Renewal of Our Minds: Part One

Orginally posted 12/09

Today was one of those days that, by 4PM, I just want to crawl back into bed and hit restart. Or maybe just sleep the rest of the day away and restart tomorrow. My kids have been whiny. My husband isn't getting price quotes that are reasonable on something he's trying to sell. My bread I made to take to a dinner tonight looks terrible (at least it tastes good.... so good I ate half of it!) My daughter won't nap OR have quiet time and ripped one of her pop up books to pieces while in "quiet time." My web browser keeps crashing, freezing and won't download anything and I've spent way too much time trying to fix it. And to top it all off, my feet are cold.

Sound silly to you? What may seem like little things to one person can seem like big things to another, but what encourages me most of all isn't that other people sympathize with me. It's that I worship a God who knows and cares. It may seem silly that I don't like the way my bread looks or my feet are cold, but I believe God cares. Sometimes I feel that He sits beside me, patting me on the back, telling me to keep going when I just want to go back to bed.

So often I have an image of God, sitting on His throne, just waiting for me to mess up or get off track or not follow His "perfect" will and when I do I imagine He'll kick me when I'm down or frown in disappointment. Or judge me, like I do to so many others. No, our God is a God who saw us in our mess and came down to walk among us and say He cares. Who lifts us, instead of judging us. Who watches curiously us as we make choices, not wait for us to choose the wrong thing so He can scold us.

I'm not talking about willful, unrepentant sin. If you are willfully walking away from God and His word, beware. But if you are a Christian who tries to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself, then take courage my friend. You have a Savior who knows. A Father who loves. A Friend who comforts.

This post shows my beginning in understanding that the renewal of my life into the image of Christ by the Holy Spirit is a process and that God is patient with us during this process. Come back next Monday for Part Two!