Glory-Strength

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We pray that you'll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more of how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul - not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. Colossians 1:10-12 (MSG)

This is my goal: to seek and know Him more.

I love how this verse in the Message says that by learning more of how God works, we will know how to do our work (and not until then). He says this after referencing working in God's orchard - ministering to people and bearing fruit - but when I read about knowing how to do my work, my thoguts went directly to my job. Granted, this happens quite often these days when in the midst of my time in the Word or anything else since this has been a challenging year in so many ways, but I think it's good. I would not have gotten through this year had God not showed me how to do my work. And I'm not just talking about granting me wisdom in what I do and how to deal with different situations, but how to love and serve my kids and coworkers, and how to work in His excellence (which comes merely from Him and lots of answered prayers). There have been times of teeth-gritting when I was not focused on the Lord like I should have been, but for the most part I have experienced that glory-strength, the kind that you know could only come from the Lord, the kind that you look back on and you say, "Thank you, Jesus, for bringing me through that, and bringing me through it in a way that is glorifying to you." He is my joy, my strength.

Ok, a couple of quick notes...I was reading the Proverbs 31 blog, and they were talking about consistantly being watchful and prayerful. I know it's really hard when there are so many things going on during the day, but our every day is our orchard! And there are lots of seed to be planted and tended to out there.

Oliver :) Hopefully you saw the awesome picture below this blog. Im pretty sure I laugh every time I see it. That is my cool little nephew that I got to see last weekend, and he really brought me some joy. Good thing since Adam had left again for another month in CT without his wifey.

kell

oliver

we mean business.