If we've talked recently, there is a great chance that you know I wasn't the most excited bumble bee to get into WSSU. In fact it wasn't till I almost got kicked out for forgetting to turn in a form that I started viewing it as a gift. Although I had been anticipating going back to school since I graduated (geek!) I found myself spending the last month complaining about...
how obnoxiously early I had to wake up
how the tests didn't make sense
how there was no point in me coming to class
how we never knew when things were actually due
... and a million other things. While this bonded my class together with a common enemy (school) it also calloused my heart to the blessings I had right in front of my face.
This Monday my friend Melanie pointed out our heart of discontentment (while studying-irony) and it made me realize that I actually had the choice to not complain. I could choose to be grateful and trust that God would work out the kinks of my life or use them to make me more like Him.
So I wrote the following on my computer to remind me in class:
"I Refuse to complain. I Refuse to look at my circumstances without first looking at my Saviour. I will find Joy in Christ."
Easy, right?
mwhahahahahaha....
Satan is a sneaky sneak & this past week he has tried so hard to rip apart my joy BUT Jesus is better- he is my advocate that dwells within my soul and refuses to give me up to my selfish desires. Every time I was ready to complain because I could not see how I would get things done God paved a new path, a better path that I had never seen before. I never realized that asking God to to help me not complain would build my faith so much. We complain for many reasons- ungratefulness, selfishness, dissatisfaction, anger the list goes on. But I never realized I complained because I lacked trust, belief and faith in God to bring me through difficult situations, to give me joy. This week has reminded me that I walk by faith and not by sight. This program is difficult, rigorous and demanding. Often I do not see how it is possible to get the things I need done, or the information required into my brain, and that's because the eyes I have been using are the ones that have led me to darkness. So this week I have exchanged those ones for the ones God offers us freely. The one's that see this day as fleeting, and eternity as a far better prize to be concerned with.
My first bit of nursing advise to you lovely friends:
Get your eyes checked! They are called the window to your soul for a reason.
Until the Whole World Hears!
EP
keep shining :) LYMI.
ReplyDeleteLife on earth would not be worth much if every source of Irritation were removed. Yet most of us rebel against the things that Irritate us, and count as heavy loss what ought to be rich gain. We are told that the oyster is wiser; that when an Irritating object, like a bit of sand, gets under the mantle of his shell, he simply covers it with the most precious part of his being and makes of it a pearl. The Irritation that it was causing is stopped by encrusting it with the pearly formation. A true pearl is therefore simply a VICTORY over Irritation. Every Irritation that gets into our lives today is an opportunity for pearl culture. The more Irritations the devil flings at us, the more pearls we may have. We need only to welcome them and cover them completely with love, that most precious part of us, and the Irritation will be smothered out as the pearl comes into being. What a store of pearls we may have, if we will!
ReplyDelete–Dr. Richard H. Seume