Laurel Wreath’s Reflections

“One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.”~ Elisabeth Elliott

Well it is ironic that I just wrote a devotional on this very subject, but I will not repeat myself you will have to read it at Laced With Grace next Monday. (but I will add to it

Busyness is something I have struggled with and something the Lord has brought to my attention. Everything I have to do I consider important. It would not be on my list if it wasn’t. So where do I slow down? As much as my kids would love it, I can not tell the teachers “no we can not complete that project because we have other things to do at church.” Neither is eliminating my sons reading tutoring. Or cooking dinner each night, or making sure the laundry is caught up, grocery is bought, house picked up, etc… . Not to mention the busyness of the Holiday season. So where do I slow down Lord? How do you cut what is important?

The Lord stopped me in my tracks and showed me how to slow down. Much of it is attitude, but also I did not realize how burned out I was until I was sick over the Thanksgiving Holiday. The first thing the Lord had me do is sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep. I feel more refreshed than I have in awhile. Now he is showing me how to do what is important while not feeling so harried and hurried all the time. I am not totally there yet, it is a learning process, but in a strange way I am thankful I was sick and was stopped in my tracks before I burned myself out. Thank God he knows what I need even when I don’t.

Please visit To Motherhood And Beyond to read others take on this weeks quote.

“The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.”
~ A.W. Towzer ~

God is love, God has unlimited mercy, God is patient, God died for everyone who accepts him. These are all things we enjoy thinking about. When you think of God or Christ what is the first thing that pops in your head? It is His love. Romans 5:8 says, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Love is what Christ displayed here on earth. People followed him because of the love he displayed. But if you only know God’s love and nothing else, you don’t see the whole picture.

God is our Ancient of Days, he is our judge and jury. When we die, Hebrews 9:27 states, “..and just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” Death is not the end. God is a God of justice. John Piper once said, “And it is the most terrifying prospect in the universe, that we might be met after death with a holy and angry and omnipotent God holding us accountable for whether we trusted him and worshiped him and followed his ways in this life.” You will be judged, if you trusted Christ and followed him in this life then when you are judged you will have the verdict, “paid in full.” Christ paid for your judgment, and you are set free. But if you just lived a good life but never accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. The Omnipotent God will look at you and say, “I know you not, depart from me.”

If you are like me and have family members who are not Christians this is a hard pill to swallow. I would like to believe they would not suffer the harshness of judgment, but they have heard and have chosen not to believe. It breaks my heart in more ways than I can put into words.
To believe in God’s love, is to believe in his justice also. Just like Towzer stated, we can not just accept what we like, and leave behind that which makes us uncomfortable.

Visit “Chocolate and Coffee “ to read her take on the quote and to leave your link along with the other participants.