true maturity

I have heard that one of the signs of real maturity is not getting your feelings hurt. I think that's true of both emotional and spiritual maturity. I don't generally get my feelings hurt often but when I do it's usually because of someone in my immediate family. It doesn't happen frequently now so maybe I am maturing. I hope for the day when I am secure enough in my own skin, with who I am and how God has made me, secure in His sovereignty that I don't get my feelings hurt. My kids have all hurt my feelings at times along with my husband, sometimes just superficially but sometimes they have been hurts that I have struggled with. I recently was struggling with a hurt that brings back old memories and consequently melancholy and regret. I have often told my kids in recent years that even if I could go back and do some things differently I wouldn't because then I would do other things wrong. I really don't want to go back but sometimes I am tempted to think along those lines. The funny thing about this is that they probably don't or didn't know that they had hurt me and certainly not as deeply as I feel or felt. Thankfully, time does remove the immediacy of the hurt if not the hurt itself. And time also gives me a different perspective. I still long for that day...when there are no hurt feelings...but that won't be completely possible until heaven.

Coincidence?

I just read this from Seize the Day with Deitrich Bonhoffer :
...To lose ourselves in the busyness of much doing is simply to deny our own need to be replenished. To be more discerning, to prioritize, and to realize the limits of what we can do will, in fact, help us to be more effective...Busyness does not guarantee productivity and effectiveness.
Coincidence? I think not. After what I last posted, I'm sure this was meant for me.

I was actually thinking about something I had read last week in this devotional book about anxiety and prayer. "From the moment we awake until we fall asleep, we must commend other people wholly and unreservedly to God and leave them in his hands, transforming our anxiety for them into prayers on their behalf." --Letters and Papers from Prison .
He writes about all the things we worry about on behalf of our children, family and friends. There are so many things that concern us; important things that can have an effect on their entire lives and little daily things. He says that our anxious thoughts only intensify our worry. "In seeking to transform anxiety into prayer, it is not simply a matter of talking to God instead of talking to ourselves, for that may simply result in talking anxiously to God. Rather we are challenged to recognize the limitations of our worrying and the possibilities of what trusting prayer can do."

I read this just today.
Numbers 23:19 NLT
God is not a man, so he does not lie.
He is not human, so he does not change his mind.
Has he ever spoken and failed to act?
Has he ever promised and not carried it through?l
The obvious answer to these questions is NO! God is faithful even when we aren't. He is doing some incredible things in our family these days, much of it through in and through our children. These are the lyrics to a song by a group called 1000 Generations that I have found my
self listening to a lot.

Fail Us Not

Failure doesn’t phase You, worry doesn’t win,
Loss doesn’t leave You afraid to start again,
Our sin doesn’t shock You,
Our shame doesn’t shame You at all

Mistakes do not move You, terror doesn’t tame,
Death doesn’t doom You to life in the grave,
Our suffering doesn’t scare You,
Our secrets won’t surprise You at all

There is nothing above You,
There is nothing beyond You,
There is nothing that You can’t do…
There is no one beside You,
There is no one that’s like You,
There is nothing that You can’t do…

Whatever will come, we’ll rise above,
You fail us not, You fail us not,
No matter the war, our hope is secure,
You fail us not, You fail us not,
You fail us not…

Hatred doesn’t hide You, evil doesn’t ail,
Despair can’t disguise You and tell You that You’ve failed,
Our doubt doesn’t daunt You,
Our darkness won’t defeat You at all

You’re bigger than the battle,
You are bigger than the battle
You are bigger than the battle has ever been

You can hear this and more at their official website http://1000generations.com

I mentioned a song by Josh Wilson in an earlier post. I am blessed to have my kids to share all kinds of music with me, some I would probably never know about. If you like guitar, Josh has and awesome recording of Amazing Grace that you can hear on YouTube and he has an official website with Sparrow Records.

Good Things...

I was thinking about how little time I've had to sit down at my computer and write over the last few weeks. It seems I've been BUSY. Don't you hate that word? Isn't it the most overused term in our vocabulary? I aggravate myself using it . It's my excuse for everything. One of my dear friends reminded us a couple of days ago at our Bible study of an Oswald Chambers quote about the "good things that keep us from the excellent". It's the idea of the urgent crowding out the important. If you've never read a little booklet called Tyranny of the Urgent, you've missed a gem. I need to read it occasionally to remind myself of how I allow the urgent to take over my life. It's my default mode. How do we slow ourselves down? I was talking with a few younger women about this tonight. One of them was saying that their Bible study leader had encouraged them to just "be still" this week; to take time every day to be quiet and wait before the Lord. It's hard for me to do that even when I am having my time in the Word. My mind is always racing ahead. I remember my husband reading this and sharing it with me years ago from the writings of Philip Yancey and Dr. Paul Brand. As I recall, Dr. Brand said that he and his wife had begun to pray together. When they first began they would both think of many things, unrelated to their prayers. They would write these things down and then continue praying. He said that after some time, those thoughts became less random and would many time prompt them to some action like making a phone call or writing a note. He also said that these were many times divine appointments made at just the needed time. I have to remind myself and go back to this practice. Praying about those random people and things that come to mind and writing them down so that I don't forget and I don't become so preoccupied with them that I don't pray effectively. I also tend to be overwhelmed with the whole of life because I forget that it's all the little parts that make it up! I have to constantly remind myself to break the big things up in smaller chunks that can be accomplished. It's that idea that you don't have to eat the whole elephant at once (I think I just read this on a blog this week; it was what her mom used to tell her). My husband has also recently told me that his new mantra is to walk slowly, think deeply and love passionately. I have great difficulty with the walking slowly...there's so much to do and so little time:) I think I would do well to also remind myself that God is the creator and keeper of time and my job is not to fill up every moment with stuff but to discern what He has for me to do and where He wants me to spend my time. When this happens there will not only be enough time to do those things but there will be time for rest, reading, worship and reflection and even fun! There will be margin. (A very good book by Dr. Richard Swenson.) I like that visual of having a page with margins on either side; I want my life to be like that, not filled edge-to-edge. I want to have time for the important things: my relationship with God, with people and with service that He has for me.