day after day
hour by hour
over and over
again and again
the laundry, the dishes,
the diapers, the breakfasts,
the laundry, the dishes,
the diapers, the lunches,
the laundry, the dishes,
the diapers, the dinners
the bedtimes, the prayers
then do it again
what does it mean?
does it all matter?
what am I doing?
wasting my life??
do all these dishes
and laundry and diapers
and lunches and dinners
get me anywhere?
whispers in quiet
voice always speaking
if I can listen
past all my doubts
"Each act of love,
each act of giving,
really does matter
I really do care.
"Every time that
you wash the dishes,
every item of
clothing you fold,
"I add a jewel to the
gown that I'm making
for you to wear
on our wedding day.
"So don't be discouraged,
My beautiful bride,
I see you and notice;
you will be repaid."
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Unexpected Answer to Prayer
Last month I was so blessed to be able to go to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City for three days! I also visited with a very dear friend whom I have known for over 15 years but rarely get to see.
While I was in the prayer room, I was crying out to God that I really need Him to meet me daily with the strength and energy I need to care for the family He has given me. Instead of whining about it like I mostly have in the past, I simply came to Him in trust, knowing that He must have a way of providing for me since He gave me these responsibilities. In response, I felt that He promised to give me a burst of energy each day to help me accomplish more. Not just to push through the weariness, but to be able to run like a sprinter. I expected that burst to come during nap time, buying me a couple of extra hours each day to get something done instead of sleeping. Instead, He has been getting me up early!
I have never been (voluntarily) an early riser. But He has given me the faith to set my alarm for 5am every day so I can get most of my daily chores done and have an hour for quiet time with Him before the kids get up. And I am experiencing that burst of energy that He promised me! I am still often tired during the day, but not more than before. And I am so much more relaxed with the kids because I am able to get so much more done. I don't feel pressure during the day to try to get so much done while they're clinging to my legs (which just drives me crazy) and instead I can sit down and take more time with them during the day. I'm also slowly starting to be able to get control of some other organizing and cleaning projects that I haven't been able to get to for a long time.
I am so grateful that the Lord is meeting me in this totally unexpected way. I am still taking naps each day (totally crashing for an hour or two in the afternoons is a better way to put it), but I am in a better mood overall and feeling more hope than I have for a long time. In fact, I look forward to waking up each morning to have those uninterrupted hours of feeling good and getting stuff done!
My prayer for you is this: that you will open up your heart to the Lord in full trust, asking Him for what you really want and need. He wants to meet you there! I pray that the answer will come quickly and that you will be given the faith to step out and do what He says, even if the answer isn't what you expected.
Oh, how He loves us!
While I was in the prayer room, I was crying out to God that I really need Him to meet me daily with the strength and energy I need to care for the family He has given me. Instead of whining about it like I mostly have in the past, I simply came to Him in trust, knowing that He must have a way of providing for me since He gave me these responsibilities. In response, I felt that He promised to give me a burst of energy each day to help me accomplish more. Not just to push through the weariness, but to be able to run like a sprinter. I expected that burst to come during nap time, buying me a couple of extra hours each day to get something done instead of sleeping. Instead, He has been getting me up early!
I have never been (voluntarily) an early riser. But He has given me the faith to set my alarm for 5am every day so I can get most of my daily chores done and have an hour for quiet time with Him before the kids get up. And I am experiencing that burst of energy that He promised me! I am still often tired during the day, but not more than before. And I am so much more relaxed with the kids because I am able to get so much more done. I don't feel pressure during the day to try to get so much done while they're clinging to my legs (which just drives me crazy) and instead I can sit down and take more time with them during the day. I'm also slowly starting to be able to get control of some other organizing and cleaning projects that I haven't been able to get to for a long time.
I am so grateful that the Lord is meeting me in this totally unexpected way. I am still taking naps each day (totally crashing for an hour or two in the afternoons is a better way to put it), but I am in a better mood overall and feeling more hope than I have for a long time. In fact, I look forward to waking up each morning to have those uninterrupted hours of feeling good and getting stuff done!
My prayer for you is this: that you will open up your heart to the Lord in full trust, asking Him for what you really want and need. He wants to meet you there! I pray that the answer will come quickly and that you will be given the faith to step out and do what He says, even if the answer isn't what you expected.
Oh, how He loves us!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Hope
For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. (Gal 5:5 NKJV)
What is “the hope of righteousness”? Well, hope “never disappoints or deludes or shames us” as righteousness, which is given as a gift, is also worked through us by “pressure and affliction and hardship” (Rom. 5:3-5). We “eagerly wait” while we “grown inwardly,” waiting “with patience and composure” for that which “is still unseen by us” (Rom. 8:23-25). Though we do not see it in the natural, we confidently expect to enter into the righteousness that is promised (and already given), “perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses” (Heb. 11:1).
I am picturing it like my children perched each morning on bar stools at the kitchen counter. They come downstairs, eagerly expecting the juice and gummy vitamins that they know will be waiting for them. And thought they do not see it, they know that breakfast will be coming in just a little while. They cannot see it, for it is in the microwave, but before they were even awake, I was in the kitchen preparing their oatmeal for them. Thank You, Lord, that though I cannot see what You are doing, I can confidently know that You are preparing good things for me. What You are preparing is exactly what I need, and I sit myself at Your counter, waiting cheerfully for what You have for me today.
Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. (Rom 5:3-5 AMP)
And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the firstfruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God's sons). For in [this] hope we were saved. But hope [the object of] which is seen is not hope. For how can one hope for what he already sees? But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure. (Rom 8:23-25 AMP)
NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. (Heb 11:1 AMP)
What is “the hope of righteousness”? Well, hope “never disappoints or deludes or shames us” as righteousness, which is given as a gift, is also worked through us by “pressure and affliction and hardship” (Rom. 5:3-5). We “eagerly wait” while we “grown inwardly,” waiting “with patience and composure” for that which “is still unseen by us” (Rom. 8:23-25). Though we do not see it in the natural, we confidently expect to enter into the righteousness that is promised (and already given), “perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses” (Heb. 11:1).
I am picturing it like my children perched each morning on bar stools at the kitchen counter. They come downstairs, eagerly expecting the juice and gummy vitamins that they know will be waiting for them. And thought they do not see it, they know that breakfast will be coming in just a little while. They cannot see it, for it is in the microwave, but before they were even awake, I was in the kitchen preparing their oatmeal for them. Thank You, Lord, that though I cannot see what You are doing, I can confidently know that You are preparing good things for me. What You are preparing is exactly what I need, and I sit myself at Your counter, waiting cheerfully for what You have for me today.
Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. (Rom 5:3-5 AMP)
And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the firstfruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God's sons). For in [this] hope we were saved. But hope [the object of] which is seen is not hope. For how can one hope for what he already sees? But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure. (Rom 8:23-25 AMP)
NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. (Heb 11:1 AMP)
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