Seek The Lord Sunday

But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
~ Galatians 5:22,23

Daiquiri over at Call Her Blessed has asked her readers what bible verse speaks to us lately.

When I first read her topic for this week's Seek The Lord Sunday, I thought, "Hmm, well I've had bible versus speak to me before but nothing is really speaking to me as of late." I honestly thought I wasn't going to have anything to contribute this week. But yesterday morning, Galatians 5:22 & 23 spoke to me. Loudly.

I have been piling the duties, responsibilities and "busy work" on myself quite a bit lately. I have a much larger responsibility with my church's moms group this coming year. I've decided to rev up my Tupperware business and start booking parties. I've created and organized a Tot Swap with seven other moms one day a week starting this Wednesday. We are trying to get the house ready to put up for sale. I'm trying to organize a sort of "coupon club" with some friends. I'm preparing for a garage sale for next weekend and I've been hitting garage sales in hopes of finding great deals on kids stuff so that I can turn around and sell it for a profit at a large semi-annual kids consignment sale that takes place in the fall. Those great finds need to be cleaned, ironed, tagged and inventoried. In addition to that I have FOUR blogs to maintain plus I'm working on starting a fifth for my church moms group. All the while, trying to maintain a home, spend time with the kids, time with hubby, time with friends and time for me.

Oh, and time with God. That would be nice.

Whew! I'm tired just reading that.

But it was yesterday morning that I had my priorities put in order for me. You see, when I realize I haven't spent anytime with God lately, it's usually right after I've crawled into bed. I can't tell you how many times I've almost fallen asleep while in prayer. Nice, huh? How would you like it if someone you loved deeply and DIED FOR could barely squeeze a minute into her day for you and then when she FINALLY did, she falls asleep on you!

Realizing that I need to include God in more of my day, I decided to have an on-going conversation with Him throughout the day - since I pretty much have an on-going conversation with myself anyway, why not let God in on it! So I was outside, hosing the dust & dirt off my daughter's princess slide and telling God how I would simply like to enjoy my day today and asking for His help in this area. I started talking about how I'm just so busy lately and admitted that I often forget to just enjoy the "now" of it. That was when the above bible verse hit me between the eyes.

You see, nowhere in the bible does God tell us to be busy. God tells us to be fruitful! He even tells us how. That is different! I'm not being fruitful when I am too busy cleaning my kitchen to sit down and read a book to my little girl. I am not being fruitful when I am too busy to spend some quality time in conversation with just my husband. I am not being fruitful when I am too busy to call a friend I know is having some difficulty right now and talk to her about the healing power of Jesus.

And I certainly am not being fruitful when I so busy that strengthening my walk with Christ is something I hurriedly try to squeeze in at the end of the day because I feel I "have to". God doesn't want us to reach out to Him out of obligation or for fear we might get in trouble. He wants us to yearn for Him, to seek Him eagerly, to enjoy our time with Him and to make Him our #1 priority because we love Him so much we just can't stand to be away from Him.

Being busy is a great trick the enemy uses to keep us from God and I'm embarrassed to say, the enemy gets me with this one almost everytime.

If I'm not actively working on the things listed in Galatians 5:22 & 23, the what on earth am I working on? Or, more precisely, who am I working for?

I haven't an answer for my mix-up in priorities right now. I have no real plan of action. Though I do know I need to do something. I cannot continue to allow the enemy to use the lie of "too busy" to keep me from my Father any longer.

I will call upon the Lord to lead me out of my current darkness and into His light. To slow me down and cause me to catch a breath. To lie in green pastures, if you will. He's done it before, I completely trust He'll do it again.

And I know this as well - HE will not fall asleep on me.