Christmas Eve Quiet time learnings
I thought to do something different today…to share my handwritten journal entry as I wrote it this morning in my journal…enjoy:
Christmas Eve!! I’ve enjoyed my time off this week. very refreshing not having to speak last Sunday, going to 12 Stone with my family and just being with them this week!
I’ve been able to finish a book this week that I have been working on, “Unstoppable Force” – by Erwin McManus. it was a good read and I got several nuggets from it. I’ve started another book by a business author, “what got you here wont get you there”, which is about behavioral leadership. I really enjoy the relaxed schedule that allows me to absorb some “condensed” reading this time of year. if I’ve counted right, I’ve read 16 books this year , pretty good, but well short of my goal of 24, but that’s ok, I guess! My reading list this year has been quite different – more based on what I’m going through vs. a balanced reading plan. I trust in God’s providence in all that and in a few days I have a new set of months to get back on my reading plan!
The one book that means the most to me, I have read faithfully this year – the Bible!! I love the Bible!! I’m on track to read it through, but I probably wont accomplish that until January. i have my own reading plan, b/c I cannot follow a calendar grid – it drives me crazy, by my plan is systematic none the less!!
Right now I am absorbing Job. Today I could so resonate with him so much. He was complaining and told his friends to leave him alone and let him complain. He said his bitter heart had to complain b/c his life had gone from bad to worse and God wasn’t even letting him catch his breath! This so sounds like me sometimes. the only difference is I don’t have boils from head to toe. Usually, I am just frustrated about car repairs or money problems, which are so minuscule when i think about the situation Job was in: his wife was not encouraging him just belittling him, his kids were dead, he found himself in the poor house, and physically difficult to even look at with maggots crawling on his “pussing” boils. He had reason to “dislike his life” s he put it, but me, ha!, what’s a little inconvenience or struggle compared to that?!
the NT tells me to grumble and complain about nothing, b/c I am supposed to stand out from the culture around me (Phil. 2:14-15). I dont have any of the problems Job had so I have little to complain about in fact, my suffering, when compared to his, doesn’t even qualify as suffering!
My decision and application from this is to try and go through this day – Christmas Eve – w/o complaining!! God has given me a fresh set of mercies today (I think it will take all of them to make it w/o complaining 🙂 but that’s ok, the Lord has told me to focus on today b/c tomorrow has enough of its own concerns! I have grace sufficient for today!
Thank you Jesus for your love, grace, and mercy. w/o you I can do nothing, but with you all things are possible…even not complaining, bless me as I seek to bless you this day!! Love you Lord!!
LEARNINGS TO SHARE... 
Leave a comment