On Vacation....
Hi Everyone,
I think of you every Monday - whether I post a blog or not - and wanted to let you know that I'm on vacation right now and am not sure when I will get back to regular posts. We've been having a great summer. We just visited the Black Hills of South Dakota and now have visitors staying with us.
While we were in South Dakota, we went to Wind Cave National Park. When we got there, we hurried to the ticket booth to purchase our tickets for a cave tour. In line, I heard a park ranger say that the temperature in the caves was 52 degrees. What was that in celsius? I soon found out: 11 degrees. "Oh no!" I thought as I realized that we didn't have sweatshirts or hoodies to wear on our tour. The weather outside had been hot day after day and we hadn't even thought about needing jackets. Well, that wasn't quite true - I did have a fleeting thought about it when we were hurrying to get into the car but it seemed like such a hassle to go back and get jackets. Now I regretted it. Here we were, half an hour drive away from our cabin, without the appropriate clothing to go down into the caves.
How did we solve our problem? With the gift shop and a little cash. We bought two sweatshirts to be shared between Noah, Abigail, and myself. Timmy had a long sleeve shirt (I had thought of bringing one for him) and Clint was tough enough to handle the 1.5 hour journey under the earth. That was easy, right?
Yes and no. It was easy to get the sweatshirts. They kept us warm and the tour was really interesting. What was challenging was extending grace to myself for not thinking in advance,for not having everything planned out properly, and for not responding to the thought I had had before departing. I was tempted to be hard on myself, to comment repeatedly to my family on how I should have done things better, and to fuss about the money we spent. But I knew that wouldn't be godly or productive. It was very tempting, however. Thankfully, my family's gracious attitude towards themselves and me helped me just accept what had happened and move on.
Why am I sharing this with you? (I'm asking myself right now.) How does this apply to our lives with God?
I share this because it is a window into the workings of God in my life. I know that I am loved and forgiven by God. I believe in and have received God's grace yet I still have habits and temptations that draw me from a Christ-centered life to a self-centered one. They can be so subtle and seem so insignificant but they are still important to address. I continually am in need of God's grace.... so why do I find it hard to extend to myself at times?
Growing up in our faith and becoming like Jesus means treating ourselves like Jesus does. It also means treating ourselves the way that we are commanded to treat others. A challenging test is to ask: how would I treat someone who has done the same thing I have? If my answer is: with criticism and harshness, I have some much needed repenting to do. If my answer is: with kindness and compassions, I have to ask why I would treat myself any differently.
I'll leave you with some verses to ponder from Ephesians 4. Try replacing the "one another/each other" part of each verse with "myself". Then ask yourself: Do I act this way? If not, why not? What do I need from the Lord in order to treat myself with grace, respect and love?
Ephesians 4:
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
peace and grace in Christ,
Tracy
I think of you every Monday - whether I post a blog or not - and wanted to let you know that I'm on vacation right now and am not sure when I will get back to regular posts. We've been having a great summer. We just visited the Black Hills of South Dakota and now have visitors staying with us.
While we were in South Dakota, we went to Wind Cave National Park. When we got there, we hurried to the ticket booth to purchase our tickets for a cave tour. In line, I heard a park ranger say that the temperature in the caves was 52 degrees. What was that in celsius? I soon found out: 11 degrees. "Oh no!" I thought as I realized that we didn't have sweatshirts or hoodies to wear on our tour. The weather outside had been hot day after day and we hadn't even thought about needing jackets. Well, that wasn't quite true - I did have a fleeting thought about it when we were hurrying to get into the car but it seemed like such a hassle to go back and get jackets. Now I regretted it. Here we were, half an hour drive away from our cabin, without the appropriate clothing to go down into the caves.
How did we solve our problem? With the gift shop and a little cash. We bought two sweatshirts to be shared between Noah, Abigail, and myself. Timmy had a long sleeve shirt (I had thought of bringing one for him) and Clint was tough enough to handle the 1.5 hour journey under the earth. That was easy, right?
Yes and no. It was easy to get the sweatshirts. They kept us warm and the tour was really interesting. What was challenging was extending grace to myself for not thinking in advance,for not having everything planned out properly, and for not responding to the thought I had had before departing. I was tempted to be hard on myself, to comment repeatedly to my family on how I should have done things better, and to fuss about the money we spent. But I knew that wouldn't be godly or productive. It was very tempting, however. Thankfully, my family's gracious attitude towards themselves and me helped me just accept what had happened and move on.
Why am I sharing this with you? (I'm asking myself right now.) How does this apply to our lives with God?
I share this because it is a window into the workings of God in my life. I know that I am loved and forgiven by God. I believe in and have received God's grace yet I still have habits and temptations that draw me from a Christ-centered life to a self-centered one. They can be so subtle and seem so insignificant but they are still important to address. I continually am in need of God's grace.... so why do I find it hard to extend to myself at times?
Growing up in our faith and becoming like Jesus means treating ourselves like Jesus does. It also means treating ourselves the way that we are commanded to treat others. A challenging test is to ask: how would I treat someone who has done the same thing I have? If my answer is: with criticism and harshness, I have some much needed repenting to do. If my answer is: with kindness and compassions, I have to ask why I would treat myself any differently.
I'll leave you with some verses to ponder from Ephesians 4. Try replacing the "one another/each other" part of each verse with "myself". Then ask yourself: Do I act this way? If not, why not? What do I need from the Lord in order to treat myself with grace, respect and love?
Ephesians 4:
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
peace and grace in Christ,
Tracy
Comments
Post a Comment