Posted in Lessons I Have Learned

A friend of mine called over the weekend.  It had been quite awhile since we had talked…as we were catching up we each brought up, at different times, that we were in a place where we were yearning to go to the next level with God.  Both of us are at different places in our walk with God, but we are both ready for a new level, a new closeness.  As we talked we started discussing what the basics are to staying connected and growing with God. 

Here is the list we came up with:

• Read God’s word every day

• Attend a good Bible teaching church on a regular basis
  

• Attend a Bible Study

• Spend time with other believers who are at the point we want to be in their walk with God.

• Want to have a closer relationship with God!

I know the list is not that shocking and revolutionary, but being a couple of BUSY Mom’s it is easy to let some of these things slide! It was good to review and discuss what we are and should be doing!  I love being involved in a Bible Study, but I have to REALLY make an effort to get signed up, arrange childcare for my kids, do the homework, get there every week, etc.  But, I have never regretted taking a Bible study!  Yes, I have gotten more for some than others, but I have always gotten something from each study.  Also, doing the Bible Study automatically get me doing #1 on our list…Reading God’s Word!  Attending a good Bible Teaching church also directs me back to #1, reading God's word.  To me this is the most important step!  Yet in all the Chaos that is involved in being a Homeschooling Mom I can so easily slip away from it!  In Church yesterday the Pastor Mentioned the verse:

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be fed.  Matt. 5:6

It really resounded with me after the conversation I had the night before.  I am thirsty for more of God!  According to this verse that in itself is a step in the right direction!  I have been reading a book called Finding God by Dr. Larry Crabb.  One of the things he talks about  that really made sense to me is something along the lines of this….If you want to walk with God you need to go in the same direction He is going.  God doesn’t change.  He isn’t going to leave His path and go off on some tangent with us.  But if we can set ourselves on His path we can walk with Him!  Wow! That is good stuff!  I have done a lot of trying to get God to go my way over the last 4 years.  The funny thing is I read this very same book 6 years ago and got nothing out of it!  At the time life was going my way!  I had just had my second child after 12 years of trying.  We had just bought our 1^st house.  We were living in a town I loved and planned to spend the rest of my life in.  We had a church that was outstanding.  I was surrounded by wonderful people who loved and supported me.  Life was Good. I wasn’t yearning for God because I was too full of myself!  Then the bottom fell out, the Company my husband worked for went bankrupt.  Our world spun.  Unemployment, a new job, a transfer to the one place I told my husband (and God) I would not live! Shock, despair, anger.  I had it all!  On top of it all I had our 3rd child during all the chaos and we moved 3 weeks after he was born.  It was hard. My support system was gone just when I felt I needed it most.  I looked and looked for a new church home and to this day I have not found it.  Yes, there has been much joy in the last 4 years.  But, inside me my soul struggled.  I didn’t want to move forward with God, I wanted to move back to my comfortable life!  The last 3 years have taught me a lot.  My life is still not comfortable and easy the way it once was, but I am growing to being okay with it.  I am learning that God can teach me a lot more in my current position. I still have a lot more to learn too!  But at least I am finally at a point where I am prepared to move forward. Even if where God is leading me is not really where I want to go.  I am looking to see where God is going and He’s not in the past, He’s in the future.  I know I will stumble and fall again and again.  But I am glad for the conversation I had with my friend this weekend.  I am glad to know that I am not the only human that gets stuck and needs to force themselves to keep going.

God has done a LOT of work in me the last 3 years.  Someday I will write about all the things I have learned as I have struggled with life not being the way I want it!  LOL  Until then I will keep trying to learn and grow.  Today I start a new Bible Study. It is a Beth Moore study and I know it will be great!  I look forward to seeing what new things God has to teach me!