I was so blessed to have the opportunity to attend an amazing Women's Event this past Saturday which really helped me to see how important the moment by moment worship of my Great Savior is.  If someone had asked me before, if I thought worship was important I would have said, Absolutely!  But this conference helped me to really see how to put it into practice.  If you'd like some practical help in this area, I highly recommend the book How to Worship Jesus Christ by Joseph Carroll. 

Like all disciplines(yuck!), it takes work to begin to have a discipline of worship in your life.  I'm not talking about just singing or having your daily quiet time, but a life that exudes a love for our beautiful Savior every moment of our lives.  In the past I would have thought that I was too busy to even think of trying to begin this type of discipline, but I now see that I am not all that God created me to be if I don't have it. 

Picture this common scene of a mom who will remain anonymous:  While the mom was making her bed, her two year old decided he would pour his own milk and made a mess all over the floor, a four year old "accidentally" scribbled on the couch and two other children are fighting over what seems to their mother an insignificant piece of plastic but to them is the only thing in their lives that will make them happy.  That mother can "choose" to lose it and start screaming at all of them and ask them "What are you all thinking?" and unload all of her frustrations on them, threatening to send them all to their rooms until they are 50..... OR she can "choose" to worship God and remember how patient God is with her when she messes up time after time, often because she just doesn't know any better and how merciful and loving He was to save someone like her and remember that He has a purpose and a plan even for this annyoying moment in her life.  And gradually, her pulse begins to slow and her adrenaline decreases and her clenched teeth begin to relax and she is able to respond with patience and love, disciplining as necessary but not out of anger.  Because now it is no longer about how the mom has been inconvenienced, but about how even this can be an act of worship to our Lord. 

You may be saying, yeah right!  How do you stop yourself from flying off the handle?  Well, it's a discipline(yuck, I know!).  I need to train myself just as an athlete trains to become more godly and to handle all circumstances with worship rather than taking the easy and ineffective route of losing it(anger does not achieve the righeousness of man, remember?).  I need to realize that God is always with me and that He is watching and holding me accountable for how I treat my family even if there is no one else there to watch me.  Growing a proper fear of the Lord and a burning love for Him and deepening my knowledge of Him will help to change me from the inside out.  Worship changes you from the inside out rather than just trying to change your behavior on your own strength!  How freeing that is!  It means that I don't have to be the kind of mom that I don't want to be.  I can be the kind of wife that God wants me to be. 

Now before you say, wow! she has it all together, I admit that this is a discipline I have not developed yet, and if there were a hidden camera in my house you probably won't yet see the fruit of this.  But I have prayed and pleaded that God would help me to do this:  To take my focus off myself and to fix my eyes on my Savior, on how glorious and amazing He is.  I am trusting Him to be faithful as I do what I now know to do.

Blessings!

-J