Unfading beauty

I had the pleasure of coaching some little kids this week at a netball school, as well as sharing the love of Jesus with them. It was fun, and so exciting to see little hearts soak up the Good News. But, I couldn't enjoy it quite as much as I hoped. All week I knew my heart wasn't right. I could figure out that my gaze had slipped from him, but I didn't really know why.

I think a lot of it had to do with pride. My bible notes this week put it like this 'The simplest manifestation of pride is self - sufficiency. We feel that we can do it on our own, and we begin to measure everything and everyone by our own standards'. (ODJ July 29th, Poh Fang Chia)

I was so challenged by the above quote, particularly the part about is measuring others by our own standards. Recently I have found myself blaming someone for a situation they had nothing to do with, simply because I had no one else to blame. My attitude towards that person has been so wrong and has hindered me from making a friendship that could have been a real blessing. Sometimes things happen, and they suck, but I need to remind myself that God knows what he is doing, and I don't. Blaming someone is just another way of trying to control a situation that I don't have any rights to.

1 Peter 3v4 says it is a 'gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God's sight'. In fact these traits are described as having 'unfading beauty', far above that of 'elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes'.

Lord, I pray that I might have a heart sold out for you, more concerned with glorifying your name than building my own. I pray that you would create in me a gentle and quiet spirit that would be of great worth in your sight. Amen. 

Planning for eternity...

So there I was, having a normal, just-before-bed conversation with my boyfriend, when he suddenly came out with something that changed, well, a lot.

"You have all these plans for us, but life's so short. You need to be more concerned with planning for eternity"

Wow! At first, I was a little shocked, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew he was right. 

At his 21st earlier this year, a load of his friends jumped on him. (I will never understand why play fighting is considered the perfect present? Boys are strange!) I turned to my friend and said how upset I was that Roy was getting 'beaten up'. She just smiled and said, "Yeah, but Rachel, will this matter next week? Will it even matter tomorrow?" 

The truth is I'm (very) protective of the people I love. Without thinking, I hold onto their every need, worry and pain, and then I wonder why I feel so tired! God's the only one who can truly meet anyone's needs, the only one able is heal our wounds, and carry our burdens. Maybe it was time for a change of perspective.

I'm good at planning, but I know most of my plans are for myself, me striving to gain some kind of control over something much bigger than me. What if I spent each day planning for eternity; choosing Jesus in everything, and using my little life to build His Kingdom? 

So here goes! 

Love Rachel x

P.s This song sums it all up pretty nicely!