Not meant to offend anyone

I had a hard lesson to learn these last few weeks about trust, friends, and most specifically about forgiveness. I had forgotten to talk to God, to ask Him for directions, instead when I talked to him, I gave Him a menu of my wants and figured since He was so smart, He would find a way to fill all the items on the menu. Very selfish way for me to be, so He yanked the floor out from under my feet and He taught me this instead.

He taught me that my prayer closet is not a physical place, but a compartment in my heart that I need to open up to Him on a daily basis.To allow Him to channel my emotions, and a compartment of my brain where I can store His teachings. He challenged me to be intimate with Him with my thoughts, be it anger, bitterness, joy, love, to let Him know where I stand in regards to being a witness to Him. I had slipped away from His grasp lately. Getting caught up in the demands of the day, His voice being drowned out by the loudness of alarm clocks, telephones, car pools, pagers, traffic. I had forgotten about His saving grace and was intent on only what I needed to get through the day.It was temporary amnesia, can I claim insanity as my plea?
He taught me a way to hear Him, He helped to settle my soul and to approach Him quietly waiting for His first word, instead of demanding He hear mine. He also led me to the following scripture that slammed home the lesson of yesterday:

Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence. "For God alone my soul waits in silence," Psalm 62:1



Many of you here have expressed yourselves well when you are faced with the latest trial in your life. In my last trial, I bogged down in the quicksand of pity and despair. Had I had my feet planted on firmer ground, I am sure that what occurred would have had a much better ending than it did. I just wanted to share this with all of you.

Oh Hissy.....Thank you so much for what you said!! It hit home for me too!!! I guess sometimes we just have to be reminded of what God expects from us, and how far away from him we are getting, even when we don't realize it. It is kind of like his wake up call, but he never gives us more than we can handle, and he teaches us his lessons with love, just like any parent trying to get their point across to the child they love, does. Sometimes it isn't fun. It hurts. But the lesson gets learned, and he only does it because he loves us.
I can relate to what you are saying....I also had to learn a big lesson in trust, and learned the hard way....the woman I thought was my best friend turned on me...and it hurt, bad. But I am a bigger and better person for it now....I have learned.
My prayers are with you, Hissy....I love you.

Hissy - Thank you for sharing those wonderful words. I know that I am often guilty of trying to do everything in my own strength. And then I wonder why I keep losing my patience and why I'm tired and cranky and unkind. It's because I have so much to do and raising children is so challenging. When I try to do all of it without focusing on God and asking for his help, I inevitably fail. My prayer is that I get convicted for God everyday, that I have such a thirst for Him that I don't forget to ask for his help and ask to hear his will in my life.

Thank you Hissy for another reminder.

Thank you for sharing those intimate and meaningful thoughts with us! I do hope things are going better for you now.



=^..^=

OH Hissy! I am so happy to see that people still think like you do and remember those things that you touched on! I try everyday to include my Heavenly Father but I must admit, I forget sometimes, and then when I need something I wonder if he forgives me for skipping my daily thoughts to him. Life is magical and FAITH has absolutely helped me get where I am today! I admire your words and am happy for you.

*Love, VLINDER*

Dawn and vlinder....I thought what you both said was very true, and very inspirational to me...isn't it wonderful that we can find other Christians anywhere? Even on a cat website!!! Maybe that's because our cats are 's!!!
I will pray for you both and for Hissy.....God doesn't expect us to be perfect....I said something today to someone who makes me SOOOOOO mad at work, that I felt so bad about later....and I asked God to forgive me, and was afraid of what he thought of me.....but I think we all tend to forget that he is the one who created us with our own stubborn, tough willed human minds, and he compleltey understands when we screw up....it is in our nature.....react first, think later.
But with his help, we can hopefully get better at this!

Hissy - You have a good heart!