Let's face it: life is tough. Sometimes heaven just sounds pretty wonderful! Sometimes I want to be there already. Today during teaching one of my piano lessons provided an interesting example. Every time my students pass a piano song, I reward them with a sticker. Today my student Madison jokingly said, "How about we just skip playing all the songs and I get stickers instead?" Of course, I didn't go for that! :) But it brought up an interesting point. How can we expect to win the battle unless we've fought? How can we expect to get the metal for running the race that we haven't run? Or...how can we expect to get stickers for songs we haven't played? I love what Hebrews 1:1-2a says: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus." I love the first part of that second verse...If we want to win the race, we HAVE to fix our eyes on Jesus. I've been struggling with that these past couple days. When I take my eyes off Jesus, I feel so discouraged and selfish. My prayer is that God would empty me of me. I want nothing left.
The other thing I recently prayed is that God would show me, remind me how petty life life. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the stress and business of life. And believe me, I know. I'm currently trying to get five speeches perfected for our next compensation and prepare music for four totally different things. Plus, work, school, a huge Spanish project...yeah, I know! But I never want to forget that's important in life. Recently tornadoes have been going rampant everywhere in Kansas. This past Saturday, my town was in two tornado warnings plus a watch. When the sirens started going off, we went downstairs to our closet just in case. Right before I went into the closet, I hurried to my room and grabbed something. I remember seeing all the metals I've received thru NCFCA hanging on my dresser...and yet I could care less about them. At that moment, they didn't matter at all. Don't forget what's important.
Well, this has turned out to be longer than I expected so hopefully I didn't bore you to death. :)
3 comments:
Wow girl! AMEN! You've written this so well and it's so good and true. Super good point about running the race to win, fighting the battle to win. It's not much of a win if there's no fight, no effort, no heart.
Your picture on your post below this one is like all I want to do..run and tumble in a big grassy field! Love and miss you tons!
LOVE IT! I totally understand what you mean! It is so easy to get caught up in petty and unimportant things. As much as winning in things such as NCFCA is fun, it isn't what is most important in life. When storms (real storms and the storms that life provides) come our way it is easy to lose focus on what really matters. It is easy to become worried when life gets busy. Sometimes when I realize I have nothing to worry about it is almost foreign because our culture has told us we need to worry, instead of trusting God. Thanks for the great reminder!
~Emily
Liz-Thanks, girl! So true. Well, when you're back, we'll definitely have to run and tumble in the grass! When are you leaving for Ok again? On Monday? Will I even get to see you?
Emily-I know, right? I'm trying to learn to "laugh at life" and not take it so seriously. This, too, shall past. That's a good point you made about trusting God. Definitely something I need to work on-and you can be praying about that for me for sure! What can I be praying for you about, girly?
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