and I enjoy working with them. I expect that before too long, I will be able to call them my friends and we will get to invest in each other's lives and maybe get to the point that we can mutually pray for each other as I believe the Lord has called us to do. I look forward to that day.

I sit here today with, so far, 7 people out of my already quiet office. I am one of two. What strikes me is that as I have sat here listening to the quiet and little pecking of a keyboard, the verse keeps resounding in my ears:

"Be still and know that I am God."

Psalm 46:10

It is in the quiet times that His Presence is seemingly heard all around me. In the purr of the phones ringing several cubicles away, it is the Potter's wheel whirring around, pausing, then starting again, the clay being molded never leaving the touch of the Potter's Hands. In the pecking of the keyboard, I hear Him actually chipping away the mire from which we choose to live in and revealing a vessel that has been exposed to the some tough lessons but reflect a raw beauty ready to be refined. In the hum of the AC, I hear the firing up of the kiln preparing to burn away the remaining dross. And in the silence, and there are plenty of periods of just that, I hear God's approval as He admires the work He created, sitting in the display case for others to see. I hear His chest rise and His sigh of a work well done. He sees the work for what it started out as, a worthless piece of clay with no form and no particular beauty in itself but when submitted to the Hand of an Almighty and creative God can make others stand in awe. The true beauty is that the admiration is not directed at the work of art. It is directed to the Worker of art, the Creator of the clay, the Architect of the design, and the Designer of beauty. It is God and the fruition of His dreams for your life.

Be still. Enjoy the silence. God knows that it is here in the silence that you hear the most profound noises ever made - God at work in the lives of His creation.

May your life the work of art He created you to be today and forever.

The First Thursday

Thursday Thirteen

There is a "blog thing" that has something to do with Thursday Thirteen. As I am finding my way through the blogging world, I hit these walls of "un-knowledge". Some people might call it ignorance. I will choose to call it "un-knowledge" because, honestly, I like the word better and the connotation. How kosher is it to call yourself ignorant on your own blog and then expect people to read it? However, you may reserve the right to call yourself whatever you wish on your blog, whether that be ignorant, functioning at Mensa level (like Jessica Simpson does), or Wonder Woman! More power to ya! Did you know that Jessica's I.Q. is at that particular level? I was unaware of this fact. Anyway, on this blog, the word "un-knowledge" is a functional word and so we (and by "we" I mean "me, myself, and I") will use it at will But, I digress...

The point with Thursday Thirteen is...I don't know. I guess because they have the same inital consonant digraphs. Why not Thursday Three? Why not Thursday Thirty-Three? Who knows? If you do, leave a comment and let us all know and reduce the "un-knowledge" floating around here. You probably don't even have to be right, just convincing.

Here is the first Thursday Thirteen:

My Favorite Movie Quotes:

13) "Love the purse, love the shoes, love everything! Love it!"
12) "Hi Daddy! Hi!!"
11) "What's your dream? Every'body gots to have a dream."
10) "Let's just take a step back. No, I was wrong. I'm sorry. Take a step forward. Now take a step back . . . and then a step forward . . . and then a step back . . . and then we're cha-chaing."
9) "Surely you can't be serious. I am serious and don't call me Shirley."
8) "Newman, what are you doing? I'm thinkin'. Well think me up a cup of coffe and a chocolate doughnut with some of those little sprinkles on top, while you're thinkin'."
7) "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
6) "Say 'hello' to my little friend."
5) "I want the fairy tale."
4) "Come on, Cletus! Come on! It ain't nuthin but a short walk. You might walk over, but you limpin' back."
3) "Do you think behind every chance is another chance and another chance? It is the worst kind of extravagance the way you spend your chances."
2) "Drink your juice, Shelby. Drink your juice!"
1) "DON'T TALK ABOUT ME LIKE I'M NOT HERE."

After listing these quotes, I realized that there are way more than 13 that I could list. So, we will have to have a continuation later on. How about if I say these are my favorite 13 for February? Points for those who know movie titles to these quotes; however, you know the rules about points. Check the comments section of "The Ear of the Beholder" for my points policy. Or ask Helen.

What did I miss? Let's see your list. Remember, my five brilliant nieces and nephews are reading (?) so let's not teach them any "new" words. I know several of you have got some goodies!! Spill it! Andele aqui!

Where Are Your Shoes?

So what's your "thing"? Everybody's got something. Is it your relationship with your spouse? Parents or In-Laws? Friends? How about your job situation? Maybe it is the fact that your kids, as precious as they are, are literally driving you up a very slick wall. Is it loneliness, faithlessness, hopelessness?

Isn't it nice to know that Jesus, being fully God and fully man, was tempted in every way yet never succumbed to the pressure to crumble? It makes you feel that there is at least someone who understands what you are dealing with. However, maybe you have felt like I have from time to time that, although I know that He has gone through the same feelings and situations, that doesn't always make me feel better about where I am. Is that wrong? Perhaps, but no less true. Sometimes, I rationalize this point to Him in my prayers. "Lord, you know how this feels. I know that you've been here. Since you know what this is like, why aren't you fixing this? Why haven't you taken care of this circumstance? I trust you can take care of this with one thought or one wave of Your Hand. Why aren't you?!?!" I have been reading and came across a passage that gave me a different perspective on the plethora of discouraging, frustrating, and/or sometimes, just hard circumstances that everybody I know deals with during seasons of life.

"God can change our circumstances, but sometimes He waits for us to show real desire for change as well as our faith in Him....

How do you and I show our eagerness to receive all that God has promised us? One way is through persistent prayer as we ask God for change and seek His Word about the change then persistently and respectfully pray until He brings it about. (Matthew 7:7) If you have asked God to change your circumstances in some way, claiming His promise for yourself or for a loved on, what are you doing to demonstrate your faith?

The Korean church is known around the world for being a praying church. Korean Christians pray and fast on specially designated mountains for days, weeks and even months. Literally hundreds and thousands of Christians attend daily prayer sessions at 4:30 A.M. One old Korean lady who attended the early morning prayer meeting every day always put her husband's empty shoes on the front pew of the church, saying, "Here are my husband's shoes, Lord. I believe that one day my husband will be here to fill them." One year after she began demonstrating this confident hope by bringing her husband's shoes to the prayer service, the shoes were filled! Her husband can with her and placed his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

What 'shoes' do you have to put before the Lord?

Biblical hope is not a 'hope so' attitude.

It is confidence that although you have not received

what God has promised yet, you know you will."

-Anne Graham Lotz, God's Story (W Publishing Group, 1999), 202.

In Matthew 7, the verse referenced above is written in the imperative form which is why I like the how the Amplified version states it:

7 Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.
8For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.

My Dad encourages us by saying, "Keep on Keepin' on!" Does it sound like God is saying the same thing? "Keep on Keepin' on!" Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. Keep on. Keep on Keepin' on.

Here is where I have a little bit of a conflict. Is God likening Himself to a one stop shop? Come say your quick prayer and immediately you get what you want. Here is newsflash:

He is not Burger King and you might not "get it your way".

I think that is hard, but what helps me through that is knowing and trusting the Almighty Sovereignty of God. When David talks in Psalms 37:4 about delighting yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart, I don't believe this talks to God giving us every little thing our heart desires. I think it is speaking to the fact that if you are delighting in the Lord, your desires become His desires become your desires and your "dream list" finally falls in line with His "dream list" for you. Personally, I delight in my nieces and nephews; I delight in helping children learn to talk; I delight in Mom's home cooking. "Delight" means "to take great pleasure in", or "to give keen enjoyment". I have delightful relationships with people that I have spent hours upon hours of my life with. We have shared good times and bad times, more CW talks than they care to recall, and lots of coffee, cards and phone calls. I have invested myself in them and they have invested in me. These are the relationships that are truly special.

Does yours or my relationship with the Lord resemble those type of relationships? Are we truly delighting in the Lord? Are we investing more than a few minutes driving in the car to work to get to know Him? Based on your daily activities, what priority does our relationship with Him have? If we are not delighting in Him, then I think we can expect to have a lot of our desires unmet because they are just that - our desires. When we get to the point that our true delight in found in the Lord and our relationship with Him, this is when our faithfulness reaps the benefits of hopefulness.

In Hebrews 11, the "rollcall of faith" is printed in black and white with what each one was able to accomplish by faith. What is faith exactly?

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see... And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." (Heb 11:1,6)

Are you earnestly seeking Him? It is hard with so many distractions every minute of every day but we are called to it without excuse.

So, what shoes are you faithfully placing before Him to fill? What are you laying down by faith in hope? How often do you pick it back up when you lay it down? He has always been faithful and always will be faithful. Why? Because He can never be anything less than Himself! It is His character. He is faithful. To you. Always and without question. Delight in that faithfulness and be rewarded with a hopeful today.

The Ear of the Beholder?

OK, so here are the funny things of today...

One is probably more funny to me and I am OK with that. You do not have to laugh. I laughed enough for the both of us reading this. Luckily, I am easily amused. The other one is funny, not so much in a "Ha! Ha!" way, but "How ironic!" funny sort of way. Enough build up... here it is.

Numero uno: At my new job (I have a new job for those of you who have not been taking my phone calls and/or have put the phone in a drawer when I call and are not listening to my blathering), there is a complex computer system in place for all of the patient records that I work in throughout the day. Honestly, do not understand it, but basically fake it everyday and smile pretty. On Friday, I stayed late - like 5:13 PM late. I stayed late because I really wanted to get a progress note completed - am I the model employee or what?!?! (Already this is way too much detail.) Blah, blah, blah, I did it wrong and saved it to the computer system. I am not high enough on the totem pole to fix this mistake myself. (There is a secret CODE!!) At 5:13 PM, everyone is gone for the weekend because they leave at 5:12 PM. As you know, and some of you do, I can be, AT TIMES, a little scatty. There should be no comments from the peanut gallery at this time. So, you do what you have to ... to keep from forgetting to get the note fixed, I called my voice mail at work and left me a message. This morning when I checked my messages, this is what I hear...

"Christi. Hi. This is .... yourself. (snicker, snicker, snicker) Yes, this is yourself and you need to clean up your act, Missy. Call the gatekeeper who is holding the codemaster and get the key to the city of medical records. Oh yeah... and don't forget your yogurt on Monday."

On so many levels, this is wrong. Wrong and ridiculous. However, ask me how many times I listened to my own message today and laughed out loud. Four times. And I have to say, I am laughing even now. Points to those who can name the movie that I channeled in my message and money to those who can determine why my mind functions the way it does.

If that wasn't funny enough for you...I forgot my yogurt.

Numero dos: This is a slightly better story, but I must tiptoe around some details because I must protect the guilty so as to maintain my innocence. Wait, huh?

From time to time, I have been know to struggle with time management. I, at times, am inadvertently tardy a few minutes to an event. It is a genetic problem though I will not "out" the genetic pool of which I received the gene. OK, Dad?! I give this lead in to let you in on the fact that I can appreciate when people are running late. Sometimes, it honestly cannot be helped. Today, I was not late. On time and waiting. I had one appointment today. Uno. Singular. Lone. Only one. The appointment is on the hour. No client. Five minutes after, ten minutes after, fifteen minutes after, twenty minutes after... my pager goes off...the patient is here. Here is the excuse on why they are late... (drum roll please)

"We were here (on the hour). We were waiting for the elevators."

My mind's response...

"For twenty minutes?!?!? Were you waiting for them at your house? This isn't Charlie's Chocolate Factory and the glass elevator is in the shop for repairs. Our elevators go up and down here, not across town."

Why this is funny? I am embarrassed to admit this, but I think there is a good chance that I have used the "elevator" excuse myself before in a moment of crisis. I was THAT desperate...and THAT out of my mind to think that it actually sounded plausible. Whoever I said that to should have so nailed me on that. You know what? They didn't. They extended mercy on poor pitiful me and looked me in the face and said, "OK."

Then they muttered under their breath, "Bless her heart."

Lessons to be learned:
1) Do it right the first time.
2) Remember your food for lunch.
3) Lots of times, things sound so much better in the mind of the speaker than the ear of the beholder.
4) Always extend mercy as you just never know when you will need an extra extension yourself.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" Matthew 5:7

Do It Anyway

I read this in a random magazine a little while ago, printed it out and have it hanging in my cute little cubicle at work. I don't know the original author, but I would love to give credit where credit is due. It is a simple thing really, but an important one to remember day in and day out.

People are often unreasonable and self-centered;

FORGIVE THEM ANYWAY.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives;

BE KIND ANYWAY.

If you are honest, people may cheat you;

BE HONEST ANYWAY.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous;

BE HAPPY ANYWAY.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow;

DO GOOD ANYWAY.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

GIVE YOUR BEST ANYWAY.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God;

IT WAS NEVER BETWEEN YOU AND THEM

ANYWAY.

When it comes right down to it, we are not (or should not be) living for the affirmation of man but for the lone voice of God saying "Well Done". Can we really please both God and man simultaneously? Since both sets of values are at complete odds with the other, should we be concerned when we are accepted fully into the fold by others? I believe that God uses people as one way to convey encouragement to us, but to be consistently seeking approval from others rather than the one and holy God, I believe, is "putting all your eggs in the wrong basket".

Lord, I pray that You remind me that the only audience I should seek to please is You.

In the Beginning...

My first post... hmmmm...

When one decides to embark on plastering one's own thoughts on the world wide network, doesn't it seem that you should have this profound word...one that speaks to the heart of someone. Quite possibly the heart of hundreds of someones. Maybe thousands. I expect there will be many discoveries along the blogging way, not the least of which will be how exactly to get the computer to do what I want it to do. I am looking forward to these discoveries and how they will impact my life and the lives of those who come to visit here. And by the way, who exactly came up with this idea that anyone can publish anything and in one click, deliver the "goods" in a moment's time to 3.2 1/2 gazillion people, some of whom can't even read this post due to language barriers? Props to you, sir or madam.

Did I just say "Props"? That is so not in my typical lingo. And so here it is, the first discovery along the blogging way. It seems that I could, in fact, broaden my verbal lexicon just by being here...on this blog...writing to you... See, you bring out the best in me! Seriously, this blog is a way to speak to those hearts that I miss spending time with due to geography, time, and money. There, of course, is always room for new hearts. So, come on in, welcome home, jump on board and let's do this thing together. And so...we begin...

A disclaimer to start with that I feel like I should throw out there just to cover my bases...

DISCLAIMER: I, in no way, presume to be an expert on this particular topic, but one that has studied and tried to prepare for the Lord's timing of what is to come. I'm sure that when and if the situation presents itself, there will be many more exhorations developed and probably reconstructed based on real life experience.

My Bible Study class has been studying in the book of Ezra. We got to talking about chapter 9 where the people of Israel had intermarried with those that were "forbidden" for lack of a better word. They were to keep separated, or set apart (which is the defintion of "holiness") from those that did not have Yahweh God as their god. Of course, in a class of single women, this veered slightly into a discussion about marriage. There was a sentence verbalized that really had a profound effect on me. Here it is:

"Never date or marry anyone who does not love Jesus Christ MORE than you do."

I know that probably you are thinking, "Well, of course." Hearing it put so concisely and directly really hit me. I think it was the way that it was stated. It was not said:

"Date/marry someone who is a Christian."
"Date/marry someone who is a Christian and is active in church."
"Date/marry someone who is a Christian and teaches Bible study and can quote Scripture."
"Date/marry someone who grew up in a Christian home."

Or even...
"Date/marry someone who loves Jesus."

Not even...
"Date/marry someone who loves Jesus as much as you do."

"Date/marry someone who loves Jesus MORE than you do." (restated in the affirmative)

To me, it was stating the obvious, but stating it in a way that crystallized how God wants marriage to be. Of course, this goes without saying that you (we) should be passionately seeking Christ with all our hearts as well. To be unified with someone who loves the Lord more than I do speaks that, in no uncertain terms, the man that the Lord has chosen for me, who will lead the family in closer communion with God, should be the spiritual leader. That is neither a role that we as females should have, nor covet. I believe that since marriage is to be primarily the example of how Christ loved the church and led her, so should be the man's role in a marriage. The way this happens with the least amount of strife is to be joined with one who loves Jesus more than you do. I would imagine it would make it easier to fulfill our role of submission to our husband if we knew that He was seeking to please the Lord in everything - from the way that he carries himself, to the way that he makes his decisions, the way he speaks, to the way that he treats others. If we, as women, were the more deeply spiritual leader of the home, we would tend to second-guess and question everything that he does, says, decides, chooses.

This concept is problematic in that it is very subjective. If we are making sure that he loves God more than we do, what standard do we hold to since we are holding our husband-to-be to said standard? I think it is a question that we ourselves should really ponder. Something to consider... I have also heard it said that while the husband should be the spiritual leader of the family, the godly wife is continuously challenging him spiritually. I do not mean challenging his leadership, his decisions and his overall headship of the home. I do mean that in order to maintain the godly leadership, he must stay in God's word, studying and praying to seek the heart of God so that his wife may not inadvertantly usurp his responsibility. We are to be helping him, supporting him, serving him, bringing his life before the Lord through prayer and petition, submitting to him and yet strengthening him through our steadfast spiritual walk and the example of action rather than strictly words which can sometime be construed as criticism and nagging.

If we, who are seeking a man like David, one who has been called "a man after God's own heart", expect such things from him, aren't we too, expected to keep in line with the courage of Esther, the perseverance of Anna, the trustworthiness of Mary, the loyalty of Ruth and the faithfulness of Sarah? Would a man like David be attracted to one who did not demonstrate these character qualities?

For the sake of our marriages that are divinely ordained to be godly examples around the world of Christ loving the church and our personal example to our children and families, I thought this was a great point to remember when seeking the "special" someone. It helped me to really determine who is (or who will be) and who is not the best choice for me. It also helped me to understand that if that man who loves Jesus more than I do doesn't come along, perhaps it would be better for us to do without someone than live in a marriage that would not be God-honoring. Sometimes, I feel like this last part is said through gritted teeth, but am trusting that God will provide or allow me to say that with peace, believing that He has the very best for me in mind whether that aligns with my plans or not.