Intense Truths and Leaky Buckets

You may be thinking, “What kind of a post-title is that?!” :) And you’d be justified—rest assured, we’re getting to that. :D

For those of you who do not know this, my family does not have practical Internet access from our house, and so the only times I am able to use the internet, is when I am at the library or another source of free WiFi :D The way I work around this is by printing as PDF files the things I wish to read (blogposts, emails to respond to, etc…) for later to maximize my online time. This was the case with the following blogpost from one of my favorite blogs for Christian young women.

I’ve copied and pasted the following (concerning leaky buckets!) as well as the link to the entire post, should you wish to glean the rest of the post for your weaponry arsenal. :D

This post was an encouragement to me, and I hope that it will encourage you dear ladies as well!!!!! God bless! And God fill our leaky buckets! (Perhaps some of us are missing the bottoms of our buckets entirely!!! :( )

“…The people of Jeremiah's day had stopped looking to God for their satisfaction. I don't know who or what they were hoping would make them feel okay, but it doesn't matter. The result was like pouring water into a leaky bucket. It just didn't work.

You see the answer isn't to be noticed more often, loved by more people, or cherished more deeply. The answer is to know that God has already noticed you. In fact, He studies you. (Matthew 10:30 says He knows the very number of hairs on your head.) He loves you so much He sent His Son to die for you (John 3:16). He cherishes you like a father cherishes His own daughter (Rom. 8:15).

The trick is to let that be enough—to let the truth about who you are to the God of the universe fill your bucket instead of constantly looking to the people in your world to make you feel noticed.

It's not an easy switch to make. Praise from people seems so tangible sometimes compared to the affirmation we find in God's Word, but ultimately it is just like pouring water into a leaky bucket. It never lifts our spirits for long.

How about you? Have you been pouring water into a leaky bucket? Looking to the people around you to make you feel loved and important? I hate to go all Dr. Phil on you, but how is that working for you?

If your bucket's sprung a leak… …God alone is able to fill you up and answer your heart's cry. He's the only one offering "living water" that can take away our thirst for good.

I'd like to ask you to make a choice.

Option #1: Leaky bucket.

Choosing this route means continuing to look to other people to make you feel loved, accepted, and cherished. You should know up front that this route never works for long.

Option #2: Living water.

You make the choice to let God satisfy your craving to be loved. You study what He says about you in His Word, and you choose to believe it even if your feelings tell you otherwise.” (!!!!!)

(Emphasis of any sort was done by me, and the picture is from the original post as well J I encourage you, Dear, dear Princess, if this struck even the slightest chord within your heart, go read the (very short!) rest of this post at the Lies Young Ladies Believe Blog! Follow this link: www.liesyoungwomenbelieve.com/index.php?id=1956

When the Rubber Meets the Road...

Monday evening, I had a ‘rubber meets the road’ moment. 

It was one of those convicting, “ouch” moments.

My mother was planning to go shopping at Sam’s with a friend the following day, and I wanted ssooooo badly to go with her! 

But my Dad was going to be gone on-call, so if I did go with Mom and her friend, the kids would be left home alone—with the potential to pull a ‘free-for-all’ (you know the bit, no schooling would get done, there would be lots of noise and chasing each other around the house… :-)) and the would need someone to get them lunch.

In a whiny way and with a ‘poor me’ attitude, I told my mom I would ‘just stay home’.

I could have pushed it, but I could tell that my Dad didn't love the idea, probably as a whole, and mom wasn't keen on leaving the kids by themselves.

It would have been inconvenient if I had gone with my mom, and so I decided to stay… but I was sooo bummed.

I went back to mom and dad’s room to recant telling them “it was fine- I’d stay home”, but I was stopped by overhearing Dad (who didn't know I was there) tell Bethie (my 11 year old sister, who was looking right at me) how ‘it was good for me to be staying home, so mom could go do what she wanted and needed to do (go get food to feed her family!! :-D ) and to not have to worry because I would be there to just step in and take over’—keep things humming smoothly until she returned.

(And, apparently, Bethie informed me later, that he had said something to the effect of how ‘you don’t always get what you want’—which made me mad, but I knew he was right! Which is probably why it hurt so bad lol/;-/ I needed to hear it!)

I had a pity party and invited God—lol.

 I told Him I KNEW I was being selfish and asked Him to help me put Him first; others (namely, my family!!!) second, and reserve the few remaining crumbs for myself. I realized that I've been living a very ‘me-centric’ life lately :-( I so often do get my way or get to do what I want that I’d grown spoiled :-(

God helped me realize something.

Here I am, being all “passionate” about, involved in, and say I am and believe in being a Biblical, stay-at-home-and-heart daughter (who *clears throat* loves and ministers to her family…)(and by doing that is preparing for wife-and-mommyhood) but when it really comes down to it—when I encounter the HUGE test to act upon and actually LIVE OUT what my head knows and my heart believes…

Even when it comes to being a good example as the big sister—Bethie was right there watching and hearing the entire thing! (She mouths to me -and in a sweet, respectful way!- “but isn't that kind of selfish?!”… Um yeah. OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I was not so hot on the performance end.

When all is said and done, when it comes time to PRACTICALLY LIVE OUT what I believe, do I selflessly submit and practice what I preach?

Do I lay down my desires to defer to another’s (A HUGE, integral part of wife and motherhood, BTW!!!)??

Or do I push, twist, and maneuver circumstances to get my way—what I want—at the inconvenience of others?!

As you can imagine, this was a big light-bulb moment for me. I can romanticize about and expound upon the virtues of being a virtuous daughter, but daydreaming and talking :-) are easy things to do.

Selfless, virtuous living?

Yeah.

That’s TOUGH.

But by the grace of God, it’s not impossible! (Matthew 19:26) (Matthew 10:27) (Luke 1:37) (Luke 18:27) (Philippians 4:13)

What about you, dear daughter? Have you (like me :( ) allowed selfishness to creep in and derail you from what you know and believe to be true?

What about you, dear sister? Have you been a less-than-stellar example lately (like me :( )?

What about you, dear Princess? Have you allowed the enemy and his minions to convince you that holy living is impossible—so why bother?

Please know that I do not condemn you! I’m guilty as well. 

But by God’s grace, let’s get back up, learn from this, and keep going forward!

We can talk a good talk—but when the rubber meets the road, can we, can I, walk a good walk?

Musings from Michal

Last Monday the Lord used a rather unfamiliar and infamous woman of the Old Testament to teach me a lesson on my own femininity. As I wrote in my devotional journal (as so often happens) my mind went to ‘blog-post mode’, and ever since it’s been in the back of my mind, on my ‘to-do list’, to rewrite and post on here. By God’s grace, here it goes!!! J Let’s do our devotions together! :-)

(Please begin by asking the Lord to speak to your heart and make you ‘speak-to-able’! :-) ♥)

1 Samuel 19:11-17 

“Saul also sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David's wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain. So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped. And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.  And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick. And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him. And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster. And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped?”

As David’s wife, Michal now had a perfect opportunity to shine the truthful and very best possible light on her husband, flesh of her flesh.

Yet to the person with whom it would actually cause the very most damage (her father Saul, David’s self-proclaimed enemy—(1 Samuel 19:17)) she told a lie and said that David had threatened to kill her had she not aided him in escaping from her father.

“And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?”

First of all, we know enough of David’s character at this point to be able to safely assume that he would do no such thing as to threaten to kill his very wife!

But secondly, we know that this is a lie because the Bible tells us what went on before Saul and his men came on the scene, and no threats were involved. So, clearly—and sadly—Michal lied. :-(

Michal had the perfect opportunity to soften her father’s heart toward her innocent husband (as her own brother Jonathan did early on in this very same chapter!!!) by reminding her father of all the good and right things David had done by God’s grace and how the Lord had clearly used David time and time again to aid Saul’s kingdom! But instead, Michal drops the ball and tells a lie—one that instead of building up her husband in the eyes of her father tore him down—one that no doubt only cemented in Saul’s mind the self-consuming mantra “David must die!”

Most of us probably know what it’s like to hear someone close to us tear down another person who is dear to our hearts. Perhaps you have heard parents disagree with each other in front of you and your siblings, or had one parent disagree with the other in his or her absence. And surely we’ve all had friends (or should we say “acquaintances”!? J) tear down our other friends (AKA GOSSIP) when they are conveniently not aroundL. We know what it’s like to hear people tear each other down with unkind words.

We know what that’s like. I know what it’s like to hear someone gossip about another (out of pure or selfish spite) and I know how it’s done—I’ve done it before, and sadly because I am a fleshly human shall surely do it again :-(

But this is so wrong.

(I’m not telling you anything you don’t know! :-( )

And what about the way I tear down others at church in front of my younger siblings??? :-( Or (worse yet! :( ) how about how I tear down one sibling (‘s behavior) to another?!? :-( :-( :-( OUCH!

Now, of course, we need to be extremely careful because, even though the world likes to misquote Scripture to make it sound otherwise, we are, as Christians, to exercise righteous judgment, (as opposed to biased, or ‘judgmental’ judgment :D). The judgment we pass may be righteous, just, and even necessary judgment! (See Matthew 7:1-6, James 2:12-13 (and Psalms 37:30?), for more in-depth study on Godly judgment!) So before we open our mouths ‘against’ another sibling or church member or friend, I need to pray for wisdom and righteous, Godly judgment and think ‘is this TRUE, NECESSARY, and/or KIND?’! And if it passes those three tests and is backed up by a prayer for God’s guidance, we may safely proceed.

We don’t normally think of Michal as someone we can learn anything from, because she doesn’t set a positive example; but we can learn from her mistakes and use her not-so-good example to help us make good decisions! :D

What we can learn from Michal in the passage is, in a BROAD SENSE, to speak of others in the BEST POSSIBLE LIGHT. I would say especially fellow believers to non- and other fellow believers alike. But, even more personally, and as Daughters at home (if that happens to be how the Lord has led you! :D) and definitely as Future Wives, we, as young ladies, need to learn to speak of our husbands (to everyone—our friends, our children, our parents…) in the best possible light. How can we learn to speak well of our husbands while we are still unmarried, one may ask?  While we are still unmarried and in our father’s house, we need to practice this by speaking of our fathers (and our mothers) in the best possible light! To speak to your friends, extended family, and your younger brothers and sisters with respect to your parents and their decisions, whether or not you agree with them. Not to speak derogative things about them to others (complain that you can’t go over to so-and-so’s house; gripe over the fact that dad doesn't like how low the neckline is, or how mom wouldn't let you buy that tight skirt…etc…) , but to promote their attributes—the good things they do—when given the chance! (Which means we need to be on the look out for those attributes!

We need to see the good in others! Don’t just always see and focus on the bad!!!)

Also, we can learn to speak to (and of) our siblings (as if they were our future children!!!) about other family members and church family in the best possible light and/or with Godly, righteous judgment!

May we, by God’s grace, seek to see and praise the good in others—not to zero in on and publicize the bad! 

"As Ointmet Poured Forth..."

 

"Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee."

Song of Solomon 1:3

This morning as I read this verse, I was in a quandary as to the significance of the "good ointments"  and so forth, and studied that out.

While there are certainly good parallels in Scripture and comparisons to be made with the holy anointing oil for the tabernacle and the Lord Jesus Christ, that wasn't how God chose to blow me away, yet again, this morning; nor is it what I'd like to share with you. :-)

This morning, as I was studying this verse out and cross referencing it with corresponding Scriptures (that help explain the context or add to it-- God's Word fits together brilliantly, btw!!), the very first cross-reference is for Song of Solomon 4:10-11. This is because, as in Song of Solomon 1:3, the Bride compares the Bridegroom('s Name) to 'ointment poured forth', the BrideGroom reciprocates it in similar terms.

At first, I was hesitant to skip ahead all the way to chapter 4. But when I did, I literally said "wow" out loud.

  "How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!"

Song of Solomon 4:10

Yesterday, I {we} saw how this is true of Jesus-- He, His love, and a relationship with HIM is far greater than anything else in the world!! But then, three chapters later, He turns around and says the same of us?!?

Whoa...

wow.

{excerpts from my thoughts this morning}

"...but it reciprocated exactly what is stated in Song 1:3~~ only in this Passage, Christ, my Beloved, is saying it BACK TO ME! MY love is precious to Him! It is "far better", worth more "than anything" {'than wine'}, just as His is to me!!!!!

<3 Wow <3

As Spurgeon's Morning/Evening Devotional (for 2?15PM~Psalms 45:8) ...says, He makes us happy-"but how can we make Him glad? BY OUR LOVE!!!"

{emphasis mine lol}

WOW! Just as God's awesomeness thrills my heart and I can (and should) rejoice in His love, He {actually} REJOICES IN MINE!!! WOW!

How... humbling...

He condescends to my level and rejoices in my imperfect love, while I am able to revel in the perfection of His COMPLETE and PERFECT love!

WOW"

I had a friend share with me Monday evening over dinner how she wanted to feel as though her boyfriend enjoyed being with her, that he realized he had something special in her. 

Well...

I am NOTHING.

I have no right to expect this from my Heavenly Bridegroom~~ no grounds upon which to claim it. I am a vile, base, lowly sinner as compared to His glorious perfection.

And yet-

He TAKES JOY--delight-- in my incomplete, imperfect, unpolished, and unfocused love!!!

W

   O

      W

When we find our joy and fulfilment in Jesus and His love for us~ when we love Him, as He first loved us~ this actually makes Jesus happy! Just like it makes you feel good to have someone show you that you are special to them- that they care for you- it is the same way with Jesus!

WOW

So...

Are you bringing joy to the heart of your Beloved today??

Am I?

<3<3<3<3<3

{pictures obtained through Google Images}

Love that is Far Better than ANYTHING You Can Imagine!!

I had a very interesting and overwhelming evening yesterday. Culture shock. Confusion and spinning around in my head my Christian worldview-- a view I still, if not more adamantly believe to be right, founded on the Truth, btw! :-) But I was grieved by what I realized last night.

I came to the Word this morning, stretched out on the floor of my grandma's spare bedroom, and begged God to "open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of His Law"-- to open His Word unto me as He did to the men on the road to Emmaus-- to transform my thoughts and my way of thinking and retrain and renew my mind according to what I would read (Romans 12:2)-- to increase my knowledge of Him (that knowledge that enables us to walk in and by His grace and dwell in His comprehension-surpassing peace!!!) (Colossians 3:10).

And I opened up to where I left off yesterday in Song of Solomon and read the next portion of that one verse and felt stuck.

*sigh*

"For (T)hy love is better than wine." (Song of Solomon 1:2b)

Why couldn't I get past that? lol (Answer: the Lord wouldn't let me! lol) What is the significance of that? Of course Jesus is better than all else, but I don't drink wine! Lol How did this apply to me? How does it apply to me, to you?!

So I looked the passage on my Bible/concordance program on my computer which happens to contain Surgeon's Morning/Evening Devotional on it. I came upon an evening devotional for the very verse- indeed, the very portion of the verse!!-- that had me "stuck", as it were.

So I read it.

Aloud and in first person. Made it mine, you know?

Blew me away.

Jesus, and an intimate, loving relationship with Him, is far better  than ANYTHING in this world or of it!

I read it-- this devotional thought-- to my childhood friend who was over at my grandma's this afternoon (which is where I am staying :D) and it really seemed to inspire her as well.

I realize that it's a lot to read, but I'm going to 'copy & paste' it below and I encourage you, dear sister, to read it!! Read it ALL! Personalize it for yourself- even read it aloud! It is wonderful!

"Thy love is better than wine."
--Song of Solomon 1:2

Nothing gives the believer so much joy as fellowship with Christ. He has enjoyment as others have in the common mercies of life, he can be glad both in God's gifts and God's works; but in all these separately, yea, and in all of them added together, he doth not find such substantial delight as in the matchless person of his Lord Jesus. He has wine which no vineyard on earth ever yielded; he has bread which all the corn-fields of Egypt could never bring forth. Where can such sweetness be found as we have tasted in communion with our Beloved? In our esteem, the joys of earth are little better than husks for swine compared with Jesus, the heavenly manna. We would rather have one mouthful of Christ's love, and a sip of his fellowship, than a whole world full of carnal delights. What is the chaff to the wheat? What is the sparkling paste to the true diamond? What is a dream to the glorious reality? What is time's mirth, in its best trim, compared to our Lord Jesus in His most despised estate? If you know anything of the inner life, you will confess that our highest, purest, and most enduring joys must be the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. No spring yields such sweet water as that well of God which was digged with the soldier's spear. All earthly bliss is of the earth earthy, but the comforts of Christ's presence are like Himself, heavenly. We can review our communion with Jesus, and find no regrets of emptiness therein; there are no dregs in this wine, no dead flies in this ointment. The joy of the Lord is solid and enduring. Vanity hath not looked upon it, but discretion and prudence testify that it abideth the test of years, and is in time and in eternity worthy to be called "the only true delight." For nourishment, consolation, exhilaration, and refreshment, no wine can rival the love of Jesus. Let us drink to the full this evening.
{taken from Surgeon's Morning/Evening Devotional}

You see, Sunday night, I watched the 1949 Little Women with my grandma-- and suddenly felt hopelessly alone and single. :( :( :( :( I wanted a Professor Bhear to be there for me and love me and say sweet things to me. I wanted to feel that tug on my heart. I thought about it early the next morning as well; I realized though, that I needed to fall in love with Jesus. So i set about yesterday morning wanting to draw close to Him-- wanting to know how to view Him as my "Husband", the Lover of my Soul, my Heavenly Bridegroom.

He showed me yesterday that if I want to draw close to Him in this way and have an intimate relationship with Him that I must make time for it. It's not just going to "come about". Like all good, normal, and/or romantic relationships, it must be cultivated!!!

Okay.

So I understood that.

But there was that lazy, rebellious little voice/ niggling feeling that whispered, "But do I really want to put forth that effort? Is it really worth it?"

Well, the Lord showed me today that YES!!!!!!!!!!!! When I have such a LOVING, WONDERFUL GOD-----

HOW COULD/CAN I NOT!????!!?
He is SO worth it!!!!!
Pursue Him tonight! His love is FAR BETTER than ANYTHING else! Even an earthly romance!

Desiring Nothing & NoOne Else

"Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee."

Psalms 73:25

NONE

Not even an earthly husband.

(umm...ouch!?!? =-( )

This is what the Lord, my Heavenly Bridegroom gave me this morning.

I encourage you to desire a loving, intimate relationship with the Lover of your soul more than anything else today! (for this is certainly something the majority of us will have to take one day at a time! *winks*)

Let us find our fulfilment in Him, for He satisfieth the longing soul (Psalms 107:9)

And don't we all (or at least most of us lol) long for an earthly romance?

Let us find that fulfilment in HIM!

  "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine."

(Song of Solomon 1:2)