Laced With Grace

Today’s devotion is written by Jenny Smith from ‘Keeping it Real, Keeping in Stride‘. Jenny will be joining our team in the 4th quarter of 2011 as a permanent contributor. We are very excited that Jenny is joining the team – God is Good!!!

My living room is making me sigh. Do you know that sound you make when you feel a bit sad, tired, on the verge of aggravation and it escapes? Well that’s my feeling when I walk in the living room. Sitting on the couch I started wondering what I could do, and then I remembered the last time I sighed over the same room.

A couple of years ago my mom called to tell me she was getting new living room furniture. My first instinct was to tell her we would take her old one. Chad was less than thrilled to hear we were going to be getting a new (old) couch from my mom. Now the couch is very comfy, but the color at one time had been white. My walls happen to be a neutral light grey. The couch blends into the wall looking almost ugly.

Not quite, but you know where you shake your head, wondering is this a lousy decorating decision??

The only reason I even considered putting it in my living room was for Bible Study. Our group had grown, and the kitchen chairs were hard. So, in my mind I was thinking well at least it is comfy. I was always happy with the couch on Wednesday when someone was sitting on it, but Thursday mornings I would shake my head and sigh.

Chad went fishing that next weekend after we got the couch, and I ended up at TJMax. I found some cute things for the living room coffee table with a yellowy gold pattern. Not my normal decorating color, but they were in my price range. I got home and cleaned the living room, added the new items and basked in the difference they made.

Until I looked at the love seat which looked decidedly sad on the wall. A few minutes later Chad called from the Walmart, he had noticed some slip covers marked “clearance”. From $79 to $20…only two colors brown or GOLD! I couldn’t believe it, I wish I had taken a picture of the couch before but here is the new couch!

You just can’t even imagine the smile this brought into my heart! First, that Chad even noticed slipcovers. Second, that God was putting my living room together!

As I sat looking around remembering how God had put my living room together, I realized instead of fretting over what I was going to do, I needed to remember what I learned last time. God knows what we are sighing over, and even in the little, daily things God is able to show up! My part is to rest in the knowledge that He cares for every aspect of my life. Keeping my eyes open to see what God will do!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Phil 4:6

Blessings,

Jenny

Today’s post is written by Charlotte Foster from “For Such As This…”. We are blessed to have Charlotte join the LWG team starting in the 4th quarter of 2011. God is good!!!

Galatians 5: 16
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

While on my morning walk, I noticed something uncomfortable in my right shoe. It wasn’t enough to alter my pace so I just ignored it and kept walking. When I got home I noticed it again, but didn’t stop to do anything about it because there were dishes to wash and a letter to write before the mailman came.

Whatever it was, it began rolling around by my toes, until I wasn’t able to ignore it any longer. I stopped what I was doing and took off my shoe…out rolled a tiny pebble. Tossing it into the trash can, I couldn’t help feeling silly for walking all morning with a rock in my shoe – knowing it was there!

I was reminded of other things tolerated in my life, things that don’t belong there and sometimes cause pain or discomfort. Little sins like irritability or impatience that so quietly creep into my heart. They aren’t hidden, I can feel them there. They keep rolling around in my attitude until enough discomfort is created that I dump them out to God.

How much wiser it would have been if I had stopped and removed the pebble this morning the moment it was first noticed. And how much less heart ache would be caused for each of us and the people along our paths if we stopped and emptied out our hearts of those wrong attitudes the moment the Holy Spirit brought them to our attention.

“Father, forgive me for tolerating things I should be removing from my life. Those little pebbles can be worse than big boulders because I tend to ignore them. To you they are all the same – sin! Thank you that at any time I can pour them out before you in prayer, and you lovingly forgive me. Thank you for the lesson you spoke into my life today through a rock in my shoe. Amen”

Blessings,
Charlotte

Today’s post is written by Niccol Kording from Set Apart & Set Free. We are blessed to have Niccol join the LWG team starting in the 4th quarter of 2011. God is good!!!

I love worship! My hands in the air. The voices around me. My eyes closed to the world and open only to what God chooses to show me. The beautiful sounds all around me. You see, I am blessed with a church of amazing voices – it seems almost everyone can bring the music to life!

Everyone, that is, except me.

I can’t sing. And I don’t mean that in an I can be “pitchy,” a little off tune or flat sort of way. I mean it in the paint peels, dogs howl, people stop singing and turn to see who has been hurt sort of way. If you don’t believe me or are one of those “everyone can sing” people, I will come and sing to your children. But when their faces melt somewhat like the bad guys in the first Raiders of the Lost Ark movie, you will have no one to blame but yourself.

Just because I can’t sing doesn’t mean I don’t worship. I believe what Ephesians 5:19 says,

addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
-Ephesians 5:19 (ESV)

But what does it look like to address one another in spiritual songs and psalms outside the confines of the big building with a cross on it?

For me, it doesn’t look like singing “This Little Light of Mine” to the neighborhood children.

What if it looked like something as simple as not yelling at the guy who takes your parking space, helping the elderly man put his groceries in his car, dropping off a note of encouragement – unsigned or giving more than you think “you” can afford because God can.

And what if making a melody to the Lord looked like praise in every breath you take? Can you imagine the revival if every breath we took was an act of worship?

Because it is – every breath, every thought, every action is an opportunity to worship our God – to praise Him for all He is with all you are. So does it mean I’m at the grocery store and thinking,

“We should have corn for dinner.
Thank you Lord that we can afford corn.”

Why not? Take a look around you – it’s no longer that there are starving people in India. It’s everywhere. Jobs are scarce. People are losing their homes. And maybe that’s not you… but it could be and that’s even more reason to praise the Lord. So, I leave you with this. What does it look like to:

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
-Psalm 150:6 (ESV)

In His Grace – Niccol