A Quick Minute

I'm SO bad about blogging lately!  I am desperately trying to get ready for a local consignment sale!  Its become all consuming!  Between that and the kids and trying to get some schooling in, I'm swamped!  I have no desire to sit and download pictures for my posts, but soon!!!

In the meantime, I wanted to share about my current devotional book.  The lessons are very short, filled with Scripture and always very relevant to the life of a Mommy.  Its called Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God.   I won it in a blogging giveaway about 3 years ago and I am ashamed to say, it sat on the shelf!  I recently searched my shelves for something new and inspirational and this book popped off the shelf!  

Recently a lesson on "the Desert" stuck with me and I want to share an excerpt.  Because of how the beginning of our year went, there were often times when I was done crying and begging to the Lord.  I had several people suggest things to me.  Maybe Spiritual warfare.  Maybe I wasn't cleaning my house.  Maybe I had bad toxins.  The comments are ENDLESS and they were exhausting to hear.  I was so desperately seeking some sanity and "normalcy", I was DONE.

To be honest,  I still don't think I've recovered emotionally from 6 mos of hardships and sicknesses.  Deep, deep down, I am fried, frazzled and finished!  Ya know, during those long, emotional months, I don't think I ever doubted or blamed God.  I don't think I got angry with Him for not healing us or for not keeping us healthy, but I was definitely confused as to WHY we couldn't get and stay well.  I threw a lot of fits!  It wasn't pretty!  It was definitely a learning season for me.

When I read this excerpt, memories of the challenges from earlier this year all began to flood in and I was again brought back to my knees.....  

"As I sit thirsty in the desert, the help He brings is His sufficiency, not mine.  He doesn't make me able; He is able.  He doesn't craft a perfect clay pot out of my life; He fills the imperfect one with His perfection.  Thank goodness my clay pot is cracked, for it is through my many imperfections that His glory shines...."We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of power may be of God and not from ourselves"...God doesn't change my ability to cope with the task of motherhood necessarily; He replaces my heart with His parental heart."

While reading that I am reminded of my humanness.  God doesn't NEED me to glorify Him, but "through my imperfections His glory shines".  So much of my life is spent worrying... what do others think of me, my family, my beliefs, our convictions?  I have been on a quest for perfection for so very long- too long- that this paragraph was like a flashlight into my soul, searching through the cobwebs of disappointment, failure, fear and worry.....  I am ashamed at what could be seen.  Probably a soul who cares more about the world's thoughts and views of me and not my Lord.  


I suppose I am in a dessert this year.  I've been on top of mountains with my Spiritual life.  Learning and growing.  Now I am in a season of stillness, searching, asking and clinging to Him.  Nothing brings you closer to Him than being in a desert.....  in the desert you are reminded that you need water to survive.