The Testing of JOY

On Friday night Awesome Hubby and I did our devotions together.  We read aloud and talked together about the chapters we had read: 2 Corinthians 3-4.  God pulled so many verses out of those two chapters for us both and made them alive in a new way for us.  Personally, I am going to try to memorize them; I want to have them to pull out at all times!  Today I picked 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 17-18.   

8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

It's kind of ironic that I picked this verse today and set out to be cheerful in all things, reveling in the joy of my victorious life.    This evening my husband's work truck was broken into and they stole his wallet (ripe with cash, unfortunately!), cell phone, and some company items.  I found myself very discouraged and angry, but immediately reminded myself that God had told me to set tonight apart for worship and the entire day for joy.  And then God reminded me of the verses that were to be my focus for the day.  Somehow I am ending this long day feeling more refreshed and encouraged than I have in a long time...because no matter what is happening on this earth, what is happening in heaven is greater and I am a part of that heavenly kingdom!

Unplugged & Loving It!

This past week I unplugged.  The only time I logged onto the internet was at night, and that was briefly.  It was WONDERFUL!  It wasn't intentionally done for a week, but that's how it turned out.  When's the last time you did that?   I have to admit that I did not realize how much "screen time" I spent in a day, nor how dependent I had become on all things technological.  Pretty much my life has been digitalized -- online banking, a virtual recipe book at dinner time, my schedule and monthly calendar, and so on.  So a complete unplugging didn't happen, but with a little bit of planning and effort I was able to leave the computer off when my kids were awake.

It was nice.  It won't always be that way, I know.  Pretty soon we get back to our school year and a lot of our lesson plans are digital.  I'll keep our records on the computer, as well.  I love emailing my family and I like the access to the internet for looking up facts.  The kids enjoy websites such as starfall.com.  But, just like they have "TV time", Mommy is going to have "computer time."  It's time to get back to the basics and enjoy one another more.

My kids are growing up too quickly and I don't want to wonder where their childhood went because I was too busy blogging about it to enjoy it.  I don't want to miss milestones because I was reading about them online.  I am going to work on shifting my time so I can still write, read, research and so on ... and just not miss them.  After all, God called me first to be HIS child, next to be the wife of Awesome Hubby, and after that to be the mother of the Princess Chef, Lil Man, and Lil Bit.  So, I'm off and away to go live my day!  

Enjoy yours :)