It's easy to want harmony when everybody else needs to change

1 Peter 3:8-12
Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.  Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.  On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.  For, "Whoever among you would love life and see good days must keep your tongue from evil and our lips from deceitful speech.  Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

I have been reading through The One Year Mother Daughter Devo by Dana Gresh with Janet Mylin with Z. Today's Devotion was "God's Definition of Harmony" and the scripture noted was 1 Peter 3:8-12.  The devo pointed out how this isn't the world's viewpoint of Harmony, but God's.  That harmony only comes from having the same mind, one for truth, one centered on Christ.  All important to share with my daughter.

However, this verse has been my prayer for my family for the last few year; that we be unified in Christ, and therefore seeking His way, not our own, that we be for one another and not against each other, that we live in a way that we show each other Christ's unconditional love as a natural extension of our actions towards one another.

I have poured over these verses in prayer, lifting up my family members by name.  Calling out to God for His guidance, direction and ultimately restoration to being like-minded with Him.  Frequently I find myself as a stay-at-home-schooling mom feeling frustration, that the sibling rivalries would go away if we could just live this passage.  That thoughtfulness for one another would naturally flow from my children if they could just embrace these verses.  That my job as a mom would be so much easier...

When I am disappointed /angry/frustrated/sad due to the expectations I place on my husband, I find myself once again silently praying to God, that Rocky become like-minded, and see things how I'm sure Christ must see them.  I end with praying that he can see my point of view...

And don't get me started on my Christian friends, my extended family.  There are so many times when I am offended by a comment or action and get worked up because I don't think they treated or spoke to me in a way that was Christ like...

Of course, when it comes down to really studying this text, I find I am the one who isn't living like-minded with Christ. I get frustrated with what I think my ______ should be doing, and instead of responding in harmonious love, I react with ungodly word or deed, or find myself withdrawing from the relationship, thinking thoughts, feeling empty, disconnected, and broken.

I don't start with viewing _____ with Christ eyes of love and rejecting the sin alone.  I find fault with His precious child.  I've missed the mark.  I've repaid evil with evil and insult with insult.

His word says to repay evil with blessing.

What does that look like?  I'm not certain, other than I haven't been doing it.

I will continue to pray this verse over my family, but even more so pray it over myself.  I want to have Christ's mindset towards my family and be sympathetic towards their situation and feelings, not just mine.  I want to show them His unconditional love and be compassionate and humble toward them.  I want to repay evil and insult with blessing because it's my inheritance as a child of God.  I want to keep my tongue from evil and lips from deceitful speech.  I want to turn from evil and do good; to seek peace and pursue it.  I want my Father's eyes on me and His ears attentive to my prayers.

Sing to the LORD a new song

Psalms 96:1 
Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!

I love to sing.  I love worshiping.  I feel that God gave me a voice and love for music to lift him up in praise.  I have been a singer since I was very little.  My first memories of singing in a talent show was when I was 7.  I sang the Rainbow Connection dressed as Kermit the Frog.

Growing up, I had many more talent shows to participate in, and when I returned home from college, I was asked to serve in my church as a worship leader.  It didn't happen at first, but singing praise songs took on a whole new light.  God showed me that I was singing to Him, and not to an audience.  My "performance" transformed to "worship".

Sometime in my college days I purchased a classical guitar.  I took a few lessons, and tried to learn how to play, but I had chosen the wrong guitar for me, so I wasn't very successful.
Flash forward a little over 20 years.  I now have a different Guitar, two actually, that I am regularly practicing, and learning on again.

I love to sing and play worship and praise songs.  They bring forth an emotional connection with God that stirs so deep within.  They allow me to pour out to God admiration and praise for who he is, and bask in who I am in Him.  They encourage me to celebrate the creativity and uniqueness he created within me.  They solidify my identity.

It's taken me much of my life to "find myself".  I now know it's not important who I am, but whose I am.

Bible Art Journaling, my new worship!

Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edge sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

A month or so before I wrote my last post I purchased an ESV Single Column Journaling Bible from Crossway.  I had seen the bible years before and it stood out to me, but I wasn't in need of a bible then.  I didn't need one in the fall of 2014, either, but I bought one.  I was starting a journey that has brought me to where I am today, and since the journey was spiritual and relational between God and me, a new bible seemed the appropriate way to start.  A clean slate.  A fresh approach.  I started participating in She Reads Truth studies and found that I was reading and ingesting the bible in a whole new way.  I had a hunger that I had never felt before.  The more I read, the more I wanted to read, and the more the bible changed from being a book to a living person, a best friend.