Whichever Way the Wind Blows~

Just a quick story that happened the other day....

I was doing my usual jog on the bike path, and stopped for a drink at the drinking fountain, so graciously provided by a service group in the village. I was really hot, thirsty, and that water was looking good! There was a strong wind blowing, which was nice for cooling off, but when I turned the fountain on, the force of the wind coming against the water arc blew it backwards, making it really difficult to get a good drink.

I was a little exasperated until I figured out that if I leaned way forward and turned my back to the wind, it blocked it enough to allow the water to come out as it should, and that way I could actually get a decent drink. As water quenched my parched mouth and throat, I began to think about the parallel of the Lord Jesus being the Water of Life, as He described Himself to the woman at the well.

You know, I understand that, because Jesus has quenched my spiritual thirst in a way that nothing else ever could. But, He doesn't force Himself down my throat, so to speak. In order to benefit from the Water of Life, I have to make the decision to drink, and beyond that, to block the obstructions that so readily get in my way. There are any number of things that change the direction that I need to take in order to fully imbibe the life of Christ. Busyness, a desire to do things that are more entertaining, distractions from family or friends-all of these things seem to change the direction of that life-giving water, and if I don't position myself correctly by closing them off, I am unable to receive from Him.

Just a reminder to myself that while Jesus gives me all that I need, it's my responsibility to take it in (or to block the wind) in order to partake of His daily gifts of sustenance.

First things first

My American Eagle necklace

I should know that when I ask the Lord to take over my day and show me HIS agenda, that He is most definitely not going to miss an opportunity to do just that, especially since He must get a tad annoyed when I stick to my own so often without even thinking of asking Him how he wants me to spend the hours and minutes in my day.

Today, after having been away on vacation for a week, I felt a compulsive need to clean the entire house. In fact, after getting home over the weekend, I could hardly wait for Monday to get here so that I could get going! During my quiet time this morning, I did give the Lord permission to plan my day, but was pretty darn sure that He wanted my house clean as much as I did, so wasn't too worried about a change in plans. While zipping from room to room collecting trash, stripping beds, etc., I saw a pile of dress shirts still in their wrappers that I had brought home from the mall for my hubby. I HATE getting those shirts out of their wrappers, unpinning the zillions of pins that they use to secure the shirt (why is that???), unbuttoning the buttons over and around the tags that are twisted by string around said buttons, and then finding yet more cardboard in the neck, body, etc. that I thought I had already removed. I was hoping that Bob would unwrap those suckers over the weekend, but nope, there they were. Then I also noticed the new pants that I had bought him that needed to be hemmed before he can wear them. Can I tell you that I like hemming pants to about the same degree that I enjoy going through a root canal? Not to mention that I saw several clean shirts hanging by the wardrobe that needed to be ironed.

But, there was the still small voice in my mind that reminded me that I should be putting first things first, which in this case would be getting Bob's wardrobe in order ASAP so that he would be able to wear his new clothes. Sigh. Double big sigh.

Before finishing this story, I need to take you back lots of years to a time when we had returned home from vacation, and I realized that we were out of dog food. I ran to the store and bought several cans of whatever it was that our schnauzer, Bogey, was consuming at the time. I opened the first can, and to my disgust, it was filled with a blue bag of what looked to be gel of some sort. I was so ticked, and rushed downstairs to find Bob and spout off about the fact that no one did their job right anymore, as evidenced right here with this particular can of dog food. Now Bob, being the investigative type, immediately pulled out the bag of gel, and wrapped up inside was *gasp* a beautiful mint edition American Eagle gold coin! Me, who never wins anything, winning a very valuable coin in a can of dog food of all things! Long story short, my in-laws had given me a lovely gold chain and so after fitting the coin in a bezel, it became my favorite necklace. It did cause a dilemma for me, as I had a nice cross that I often wore, and when I wore the coin instead, I always was a little apprehensive that I was choosing mammon over the Lord. :) But, that didn't stop me from wearing it anyway.

Last year, I was switching over jewelry from my old box to a new one, and realized that my coin necklace was nowhere to be found. I hunted high and low, as did Bob, but no necklace anywhere. We scratched our heads, puzzled it over together, and looked again, but it had just disappeared! I was sad, but decided that somehow it had been misplaced and hopefully I would find it again one day.

Back to the main story. As I finished up hemming pants, unwrapping shirts, and then ironing ones that were already clean, I was getting ready to close up our ironing board into the space where it is recessed into the wall. Catching a glimpse of something shiny laying on a little ledge at the bottom of the recession, I peeked down under the board to see what it was. You know, don't you? Yep, there it was in all its shiny glory...my coin necklace!!! After calling Bob to whoop it up with him, I realized something. By putting first things first, that is, keeping my priorities of serving others before myself, God had given me the most wonderful reward!

Now we all know that every time we step out in service to others we don't get tangible rewards. But this weekend I had been thinking a lot about how important it is to let our husbands know that we treasure them and that they are first in our hearts when it comes to human relationships, even before our kids. So it doesn't surprise me that God grabbed this opportunity to show me that He does, indeed, desire for me to treat my guy as though he is the most valuable gift from the Lord to me. And the reward is even better than finding something materially valuable that has been lost. The reward is that you keep something of eternal value from ever becoming lost, that is, your relationship with your husband, who is your special gift from the Lord. Everyone in agreement, say Amen!!!