It's the little things ... that make a difference... :)

Matthew 6:31-32Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
Ok, so I really like to be doing things, to have projects and...sometimes, I'll admit, do too much, anyway, that's for another time.  I finished teaching music lessons for the year last Thursday, had the final recital on Friday and thought oh no! Now what am I going to do! (besides homeschool, teach and hang out with Lilly our exchange student from Korea, do youth group and the highschool group, etc....) so, I thought, Hey! I'll renovate the kitchen!  Great idea right?!!!  Tim of course was thrilled! Ha...but he actually did get on board and ripped the counter tops off...(wasn't in my plan....) so, we're doing the kitchen...up to our elbows, so to speak, in the work load....no stove, fridge is in a different room, barely a table, floors are covered with cupboard doors in three rooms....ect....and I realize...I can't bake!  I can't cook very much....but I can't bake!  We bake quite a lot in our home, cookies, bread, muffins, granola, something, anything!  So, I tried to remind myself, it's ok, you wanted to do the kitchen, it won't be forever, not baking is OK!

But here's the cool part, where God just shows His love, His overflow...Philippians says, "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." and I KNOW baking is not a need...but it's according to HIS riches, and anyway, His overflow today.  So, someone came to my house just after 12PM with a bag of cookies, she was intending to give them to another family but they had already left (sorry Crumps...they are good:) and thought we might enjoy them - of course they are Rachel's favourite cookie!  I was amazed at how God gave us these just after I thought I couldn't bake...but there's more!  Tonight we went to a Pampered Chef party and I was picking Kourtney up and her mom said, hey, we made you some cookies, for your family!  Now Matthew isn't very fond of ginger cookies - the previous ones, but these were chocolate chip - his favourite!  How wonderful is God to bless so abundantly at times when we don't need or deserve anything, but just because He loves us.

And how great it is too when we are obedient to Him.  Sometimes we don't know the impact our obedience to Christ has on others.  It doesn't often seem like a big deal for us to give a friend/neighbour some cookies, but to them, it may be a sign of God's abounding love!

I must end with the lyrics to a JJ Heller song, since her music fills our home.

Little Things

There are not enough minutes in the day
I am crippled by the thought of wasting time
I don’t have enough money to heal the poor
So I don’t want to try

But it’s the little things that make a difference
It’s the little things that show love
It’s the little things
A simple cup of water that can change the world
That can save our sons and daughters

I’ll be praying for the widow all alone
Sewing clothes for a loaf of bread
It is not my fault that she is hungry
It’s my joy to make sure she’s fed

CHORUS

We are all related, children of the King
We may not have much, but what we have we bring

Transparent

²⁷ But you remain the same,
   and your years will never end.
                                  Psalm 102:27

My mind is a jumble of thoughts that need to be "spewed" or "purged" out!  And, as has been confirmed a few times yesterday, this is a good and healthy thing to do.  So...here goes!

I am not perfect.  I am not even close to being perfect.  Ah, how refreshing :)  Of course I already knew this, but sometimes people get these ideas of what someone else's life is like, and how they must feel and live, and see them as "perfect."   I know I've got a couple of people in that category in my mind, but, alas, that only sets them up for disappointment in my mind.  God does tell us in Matthew 5:48 to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect...but I don't know anyone who has truly reached that aside from Jesus Christ.

One of the biggest struggles I have I guess is having that transparent relationship with people, where they see the real you AND you see the real them.  Sometimes it works half way, but half way just doesn't work...to build that trust, to lack the fear, and to have the confidence to have relationships like that is really difficult, but so necessary and beneficial.  This is something I need but don't always feel I have. 

It was interesting to look up the definition for transparent  ...  here is what I found...

1.  having the property of transmitting rays of light through its substance so that bodies situated beyond or  behind can be distinctly seen.

2. admitting the passage of light through interstices.

3. so sheer as to permit light to pass through; diaphanous.'

I guess to think of having a transparent life and transparent relationships would really require THE Light of the World.(John 8:12)..so allowing Jesus to shine through us.

Sometimes I don't put God where He deserves to be, I put Him at my level instead of seeing myself in His eyes...praise God that He loves me despite my weaknesses, that His strength is made perfect in my weakness!(2 Corinthians 2:19)  In the book Crazy Love I like what Francis Chan says..."If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can." (p.32)

Ok, so slightly scatted thoughts put together here, but...I need to be transparent,  I need REAL relationships, I need Christ's light to shine, and I need to see through HIS perspective, not see Him through mine.  I don't think that's where I was headed orginially, but that was a nice, refreshing journey right there....