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.