February 13, 2012

Tending the Garden

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I read a great post by Kelly at Chick N Charge yesterday.  It was about how we sometimes get battered around by life and a person or situation may make us question who we are.  I'm sure you've all been there....had some thoughtless comment thrown out at you that maybe meant little or nothing to the speaker, but hung around and haunted you.  Those words whispering over and over again in your head, knocking you back down each time you think to get up.  If you don't beat those words you wind up questioning everything....did I handle that situation right?  Have I been handling other situations wrong?  Am I acting the way God would want me to?  Are they right?  Am I a horrible person?  And in the worst case you might come to wonder, am I even saved?

Kelly's post really resonated with me because of the family stuff I've been going through lately.  When someone says horrible, hateful, destructive stuff to you it's really hard not to take it to heart.  It's especially hard when it comes from a family member.  We have the expectation that our families love us and like us and understand us and would only tell us the truth about ourselves.  That's not always the case....especially with those who are family through marriage.

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It doesn't matter where the ugly seed of doubt comes from.  Once it's planted the result is the same.  If we aren't vigilant in tending the garden of our minds, that seed will sprout and grow and multiply.  It will takeover and choke out the good fruits.

We need to heed the words of Paul to the Ephesians and Put on the whole armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes (Ep. 6:11).  Make no mistake.  The doubt that settles in our minds is one of the devil's powerful schemes, meant to separate us from God.  The good news is that God is bigger than anything Satan's got.  Anything.  So, put on the armor.  Read the Word daily.  Pray all day long.  And when doubt tries to wheedle in you will have the ammunition to send it scurrying back to where it came from.

Remember you are God's creation:

  • So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  Gen. 1:27
  • For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  Psalm 139:13-16
God loves you:
  • For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  John 3:16-17
God has plans for you:
  • Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  John 14:1-3
All of these things and more are in the Word.  Get lost in it.  Savor it.  Devour it.  KNOW it.  All the promises of God are in its pages.  Everything we need to know about how to live is within its pages.  Who you are meant to be is in its pages.  Know it, so you know yourself.  So you know God.  So there is no room for Satan's doubt.


** I wanted to make a list as Kelly did, of who she knows herself to be, but this is long already and I still have to add my counted blessings for today.  I can't help it, when God gives me inspiration I can get a little carried away.  Guess the list is a post for another day this week.**


Blessings abound....


154.  Chicken noodle soup on a cold winter day.

155.  An aide on the bus.

156.  Daylight at 6:30 AM.

157.  New tires to go in the snow.

158.  A song that makes you rock out in the car.

159.  A baby's chubby-cheeked smile.

160.  Finding the perfect card to say to a good friend what you couldn't write yourself.


1 comment:

Chatty Crone said...

Some times family is not the best choice. sandie

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