Milk and honey

First off today...a litte encouragement for those who are walking in the same tired and worn out shoes as myself.

Oh give me patience when wee hands

Tug at me with their small demands.

And give me gentle and smiling eyes.

Keep my lips from hasty replies.

And let not weariness, confusion or noise

Obscure my vision of life's fleeting joys.

So when, in years to come my house is still

No bitter memories its rooms may fill

author unknown

And now for more encouragement.  I'm sure if you read this blog very much, you have picked up on the fact that I use a lot of other people's 'words'.  Why?   Because I think that I am inadequate when it comes to sharing wisdom and insight on most things.  I have certainly not got it all figured out, and there are many more people out there that have a lot more wisdom and experience than me.  I know they bless my heart, so I hope that you can gain some blessing from them as well.  

Now that I feel like I've explained myself.  {Although no one has asked.}  Sigh.  Here's a story.

Milk.  And honey.

...while milk is fine and good over breakfast cereal and is refreshingly satisfying when poured ice cold from the refrigerator, most of us don't crawl out of bed thinking about how great that first serving of milk is going to be today.   That's why I'm glad God didn't promise the Israelites a land flowing with nothing but milk---just as I'm glad Jesus didn't stop short in John 10:10 by merely saying, "I came that they may have life."   Life is good, just like milk is good.   But the life Jesus came to give is a whole lot more than good.   It's not just the good life; it's the great life, the kind of life He intends for us to experience "abundantly".

You know as I read that I thought back on my 33 years of life and wondered have I lived an "abundant" life?   Do I live an abundant life today?   Do I think it is possible to live an abundant life?

College was not a good time for me, spiritually speaking.   Some of you can relate.   Although the Lord has graciously used a lot of my rebellion to teach me so much about Him, no doubt those days have been a learning tool for me and have had much to do with the shaping of who I am now.   I readily admit that that time was filled with stubborness against God.   Against my parents.   Plain and simple.   Some of the activities and relationships in which I allowed myself to be a part of repulse me to think about now.   I know that some of those things went directly against God's calling for my life.   They have resulted in some consequences that I surely haven't enjoyed to say the least.

Priscilla Shirer calls those days her "Egyptian Tour Package".  She puts it like this...


Yet every now and then, especially when life gets unusually hard or when I feel restless from the sameness and boredom of a particularly dull patch, the enemy tries to remind me of the so-called perks that came with my Egyptian tour package.  The lack of responsibility that marked my single, college life sometimes seem a lot more exciting in hindsight than sorting the laundry and pacing the floor with whiny baby.   I can be tempted to look back with longing to a time when life was blissfully free of responsibility, despite the fact {so easily forgotten} that it was also shot through with pain, heartbreak, and deep skid marks of disappointment.

That is awesome!   And isn't it so true!!!

John and I often think back to the BC days {before children} and wonder why we couldn't see how wonderful they were back then.   But in the end we both always agree we wouldn't trade what we got now for a second of those carefree moments!   It's just so hard sometimes to appreciate the everyday.   I can remember when John had cancer surgery, we would say, "I wish we could go back to the same -ole' same - ole where you knew pretty much how every day would start and how every day would end.   And everything in between was the same as it was the day before."  There was a confidence that came with that 'everyday rut.'

Although we tend to get tired with the everyday, we seem to be scared to step out of it's comfort zone.  "Unsure that He can deliver on the unknown, we too often settle for the safe and familiar."

God never fails to bring about abundant living in those who receive His gifts with confident gratitude.  Rather than grumbling and complaining, at which the Hebrews became quite proficient {not that we haven't given their record a run for its money}, we must accept His ways, knowing that they are designed as much for our good as they are for His glory.

Happy Monday Friends~

Excerpts taken from One in a Million by Priscilla Shirer