Learning to stand still

I am back to the land of the living with the help of my antibiotics. I know antibiotics are bad for a person's immune system in the long run, and don't like to take them but it was most definitely necessary with this little virus. Although I feel better, I am still hacking and coughing like an old smoker and my head in foggy. So it was a low key day; my biggest feat simply catching up with the weekend's laundry. I never would have thought that having two children meant that even one day of not taking care of at least one load would result in a substantial dirty clothes pile up. I guess I naively thought I wouldn't battle the never ending laundry heap until we had a bigger family. However, it is true that after 4 days of no laundry being taken cared for, I had a ton to do today. But how can I really complain about laundry when all I have to do is throw it down to my basement, shove it in one machine, then another, fold it and put it away. No scrubbing by hand on a washboard, no filling tubs up with water from a well, no hanging each piece up to dry on a line (how would that work out today... it snowed all day!). I don't even have the inconvenience of a laundry mat. My washer and dryer are two of my bestest buddies!! They were actually a wedding gift! Can you believe that? Nice gift, huh?

During the girls' nap time, I had some quiet time around the house. I was just about to grab a cozy blanket and curl up for a snooze when I thought I would rather take advantage of the time to read my Bible. It got neglected in the past few days right along with laundry, bathing, getting out of jammies, and walking. My Bible was in the office with a lightly sleeping Eden so I settled for my devotional which was in the living room. A good friend and missionary wife, Heather Giley sent me the most beautiful devotional a couple of years ago: Streams in the Desert. I wish I could buy a bunch of them and give one to every friend of mine. It is a treasure.

The Scripture for December 7th:

"And he [Elisha] said, Thus saith the LORD, Make his valley full of ditches. For thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord; he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand."

II Kings 3: 16-18

I can just imagine myself being there. My first instinct would have been to grab a shovel and start digging those ditches myself. Maybe I would even decided that a well would be a better idea. I usually do think my ideas are better than God's... of course I don't come right out and say it like that. I dress it up in more acceptable lingo, full of rational reasons (to human thinking) of why my idea is going to work faster or better than God's and a carefully laid out plan had to carry it all out.

And ya know what? I would knock myself out to do it. That's why I love verse 18 : "this is a but a light thing in the sight of the LORD:" It's easy for God to do His work. No biggie. I would burn myself out trying to accomplish God's work on my own, my own way. My intentions probably would be good, but pride would be at the center of it. A failure to yield. A failure to let God be Lord.

This is what my devotional said:

If we have seen the miraculous workings of God in some marvelous case of healing or some extraordinary providential deliverance, I am sure that the thing that has impressed us most has been the quietness with which it was all done, the absence of everything spectacular and sensational, and the utter sense of nothingness which came to us as we stood in the presence of this mighty God and felt how easy it was for Him to do it all without the faintest effort on His part or the slightest help on ours.

That says when I am trying to convey well. There is a song I've only heard once called "Stand still and let God move". That is surely not my strength. I get impatient. I don't see the wind and rain, I hear no thunder.... and my faith wanes. So I attempt to make up for a lack of faith by doing doing doing and trying to create or produce an impersonation of the working of God in my life. It's actually a frustrating and tiresome practice.

"stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God."

Job37:14