My Little Spot

I have this little spot. It’s in my bedroom and it’s so warm and cozy. Using my favorite colors, I decorated it to entice me to grab my Bible or a great book and want to just nestle in for hours. My husband even surprised me one weekend when I was away and put wood floors down in this special spot.

Every day, a few times a day, I pass this spot. Each time I pass, I look at it and think, “I just want to stop and plop down for the rest of the day without a care in the world.” But instead, I find myself being too busy with all the things that must be done. Laundry, making dinner, helping the kids with homework, etc. And back and forth I go, as my little spot watches from afar.

It’s been about 2 years since my spot has existed and I can count on one hand the number of times I have sat there. Not even for very long, either. I began to think about why this was the case. I so deeply desired to stop and enjoy this spot on many occasions each day. And I remember the giddy feeling I had while creating the spot eager for the gift it would provide. Yet I didn’t do anything to make the time to stop.

Until recently.

I am a Type A, busy kind of girl. I like the fast pace of life. I like to do things that need to be done. It’s how I am wired, I suppose. But that certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t need time to slow down and find that “breathing room”; time to spend with God, allow my mind to rest and be “filled” with the calm and quiet that my little spot could provide. But, I recognized that I would have to cut many things from my schedule for this to happen - things I enjoyed, things I was good at, things that I really didn’t want to give up. I had to reprioritize and recognize that I can make time for my little spot. I needed to make time for my little spot.

Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Over the past month, I can’t even count on two hands the number of times I have enjoyed my little spot. I learned that it can also be a great place to read with my children, watch the birds from the back yard and of course, allow that time with God and prayer. I have felt the calmness that slowing down, cutting things out and just taking time to rest has provided. I feel more joyful. I am more patient with my children. I enjoy the little things in life. And for once, I can just sit without feeling guilty of neglecting something that needed to be done.

Go, today, and find that little spot. And more importantly…use it.

Jeni Barbush
loveSTRONG ministries
Executive Director
www.loveSTRONGministries.com

Messy Flower

My beloved 5-year-old came running in the house after school, pulling at the zipper of his backpack before he even got in the door. “Mommy! I have something for you! I can’t wait till you see it!” As he pulled out the card he’d made for me in school that day, his face fell and his little eyes filled with tears. The card, decorated enthusiastically (and liberally) with glitter-glue, obviously hadn’t dried before he packed it away and his entire artistic effort was reduced to sparkly smears inside his backpack. Only a few glittery remnants remained and testified to the sparkling masterpiece it had once been. “I used the special-est blue they had and put on extra gold and a beautiful pink for you” he sniffed as he pointed out all the places it had once been painstakingly and lovingly decorated. “I worked so hard! But now…” his voice cracked as he held back tears. I held his smeared effort in one hand and hugged him close with the other. His disappointment broke my heart – he wanted to give me something special and his devastation at its destruction almost brought me to tears.

I feel like that with God sometimes. I know what I want to present to God. As a believer I want to be a constant “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1), a beautiful example of Christ lived out in a real way, but so often my efforts amount to little more than a smeary mess, marred and often ruined by my failures. I can be selfish in my marriage, thoughtless in my friendships, inconsistent in my faith, and impatient with that precious little boy who wanted nothing more than to give me a beautiful card with the special-est blue glitter-glue he’d ever seen.

We’re in trouble when our faith – or our salvation – becomes more focused on our efforts than God’s grace.

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. Romans 5:1-2

Jesus has already done all of the work on the cross and nothing I do adds or subtracts from that. “Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege” (v. 2, emphasis added). Nothing we do makes us “worthy” of what Christ did for us, we are worthy because of HIS righteousness given to us by grace. God does not love me more or less because I was “good” or “bad” – I have “peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done.” God does not shake his head in disappointment and say “Failure! Try again!” to those of us who call Jesus Lord and Savior any more than I would have said those words to my sweet little boy that day.

Our efforts at godliness should be motivated not by a desire to gain God’s love and approval but rather by a heart of gratitude that, by His grace and Christ’s death, we already have it.

Catharine Phillips
Writer