seek the things above

This past weekend was soooo wonderful! I found out (kind of last minute) about a Christian ladies retreat happening just a couple hours away from me, and I so craved to go. A couple friends were coming down from Boston to speak, which is how I heard about it, but I thought I had found out too late and that I couldn’t get in so last minute. Let’s just say there were a bunch of phone calls, a bunch of frantic Facebook messages and emails – and I found out that there was still room! YES! I was super excited, both to see my friends and to spend Friday and Saturday in a group of ladies studying God’s word together.

The theme of the series was giving God the pen in your life – allowing your decisions to be dictated by His will. And so, of course, we studied His will which has been revealed in the New Testament, and discussed how to shape our lives according to what He has taught. I’m terrible at taking notes, but I did jot down several points this weekend that I especially wanted to hang on to, and I thought I would share a few of them here. :)

1 – { On letting God’s plan pen our marriages: Importance of love to women & of respect to men }
Of course, both men and women desire both love and respect – it’s not exclusive to either sex. But if you had to choose one at the expense of the other, typically love is of more importance to women, and respect is of more importance to men. There have been some recent studies/polls that have shed some interesting light on this. But really, those studies just confirm what was taught in the Bible in Ephesians 5:33: “Let each one of you LOVE his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she RESPECTS her husband.” Love for her, and respect for him – some of our deepest needs as spouses. And an interesting point that was brought out – when we wives feel unloved, we tend to react in disrespectful ways. And when husbands feel disrespected, they tend to act in unloving ways. Neither one may be meaning it to come across that way, but that is how it seems to the other spouse. And so it can turn into a viscous cycle – he feels disrespected, acts in ways that seem unloving; she feels unloved, acts in way that are disrespectful. And on and on. But if we focus of fulfilling the command in Ephesians 5, to love and respect, we can break this cycle. I appreciated this point a lot in the class on marriage this past Saturday – and I definitely want to do a better job of showing respect for my husband. As a woman, I naturally want him to feel loved, and I need to make sure he knows he is respected, too.

2 – { On letting God’s plan pen our families: “It’s easy to have secular homes.” }
I thought this quote was so poignant: “It’s easy to have secular homes.” It just happens without effort. Sports, education, entertainment, etc. etc. And the point is certainly not that all secular activities are wrong – the point is that it takes work to have a Godly home. It takes effort and time and sacrifice. And it is completely worth it! But if we aren’t actively trying to have a Godly home, it’s not going to just happen on its own. As it says in Romans 12:1-2- “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

3 – { On letting God’s plan pen our attitudes: Recognizing Him for our blessings. }
When the Israelites were in the wilderness, and Moses reminded them of their difficult life there, and how God had taken care of them through it, and how much He was going to bless them in the new land they were going to enter — and he gave them a warning: “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God.” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14) This is a warning which I think we all need. We tend to turn to God when times are hard – when we feel we really need Him most. But then, once we have been blessed, we tend to forget about Him. We still need Him just as much … but we get full of the pride of life and forget where our blessings came from. This passage was an excellent reminder to stay humble and recognize God as the giver of all good things, and to not forget Him in times of prosperity and comfort.

All in all is was a wonderful weekend, with so many lessons to learn and encouragement from sisters in Christ. Plus, it was just plain fun to spend time together! I was so happy to see my two friends from Boston – I hadn’t seen either of them in a couple years! We had a great time growing, talking, learning … and laughing together.

I love having friends to be goofy with – but who also know how to be serious and talk about important things. There was a lot of both this weekend. :)

Leave your thoughts and comments below! What are some passages or lessons you have been thinking about lately?

As I mentioned in my launch post on Monday, I’m planning to continue my “Seek the things above” series on Wednesdays, which I started last week. I generally read my Bible everyday, but I’m trying to do better about spending more time actually *studying* my Bible, not just reading it. Writing these posts will be helpful to me to have a specific goal of study, and hopefully will be helpful to others. I welcome comments of course, but if you ever have a question or disagreement that you don’t feel comfortable posting in the comments, please feel free to drop me an email, I’m more than happy to talk with you! :)

This week, it’s some simple thoughts on the walking on the water. And by simple I don’t mean easy-unimporant-simple. I mean straight-forward-getting-down-to-basics-and-fundamentals simple. Here is the account as recorded in Matthew 14:

Generally, I think, when we remember about the account of Jesus walking on the water we remember that Jesus walked on the water, and that when Peter tried, he sank. But an important thing happened in verse 29 — “Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water”

It must have taken a lot of guts to get out of that boat. I think if I had been there and Jesus had told me to get out, I would have done it, but that if the Lord wasn’t asking me to get out, I would have happily stayed in the boat. Peter didn’t do that. He saw his Lord walking on the water, and wanted to go to him – and requested to come out to him. He had faith at that point that Jesus could make it happen. And it did happen: Peter walked on the water.

But then comes the part we remember well – Peter began to sink.

What changed? First Peter was walking on the water, then he was sinking. Nothing changed as far as God’s power. The thing that changed was Peter’s focus. And, as an result, his faith failed.

When Peter asked to come out onto the water and he began to walk on the water, he was focused on going to his Lord. But what does it say right before he began to sink? “When he saw the wind, he was afraid.” When Peter lost sight of his goal, and started focusing on all the immediate problems around him (the wind and the waves) that is when he began to sink.

And so it is with us in our lives. When we focus on the goal, we make progress toward it. But when we lose sight of our eternal goal, and instead get caught up in all the problems and concerns of this life, that is when we begin to sink.

I find this passage so encouraging to keep my eyes on Jesus, and not lose sight of the goal.
What are your thoughts?

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