It's Sunday. My favorite day of the week. We had a good breakfast of sausage links, eggs, and a smoothie - and then I headed off to church while Dad and the boys went to a nearby park.
Heard a wonderful message this morning. "What goes on in the depths of your heart is open scandal in heaven." What I think about, that part of me that no one else will ever see, is fully known and fully seen by God. That's something I've been thinking about recently.....I am the only one who will ever know the deepest thoughts of my heart; the ones I don't share with anybody; the good ones, the bad ones, the very dark ones, and the random ones. And yet it isn't as if it's a private chamber that is known only be me. My heart is really the only part of me that God even cares about.....and yet it's the part that others don't see.
It's a strange phenomenon. That which others can see is the part that often gets most attention, because impressing others and "looking good" are high priorities. But it's also the part that ultimately means nothing. A rotting corpse wrapped in cute clothes and amazing hair and makeup is still a rotting corpse.
My heart is something no one else will ever fully see - and so, lacking that potential for praise and applause and attention, it can easily get pushed aside. A low priority.
But the hidden thoughts of my heart...the motives, the desires, the goals, the agendas, the attitudes - that is what is of utmost importance to God. It's what really counts. It's what ultimately matters and what has the potential to make a difference in other's lives for His glory. And by the way, the state of our hearts really defines who we are. You'll know what kind of a person you are by what goes on in your heart.
Now that is cause for personal pause and reflection before the throne of God. For me, anyway. I don't necessarily like the idea of my heart defining who I am. Because honestly I don't have a "good heart", as people like to quip. Sometimes I don't even like "me". Sometimes I get just disgusted with what goes on in my heart - the reason I do things, or what is most important to me at the moment.
Which makes me abundantely grateful for what God is doing in my heart. My heart constantly needs changing and re-directing. I am so grateful that God doesn't see me the way I see me. It's a good thing that Jesus steps in and fills the gap for me.....because it's a gap I could never in a million years begin to fill on my own.
Warm coffee with delightful new creamer....*salted mocha caramel*....and a quiet afternoon blogging while Isaac and Josh play duplos in the next room. Joshua came running in just a minute ago saying excitedly, "Rachel, Rachel! It's heaw-eled! My hand is heaw-eled!" (He had some really bad dry skin that was bleeding this morning and we put a bandaid on it.) He was dismayed when I informed him that it would be another day or so before the skin totally "heaw-eled" and he could take off his bandaid.
My wonderful Dad and I were discussing computers and he informed me off his engineering capabilities of being able to hack into computers long distance. Not that he really does that, of course.....we call him "Mr. Microsoft" all the time because he knows so much about computers!! He even let me know that he is capable of creating trojan horses and then crashing other people's computers.....delightful information indeeed!!! Ah well. A funny conversation for sure.
Looking forward to going to church this evening with my family...hope you all have a blessed Sunday!
Read more...
Another great church cookout!! I wish I had taken more pictures, but it's hard to feel like doing that when you're having such a good time with friends. Hopefully this was a good overview, though. :-)
