Some weeks you have a bit more pondering about life than other weeks. This week was one of the MORE weeks for it.
We go about our daily lives and the life in them causes us to respond. If we have kids, we know how they demand attention and often control how the day is spent. Currently, I have a friend who is potty training (two at once!). Depending on their age, they need our moment by moment care. Our bodies have their own demands needed with food, exercise, rest, and sleep. We have commitments to our job and we do need money to buy and sell, basic living in this world's economy. The list is endless. If we are involved in anything else, it also inches in- everything from events such as graduations or weddings, to sporting activities for kids, church and bible studies, the doctor and dentist, yard work, housework, cleaning the car....if I didn't hit on anything that speaks to you, feel free to fill in the blank.
We, or I should say me, live life with gusto. I am a busy person. Still, as days turn into weeks, months, years, and era's of life (I'm old enough for those), at some point you begin to realize it's not about destiny (although it is) alone and how you will end up or attain. It is the journey. I first learned about living between your birth and death, you know the dash is where life matters, from a training I took related to Stephen Covey's 7 Habits.
The Seven Habits:
1. Be Proactive
2. Think with the end in mind
3. First Things First
4. Think Win-Win
5. First seek to understand and then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Sword
Wait....there's an 8th now
8. Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs
Over the next few weeks, we will take a walk through our own habits....
But before we do.....Keys to Whole Living is going to make a broad statement for you to ponder:
Relationship, with God, yourself, and others is the entire journey of life.
How you go about it, what you do, and who you are revolves around your God, your family, and the people around you (even those you've never met).
Today's scripture is Exodus 20 (yes it is the commandment scriptures).
Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before (besides) me.
God always lets us choose. Choice matters! Who is this God? I mean he is telling us to have no other gods besides him.....that means I've chosen him. It's only a command if I want to love and serve him.
It is like marriage. Two of you together are united and belong to one another until death parts you. Once you choose it, you are in it, through ups and downs, faults, provision and lack, misunderstanding, love, conversation, and time together.
Hopefully, when you marry, you KNOW the character of the person. You know them well enough to want to be with them, spend the rest of your life finding out more and walking it out together.
Let's be honest here- no one, I mean no one, gets married to truly serve, be the slave of every whim of another. We get married as well, to have our own needs met. In other words and millions of books have been written about it: RELATIONSHIP
I chose God. I can say that. But he called me first. He wanted me. He pursued me. He pursues you. Do you know him? Do you know what his character is? He gave his life up, free choice, in the most horrible and inconceivable way, so that we get the freedom to choose. And loves me the same whether I choose him or not. It's the acceptance, love, and understanding I gained when I said yes.
So, I choose freely to say I Lord want no other gods. Why? It's commitment. It's covenant. I took the ring and married my God, for eternity.
How about you? Are you getting to know about him? Are you dating? Have you sat together and had real conversation? Has he asked you to marry him (yes guys too)? Are you the married couple who have been together so long that you know the twinkle in the eyes, the smirks, the knowing glances? What about the gait in the walk? The sound of the deep sleep and rest?
Only time and space to live and be or experience, gives you the journey.
There is no time like the present.
Take a walk, hand in hand, and enjoy.
Keys to Whole Living