Good Morning!!
I hope all of you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you were able to find some time to truly contemplate the wonder and miracle of Christ taking on flesh to save a lost world.
If you have read my emails for any length of time you should know that after Christmas, Terry and I do our state of the family meeting. For the past several years we have set a night aside to devote to talking about our family's strengths, our weaknesses, our successes and failures of the past year and our goals for the next one. We haven't yet planned the night the official talk will happen but we have already started discussing what all the Lord has done this year. If I was to write a book about all the ways the Lord has worked, delivered, provided for our family, I am not sure anyone would believe me. It seems He delights in displaying His glory for the Smiths. I can honestly say we have done nothing special to deserve His favor. But yet His favor has been with us. The most awesome thing about that is He desires and delights in doing the very same thing for your family. I would love love to hear the ways He has worked in your family this year and any other year. You can go to the chicks and chocolate blog and add a comment for all to see what works the Lord has wrought. Chicksandchocolateblogspot.com is the address.
One verse that the Lord keeps bringing to my heart over and over lately is one I have shared before. James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Now, as you know we are in the process of adoption so this verse is very familiar to me. However, for some reason I have never contemplated the second part...to keep oneself unstained from the world. It hit me hard this week. How do I do that O Lord? One version says unspotted and another says polluted. It is so hard to not be stained by this world. It isn't something we can stay on the defense with. We have to be on the offense, moving forward against it. If we only combat this world when it hits us we will be caught off guard and maybe knocked down. Sometimes these stains are so subtle, so sneaky, so nice looking that we don't even remember being tainted. One of my children very recently said to Terry and me "Why does doing bad seem so fun or feel so good?" Gulp! Glad Terry was there for that one! The Holy Spirit has shed some light on some areas where I have been polluted. And it sickens me. As a matter of fact it kept me up last night. I got up this morning weary of trying to remove the stains. So spent that I longed for Heaven. As a parent I weary of keeping myself free of the trappings of this world but seeing my children become entangled can be more than I can bear. Oh how I wish I could be my kids Holy Spirit, I think. Doesn't it stink that they have a will of their own! But then there are those moments when you see them choose right, even when it is hard. Or when they come to you after reading "Search my heart, O Lord" and they feel they need to repent before the Lord and you. Could this be just a glimpse of what our Heavenly Father feels? The pain of watching us immerse ourselves in the garbage of this world and then the gut-wrenching, heart breaking confession followed by the joy of being clean, truly clean. Spotless, unstained, white as snow before our Holy God. I realize this has been an awful lot of rambling. Forgive me. But for some reason the start of a New Year and this verse of keeping myself unstained by this world are going together. Not sure if this will be our focus as a family this year or not, but it will definitely be something, I pray, work towards. More Him, less spots.
Pressing On,
Carrie
