Not Your Ordinary Tree

See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.  For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared yet what we shall be.  We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.  I John 3:1-2 (NASB)

When we met our oldest son's former boss for the first time, he told us what a fine young man he is.  We thanked him, of course, but then he looked my husband in the eye and said, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."  I hadn't heard that phrase in years, but that particular incidence has planted it forever upon my heart.  Reading this verse this morning brought it to the forefront once again.

First, God is not a tree, but we can liken our relationship to Him as one.
...if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.  Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.  Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.  For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. Romans 11:16b-24 (ESV)

Second, we were created in His image, but desired more.  This sin cut us off from the living tree and left us as branches.  We still resemble the tree a bit outwardly, but there is no root system to feed us the sap we need to continue to live.  Eventually the sap dries up and we are good for nothing but burning and so burn we will.  However, in His great love for us, God offers us His personal sap, so to speak.  The sap is the trees lifeline as is blood ours.  God poured out His own blood through His Son Jesus.  He offers us this as a free gift from Himself.  If we accept it, He will do more than simply give us our own root system, which He could have chosen to do, but rather He grafts us into His own tree and becomes our life support.  Jesus' resurrection proved this life He is offering is not temporary, but eternal. 

I praise God that I am not simply an apple that fell from the Tree, but a tree made in His image so that He can graft me into Himself where He will sustain me for all eternity.  My branch may display different fruit from another of His branches, but look what Revelation says about the Tree of Life:
And in the center of the street on this side and on that, upon the river, The Tree of Life which produces 12 fruits, and every month it gives its fruits and its leaves for the healing of the peoples.  Revelation 22:2  (Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

We were created to be God's children, to produce the fruit of His choice.  He knew we would cut ourselves off from Him, but loved us and wanted us so badly, He was willing to allow it to happen.  He already had the solution and, even though it came at an extreme price, was willing to give it.  Our purpose now, as His children, His branches?  We are to produce the fruit that heals all nations; the fruit that makes mouths water and bodies ache.  The fruit that draws them to the Tree of Life....LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS AND SELF-CONTROL.
In each situation we must ask ourselves if we are producing ripe, sweet, juicy fruit, or immature, green and bitter? 
Lord, grant us wisdom to know the difference!!
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

The Burden Bearer

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.  Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

Yesterday evening I sat at the kitchen table with my oldest granddaughter helping her with her homework.  As she sat working on her math, I took her file folder that is categorized by subject and started pulling out papers.  Holding up each one, I asked if she needed them any longer.  As she shook her head or nodded, I either replaced the papers or put them in a pile to be recycled.

When I was finished, we continued with the rest of her work.  When we were ready to go to the next subject, she picked up the folder, placed her math inside, smiled and tossed the folder in the air.  She said, "Wow!  This thing is much lighter now that I got rid of all the junk I didn't need!"

This morning I did my Bible study and prayer time.  When I finished praying an overwhelming tiredness enveloped me, so I lay down on the couch and fell asleep.  As I was waking, I remembered the above incident as these words floated through my mind:

"The average Christian carries around a lot of junk they don't need and so feels weighed down under the pressure of it." 

Anger, bitterness, need to be successful in the world's eye, rejection, hurts from the past, popularity, fear, love of money and/or possessions and on and on the list goes.  We then have placed on top of all this the need for things to happen instantaneously.  We live in such a fast paced world that we are constantly seeking ways to make it move faster.  The urgency is so great that s\the public school system has decided handwriting is an unnecessary subject.  It needs to be legible, but cursive doesn't even need to be taught as computers run the day.  Writing letters takes too much time anyway and email makes it where we can send one message to hundreds in the push of a computer key.  Dialing a phone takes too long, so we have one button dialing.  All of this has simply added to our burdens, because we have stopped knowing how to be patient.  Instead we have become driven to go faster and faster.  This way we can do more in each day, which is another burden when we cannot accomplish all we feel we should be able to within twenty four hours. Yesterday I was upset with myself because I had forgotten to practice my music for Sunday.  I admit this only lasted a moment, but the consideration that it would be much easier to drop out of our church music program did go fleetingly through my mind.  Then I looked at what I had accomplished.  I spent the day with our youngest grandson and made him smile and laugh throughout the day.  We had learned four new poems together, done some math, read together (I read to him, then he to me), went to the library and imagined we were planting corn on the cob.  When it was grown, which took an amazing thirty seconds at most, we cooked, buttered and ate it.  After nine hours of watching him laugh, learn and grow, I worked with my granddaughter for two and half hours on her homework.  In between I had made meals, typed lesson plans, done some cleaning and eventually made dinner.  I talked to my oldest son on the phone, visited with my daughter, youngest son and grandchildren as they were dropping off and picking up, made a snack for my husband and son-in-law to hold them over until dinner and went to Kohls to pay our bill off.  I had accomplished much!

I shared all that to say, we need to stop looking at what we didn't get done and look at what we did.  Constantly berating ourselves for not doing all that we feel is expected of us does nothing but add another burden - the burden of defeat.  The amplified Bible, which expounds on each verse from the original Greek, says this:
²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ^[a]ease and relieve and ^[b]refresh ^[c]your souls.]
²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (^[a]relief and ease and refreshment and ^[b]recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.
³⁰ For My yoke is wholesome (useful, ^[c]good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 11:29 Alexander Souter, Pocket Lexicon.
2. Matthew 11:29 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon.
3. Matthew 11:30 James Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary.

We no longer seem to know how to relax and be refreshed.  When we try, we feel guilty.  We have increased our personal burdens while all along Jesus has been telling us that He wants to ease them.  Cleaning house by yourself will eventually get the job done, but if someone is willing to help. it gets done twice or three times as fast; three times if housework is difficult for you but found easy by your helper. I have helped many a child clean their bedroom.  They are always amazed at how fast it gets done, because when they try to do it alone, they become overwhelmed. Jesus finds nothing too difficult to handle.  He knows and is the answer to all things.  If we go to Him and seek His will, listen to and obey His voice, rejecting fear of others opinions of us, even our own, and focusing on His opinion instead, we will find rest in even the most mundane and/or most difficult of tasks as He work alongside us, carrying the majority of the load on His own shoulders.

Father, teach us to rest in You.

Real Chocolate

I wish more of my brothers and sisters in Christ personally realized the joy in spending a daily morning time with the Father.  So many of my "family friends" (my term of endearment for brothers and sisters in Christ) talk about just not being able to find time.  I understand this very well, but wish I could reveal to them in a tangent fashion just how important and encouraging it is.  When I first made the decision to have daily devotions and so needed to get up a half hour earlier every day, it was difficult to say the least.  I missed more days than I hit.  However, somewhere along the way I started recognizing God's still, small voice as I read.  Examples of life events that give a good, if not perfect, picture of what God wanted to reveal to me would pop into my head and give me clearer understanding.  The more this happened, the more I wanted to know and hear.  Eventually it got to the place where God's Word was and is the first thing on my mind when I waken.  No, I am not perfect in this.  There are days when things happen, like being ill, taking care of someone who is ill, having an unexpected phone call that changes my day completely or simply being so exhausted, I have to wait until later.  Even on those days my heart cries out to get into the word and hear His voice so as to calm and reassure me that all is well.  Those are the times I cry out in prayer for God to make the way and He always does if I pay attention.  If all this sounds fantasy, I thought so at one time myself, so don't feel bad.  It is something that you must experience for yourself to realize the possibility.

I admit that I am a very determined person.  Once I make up my mind to do or not do something, I follow through, even if it takes me longer than originally planned.  When I told the doctor I didn't want to take heart medicine and he told me that I would need to stay away from caffeine and chocolate, I decided to do exactly that.  I have refrained from both for over twenty years now, and I absolutely adored chocolate.  Dessert wasn't dessert without it.  The smell of it made me drool.  The first two weeks were a real struggle.  The next four were hard, but a bit easier.  After that it became easier and easier until I came to the point that the smell did nothing for me and the taste of it was extremely bitter.  I know this because I tried eating a homemade chocolate chip cookie with one chip in it just to see what would happen.  When I came to the chip (and I was deliberately not paying attention to when that would happen) that tiny little thing filled my mouth with bitterness.  I had to get a drink of water.

Life without Jesus is much the same.  We walk around addicted to this world and don't even realize it.  All we know is we want more.  When we wake in the morning we want more.  We go out searching for it, not knowing exactly what it is we are looking for, but searching just the same.  Every once in a while we come across something that makes us think, "That's it!!  That's what I need to relax and make me happy!!"  We then pursue it until we have it just to find out we must keep looking.  That wasn't it after all.  Just like my addiction to chocolate;  I would see a chocolate cake and think it would fulfill that desire within me.  After eating it, I discovered I now wanted a brownie or cookie or Almond Joy, etc.  No matter what form it came in or how much of it I consumed, I always wanted more.  If/when we come to the place of no longer wanting quick fixes, but something solid and unchanging, something that will remain with us so that we no longer crave the chocolate things of this world any longer, then, and only then will we be willing to take the chance of letting it all go.  Once we do, if we refuse to turn back, we will eventually discover how bitter our life has really become and begin searching for the One that fills every craving - Jesus.

This is not what I planned to write about.  I was planning on writing about coats.  I guess I will save that for another day, unless the Lord decides differently.  Until then, may all who read this be blessed with understanding their cravings in life and come to the realization that there is only One that can fill that desire.

Father God, I pray for my family, my friends, my acquaintances, all those I have never met, that they might begin to let go of the cravings of this world and turn to Jesus, the only person who can fill that spot that is always crying out for more. 

Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."  John 4:13  (NKJV)

What Remains?

"Theist David Wood asks in his debates...whether it is rational to look at the Venus de Milo statue, note its condition, and conclude that no intelligent artist would be incompetent or perverse enough to sculpt it without arms.  Surely it makes more sense to view the delicate greatness of what remains of Venus de Milo and conclude instead that a great artist's work has suffered serious damage." pg 126.

Often I have asked the question of an older children's Sunday school class, "What do you think the world would be like if God did not exist?"  Where would the ability to sense right and wrong come from and whose authority would decide it?  What would make someone an authority in the first place?  Strength - physical and mental strength.  It would truly be a world of the strong dominating the weak.  I would have been squashed and considered worthless as I was sick much of my childhood.  I might not would have made it to my current age, or even to my teens for that matter.   The "survival of the fittest" would surely take control. 
We can watch the animal world and see what it would be like somewhat: Perhaps the adult males would kill the infant males so as to keep them from one day trying to take over leadership.  Many in the animal kingdom try to do this and succeed if the mother fails to defend the little one.
If one of us became ill, the others would perhaps jump and kill them to rid the group of possible disease.  This too takes place.  We call these things "natural selection."  We see nothing inherently wrong in them, because these are animals we speak of instead of humans.  But what, if not God, makes us any better than the animals.  It is being discovered as of late that the thing we THOUGHT made us different (ability to reason) is not the case.  More and more animals, dogs, cats, pigs, apes, and many others, it has been discovered, can reason, yet to them it is perfectly natural to kill or be killed, even amongst their own kind.  Yet it must also be stated that animals can and sometimes do change.  When humankind pours out love and affection on them, they tend to respond in like manner.
A dog in the wild will kill any animal that it considers edible.  Bring it home, bath, feed, pet and shower it with affection and this same dog will most of the time become your greatest defender.  He will wag his tail (sometimes entire body), lick your hands and face, sit on your lap, stay by you when you are ill and will never even try to bite you, let alone kill you for food.  What is the difference? Love given by someone bigger, smarter and wealthier than they ever imagined.  As a matter of fact, they probably never imagined being loved at all, yet here they are.
People are the same.  Picturing a God who is bigger, stronger, smarter and so very much wealthier than we in the things that are of real worth loving us is simply unfathomable.  How could such a person exist?  We see so little of that kind of love in the physical realm, how could it possible exist anywhere else?  Yet those of us who have experienced that love know how extreme and real it is. 
I once read a book of fiction entitled The Demas Revelation.  It is based on one verse of Scripture: "...for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica-" II Timothy 4:10. 
In the book a Christian archaeologist discovers some scrolls that have supposedly been related by the disciples and Paul to a scribe, who wrote them on papyrus, placed them in a wax sealed container, buried half in Herculaneum and the other half in Pompeii.  Each scroll is supposedly a confession that they lied about Jesus' resurrection.  Before the archaeologist can finish testing them, one is stolen and brought before the press, who of course, enjoy telling the world that there is proof that Jesus was a fake.  The chaos that takes place reveals somewhat what the world would be like if the world as a whole stopped believing.  I will not tell you how the book ends, but I hope that you check it out at your library, borrow it from a loved one, download it onto your Kindle or other device or purchase it for yourself.  It really made me stop and think about how I would react in such a situation and I found myself coming up with reasons that would cause such lies to be a true archaeological find and yet still be false.  See what reasons you come up with and test your faith.  Read the entire book including epilogue, questions and answers section and note from the author.  I promise you will be blessed.
The author's name is Shane Johnson.  This is the first novel I have read of his, but look forward to more adventures from him as  I LOVE archaeological fiction AND non-fiction.
Without God there would be no such thing as good or bad and we would have to simply live or die by it.  There would be no purpose in life but to eat, drink and be merry, and the merry part would be fake and very short lived as we would constantly having to look over our shoulder.  Would it be possible to have friends or would we be forced to trust no one?
We would be in constant search of the next big experience.  Each would have to be better than the last to satisfy our "hunger" until we ultimately become the beast or the prey.  There would be no in-between.
Some may disagree or find my thought process a little far fetched, but those who know Him will not.  I grieve for those who do not.  As Shane writes on page 295 of his book, "We're saved only because God has chosen to save us through His Son.  We receive salvation.  We don't buy it.  We don't pursue it.  It is a gift.  There's one narrow bridge by which we may reach God, a bridge He built because, otherwise, there could be none between us.  And if we place our trust in any other, if we try to cross that chasm by any other path, we just won't get there."

Give Me Joy

Kai Nielsen (a self-proclaiming atheist and ethics professor at University of Calgary) once said:

“We have not been able to show that reason requires the moral point of view or that all really rational persons should not be individual egoists or classified amoralists. Reason doesn't decide here. The picture I have painted for you is not a pleasant one. Reflection on it depresses me...Pure practical reason, even with a good knowledge of the facts, will not take you to morality.”

Why? Because inevitably it all comes back to: “It's bad because it makes me uncomfortable.” But what if it doesn't make you uncomfortable, but instead gives you a sense of pleasure to pull the limbs off of infants and watch them die?  Just the thought grieves me to the point of feeling quite ill, yet we allow this in society through abortion on a daily basis. Is adultery wrong? To say it is wrong on the basis that you made a promise to remain faithful at marriage doesn't hold water....just don't make the promise. If it ISN'T wrong, then why have marriage at all? Everyone should just sleep with whomever they want whenever they want. There is the disease thing that comes of it. What difference should that make? There must be no evil in disease if there is no evil in the act that causes it.

The argument can go back and forth as long as we want, but it all boils down to the fact that without God there are no real moral standard – only our perception of right and wrong compared to what makes us feel good and happy.
The problem with feelings is they are fleeting.  What makes me feel happy today may bore me tomorrow.  If there is a God (and we know there must be or why would we even be thinking about right and wrong in the first place) then we may have to give up happiness, but why desire only happiness when we can have deep and abiding joy?!
Father, help us learn to discern between what makes us feel happy and what brings us real joy.  True joy comes only from having a loving relationship with You.  Plant in us, your children, a deep and burning desire to know You better.  As we grow in our walk with You, we will automatically begin to experience the difference between fleeting feelings and never ending joy.

Listener's Prayer

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,  so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.  Philippians 1:9-11  (ESV)

There are times when I am amazed at how easily someone will tell their life story to a complete stranger.  Yesterday in the worship service I sat down next to a lady I had never met and she began sharing her life story.  I am not a great conversationalist, but know how to listen when someone is needing to be heard.  This dear, hurting lady needed someone to listen and had chosen me.  I considered this a high privilege in the face of having just met her.  Her's was a sad story that grieved me.  I told her I would be praying for her and her family and have been. 

What makes people trust other people?  Perhaps, in this case, she assumed I was a fellow believer and so would understand how she felt, even though not everyone who attends church is truly a believer.  Other times it may be that they figure they will never see you again, so why not?  Perhaps it is in the person's demeanor that makes us feel they are a safe refuge, or a genuineness in their smile.  Whatever the case,  I had been chosen. 

Part of being a good listener is not giving advice.  It is probably the most difficult part of learning to pray for others.  Learning to listen without judging and thinking we have the answer they need to hear do not go hand in hand.  The truth is, unless they ask for advice, they are not ready to receive it. We may know the answer as given in God's word, but we need to also know that unless a person is ready to receive it, we will only make them more resentful and angry, not to mention confused.  Asking if they would like advice doesn't count either, because many people will say they do when they don't so as to not offend.  They may walk away with a smile while inwardly seething.  I have had to be reminded of this over and over again throughout my life.  Too many times I have had to ask forgiveness for stepping in where I did not belong and sometimes making matters worse.  I am so glad that when we ask forgiveness He not only grants it, but will continue turning the problem into good despite us.

I became engaged to my wonderful husband at seventeen.  I was happy, because I knew that I knew I was doing what God wanted.  However, there were times when we would blow up at each other and people would immediately come to give me advice.  "You're too young anyway."  "How can you be sure he's the right one?" "You shouldn't let him get away with talking to you like that."  And many more as well. This advice was given with good intent and, I am sure, out of love and concern for my well being.  All this did, however, was confuse me and make me feel more sorry for myself than I already did, and believe me, I was great at feeling sorry for myself.  What people didn't understand was that God was using those times to grow me up to a more mature individual before marriage.  I needed to realize that some of the things I found amusing or intellectually stimulating were irritating and seemed rather condescending to others.  So, though in my mind I had done nothing wrong, I needed to see that my motives were sometimes petty and self-centered.  In other words, God was using those times of dissension to make me a better person.  Yes, God's word says our husbands should love us as Christ loved the church - He died for her because she was so filled with sin.  My future husband was willing to risk losing me to help me grow up.  So you can see that sometimes we think we have the answers, but in reality, we have no idea where God is taking any particular person at any given time.  This is not to say that when someone is telling you about a plan to hurt themselves or someone else that you should not step in.  It could be hazardous if we didn't.  However, when someone is just telling us how they feel or about events taking place that they are having to deal with, unless they ask advice, simply pray.  I have found it really blesses people for you to tell them you will be praying as well. 

And how should we pray?  Pray that their love may abound more and more.  Pray they receive knowledge from God along with discernment so they may know right from wrong and make godly decisions.  Pray they may walk in the Spirit of almighty God, doing His will in every situation, determined to remain faithful no matter what the cost.  Pray they might be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through knowing Jesus Christ and that all they say and do might bring glory and praise to Father God.  This is the prayer of my heart for all brothers and sisters in Christ.

On Beds and Boredom

Follow the Leader is a simple game with simple rules - one person is in charge and everyone else must do as they do or is out.  You can change leaders at any given moment.  Young children love to play this game until they make the discovery that it is more fun to lead than to follow.  Admittedly, there are always going to be the few that are too afraid to lead and so remain ever faithful followers.  This is not really due so much to faithfulness though as is is fear: fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of getting lost, fear of leading others into disaster, etc.  Yes, I'm referencing to adult children.

It is a more personal profitable thing to be leader.  The problem is, to where exactly are you leading others?  What may seem a logical and exponentially profitable path can actually be one that leads to destruction-just ask Wall Street.  Seldom does anyone look deep inside at motive anymore.  Rather we are told to do what "feels" right.

In the book of John chapter 21 God allows us to see what happens when we simply do what feels best.  Jesus had been crucified and had even already risen from the dead.  The disciples had witnessed this, but at this particular point in time were perhaps a little bored.  Jesus hadn't given them any real instructions as to "where do we go from here?"  So Peter pipes up and makes this remark, "I am going fishing."  (vs. 3 NKJV)  The others with him said, "We are going with you also." (vs. 3 NKJV)  Now there is nothing wrong with them going fishing.  It was their means of making a living after all.  However, they were only doing it because they didn't know what else to do.  That doesn't make it wrong, per se, but what if they had sought out Jesus?  We find out in the next few sentences. 

Starting at the end of verse 3: "They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.  But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.  Then Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any food?"  They answered Him, "No."  And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some."  So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.  Therefore the disciple whom Jesus loved (John calls himself this rather than printing his own name) said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" (NKJV) 

Yes, there was absolutely nothing wrong with them fishing, but if they had sought Jesus on it to begin with, they wouldn't have wasted their entire evening.

We tend to waste time a lot.  We have been looking at bedroom sets to purchase.  I found one at a remarkable sale price and was ever so tempted to snatch it up.  However, I know that the feeling of losing something before it is ever attained does not come from God.  It comes from my flesh wanting what it wants right now!!  So I took the ad and the two coupons I had toward purchase to my sweet patient husband.  The sale and coupons would allow the purchaser to obtain this particular set that originally ran for $3549.97 for a mere $1623.97, which is a savings of $1926.  We'd save more than we'd spend.  Sounds terrific, doesn't it?  The more I thought about it, the more I wanted that set. 
Last evening we went to two more furniture stores.  We found a set that would do, but found a lingerie cabinet that I adored.  It was on clearance for less than half price as you could only get the floor sample.  My husband turned to the salesman and asked, "Do you know what will happen to me if I don't take this home with us?"  That was a spirit jolter for me.  It took a few seconds, but I finally looked the salesman in the eye and said, "Truth is, absolutely nothing would happen to him.  I would be a little disappointed, but I would get over it."  Long story short, due to some flaws that were "unfixable" we left it behind.

I admit that I still would love to have a lingerie cabinet like that one; so much so that I looked that exact one up on line.  I found it in my favorite wood - oak- but you can only purchase it on line.  There was a full bedroom set to match it that I fell in love with!!  Now I had to do more soul searching to do.  So I actually made a wise decision - I prayed.  It was difficult at first, but since my husband desires me to take the lead on choice of sets, I want to do so wisely.  I told God that if He didn't want us to get that set it would be hard for my flesh to deal with, but that was okay.  We don't even really need a set.  Ours is simply old and looks pretty beat up, but it is functional.  I want what He knows is best for us.  It is a lot of money any way you look at it and I want us to be wise stewards. 

After praying I showed the computer screen to my husband.  He thought it great, but always wants to actually see items before purchase.  He may want me to be leader in choice of design, but he also wants to be certain it is a quality product.  I have found from past experience that when I trust God, He always makes things work out better than I ever dreamed, therefore, I choose to lead by following Him and listening to the man he placed in my life as head of our spiritual life together. 

Yes, Follow the Leader is fun, but as Christians we are both leader and follower.  We lead best when we follow Jesus.  Just as the disciples learned in the passage above, when we follow His lead, we receive more than enough to share.  I look forward to whatever it is He has planned for us in this seemingly simple area of bedroom furniture and am glad He has helped me realize I was headed for "whinyville" if I didn't keep my eyes on following Him.