Perseverance

Today I was on the hunt for a blue onsie to fill an embroidery order.  I took my two year old with me on this adventure.  He was very well behaved for most of it.  I went to 4 stores before deciding to check Toys R Us.  I know...I'm crazy to take a child in a toy store without the intension of buying him anything.  So, as I am becoming aware that I was not going to find the sought-after onsie, I decided to leave.  That is when he decided it was time to place his toy order.  He looked down one isle and up another.  The Toy Story toys were a favorite.  He stopped several times in front of the most expensive items and wondered why I was not picking them up for him.  After many "no's" from me, he turned on the tears.  Then he let everyone in the store know that we were there too.  Loud went to louder.  I got several sympathetic looks on the way out.  I sometimes buy my children new toys, but today I was on a mission and didn't feel the need to spend any extra money on something they didn't need, and would probably forget about soon after getting home.

So, as the day went on, I thought about this off and on.  I wondered how we as adults can compare with our children.  How does our Father look at our requests / demands for things that we want.  Things that we don't necessarily need, but think we can't live without.  Or how does He feel when the request is made repeatedly, even after His answer has been given.  Our little children don't always have the mental ability to understand why a "no" isn't always going to be the answer.  And sometimes it is a "not yet".  So they go to the only response they know...a total melt down. 

I wonder how many times God looks at our responses and thinks "when are they going to learn?".  Our lack of trust must disappoint Him terribly.  I say this and know that the next time I don't get "my way" I will probably not respond in the most perfect of ways.  But I am trying to change.  I want to look at each situation the way Jesus looked at them. 

In James we read in the first few verses of perseverance.  This is defined as "a steady persistence in a course of action in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.  The quality or state of being wise, knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; discernment or insight".  We are to "consider it pure joy when we face trials because the testing of our faith produces perseverance".  Once we accomplish this, we are made "mature and complete, not lacking anything".  WOW!  Not lacking.  He has already promised to provide us with what we need, when we need it.  By staying close to Him and trusting his answers, we can grow and mature. 

Love in Christ,

Kerry

Intro

As Christians, our lives can be compared to a garden.  We are responsible for taking care of what grows there.  We need to constantly prune our gardens to remove unwanted things, like anger, pride, selfishness, etc, much like a gardener prunes his garden of weeds and unwanted plants. 

Last year we had an overgrown area of poison ivy removed.  It was a huge undertaking and required the help of several workers, lasting all day.  I have since noticed the ivy slowly growing back.  It would take years to get to the level it was, but still we need to stay on top of this and remove all the unwanted plants because just one can cause an allergic reaction. 

In the same way, if we let unwanted emotions or words take root in our lives, we will have a harder time removing them.  Stop these bad behaviors as soon as they show up.  Take God's word and apply it to your circumstances.  Planting His word into our hearts will result in His word coming out of our mouths when we need it.  God says that His word is alive.  He spoke all things into existence.  We can either speak negative or positive words over our lives and the results will follow.