Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The "Conditions"of 2012

It has been my prayerful desire to reinstate a new parenting blog. Due to unforeseen events in the last year in ministry and my personal life, I just good not find the inspiration or sense of direction with the whole concept. So it is a new year with a new pathway to travel. Every year has such a uniqueness to it and a life lesson is usually embedded within the days, weeks, and months of that year. It is "fleeting". As I look back, I now can see the hand and mind of God in so much.  I think in hindsight that I did not take the time to praise the Lord as much as I should have.  I am learning that He is a big God with a divine plan for me, my family, and all those I touch in the routines of the day. I am finally learning that the Lord can move mountains surprisingly without my added strength and especially my "opinion". I like a new pathway, especially when it is paved with a revelation from God. I look forward with a new passion to seed each moment that I have with a stronger foundation of prayer and a much stronger "watering" of PRAISE in the field that He has laid before me in 2012.  I am still trying to catch up in praise conversations with my Redeemer as I look back over 2011 and see so many answered prayers.

I want to share with you a moment in scripture that  was so anointed that it has been a life changing direction that I had not expected.  During a Sunday School lesson on living by the Golden Rule, this very familiar scripture struck me with great conviction:
                                  "Do unto other what you would have them do to you" Matthew 7:12 
I suddenly became aware of how easy it is for us to expect unconditional love from God but return that love in conditional ways. Matthew 7:12 is an unconditional statement. I found myself examining the "conditions" of service I had detoured upon in the last year. It was a needed review of my christian walk.  With our children, with our youth, with each other, and especially with ourselves we can easily approach our service to God with conditions. Our ability to worship with conditions. Our involvement in church ministries with conditions. "I will serve the Lord if the conditions are right." It just hadn't occurred to me that I had stepped onto a pathway of conditions. I want to encourage you to seek the face of God for you and your family in unconditional ways as you look at the new year.  Have you already established "conditions"? Is the spiritual development of your children already regulated by "conditions". "Do unto others"doesn't have an IF hidden in its expression. Join me as I try to take the IF out of the journey ahead. I am praying for myself and my family a deeper surrendering to the Lord and freedom from the distractions of "conditional" living. Your prayers are appreciated! Have a great New Year!