In Max Lucado’s book Grace for the Moment he uses snippets from his various writings to share thoughts for each day. In a recent reflection he used this scripture and writings from his book The Great House of God. He wrote “Want to know God’s will for your life? Then answer this question: what ignites your heart?” He goes on to encourage one to answer the call of ones heart.
I have to ask myself at the age of 49…what is the call of my heart? I am not sure that I know. I joke about the fact that I am “almost 50 and still do not know what I want to be when I grow up!” I know I enjoyed taking a class this past semester at the community college, I know I would like to take one in the fall, but I do not really know what I want to achieve! I feel like I was an OK Mom, but my son is a young man, making his own decisions…not much I can do there. I feel like I am a decent wife, ever striving to improve…I don’t know what the Lord has for me…I don’t know what ignites my heart…so I guess I will just continue trying to find out. What ignites your heart?
In the meantime…better late than never this week…joining the gratitude community at Ann’s place…
123. sunny, restful weekends.
124. another answered prayer.
125. discovering new places.
126. good lotion.
127. getting some exercise.
128. clean laundry.
129. a cleaner house.
130. discovering new places.
On Saturday, John and I took the day and drove to the Finger Lakes region of New York State, just to look around. It is only about 3 hours from us and we had never been…it was beautiful! This was taken where we had lunch. We ate outside on the deck…it was beautiful. A place called Kidders Landing. There are some lovely falls and beautiful scenery.
Again…I would love to know what ignites YOUR heart…maybe it will inspire me!
Mary, You ask a very good question. What ignites my heart? Like you, I am at a crossroads…my two girls are grown and do not need me so much as a mom, I am at the end of my career having served almost 30 years in the same organization so the question is a good one and one I have been wrestling with. I know that I love God and I love people and I love ministering to people. Recently my mom had a heart attack and has had to be in a skilled nursing facility. I would go see her on my way to work, during my lunch break and after work until about 9 p.m. I got to know a lot of the residents and found great joy in sharing with them. Many of them only have private duty nurses that are with them all day. Very few have family that attend to their needs. I think being an activity director in a place like that would be great. I think anything that would allow me to talk to people, share God's love with them and just sit and smile would be a blessing. I enjoyed stopping by your blog. blessings ~a
What a great picture!! I am just loving your list. A heart of gratitude is such a good thing. It is so easy to take for granted all the good things God gives us.
What ignites my heart? At this time in my life, our grown children are away from us raising their own children. Eleven years ago my husband and I sold our home of 20 years and moved back to the area where our parents are that we might be available to help them as they were getting up in years. That keeps us busy. I've recently been challenged by Abba to live my faith out loud. That is what is igniting my heart right now. He's been teaching me about silence…which for me is waiting quietly for Him to show me when, where and how to live out this faith. Being quiet is hard for me…but I'm learning.
I'm also blessed to have found you, Mary. Thank you for your prayers for me about trusting HIM completely with a situation in our family right now. The very next day after I read that post, a dear friend at church came to me and as we talked she brought out the very thing of trusting HIM and how we tend to take it back…I've been blessed by your prayers and I wanted to say thank you…and to thank you also for becoming a follower of my blog.
As the weeks have drug on it has been easy for me to lose hope.
Will things ever get back to some type of normal? People were not created to live in isolation.
Will we be able to see someone smile or will we always look at them and only see their eyes?
Will people gather without having to sit 6’ apart?
I don’t know the answer and I’m not posting this to debate the news media’s portrayal of the pandemic.
I’m sharing this today because I spent some time with the Lord thanking him for the things I DO have and not focusing on the things I don’t have. The things I have lost since March.
I looked up scriptures about hope.
I made a list in my prayer journal of things I’m grateful for.
Life goes on. Life crisis continues even during this pandemic. People die naturall and tragically. And babies are born. And weddings happen and new lives begin.
This crisis in our world isn’t a surprise to God.
And my hope and security is in Him.
If you scroll through the photos, you see things that made me smile this morning and reminded me of the goodness of God - even now.
With all the grief and sadness in the world I wasn’t sure how I would handle today. How I would allow myself to grieve this loss? Today when there has so much WRONG in our world. In a post @deidrariggs shared today she reminded us that life goes on. And I realized that today this is my life. And I can grieve this loss. My life goes on... I am thankful for the 4 days we had her. On Friday I will remember each event of her last day and I will remember her dying in my arms.
And I will be both sad and grateful. #infantloss #trisomy18 #stlouischildrenshospital
Mary,
You ask a very good question. What ignites my heart? Like you, I am at a crossroads…my two girls are grown and do not need me so much as a mom, I am at the end of my career having served almost 30 years in the same organization so the question is a good one and one I have been wrestling with. I know that I love God and I love people and I love ministering to people. Recently my mom had a heart attack and has had to be in a skilled nursing facility. I would go see her on my way to work, during my lunch break and after work until about 9 p.m. I got to know a lot of the residents and found great joy in sharing with them. Many of them only have private duty nurses that are with them all day. Very few have family that attend to their needs. I think being an activity director in a place like that would be great. I think anything that would allow me to talk to people, share God's love with them and just sit and smile would be a blessing.
I enjoyed stopping by your blog.
blessings
~a
What a great picture!! I am just loving your list. A heart of gratitude is such a good thing. It is so easy to take for granted all the good things God gives us.
What ignites my heart? At this time in my life, our grown children are away from us raising their own children. Eleven years ago my husband and I sold our home of 20 years and moved back to the area where our parents are that we might be available to help them as they were getting up in years. That keeps us busy. I've recently been challenged by Abba to live my faith out loud. That is what is igniting my heart right now. He's been teaching me about silence…which for me is waiting quietly for Him to show me when, where and how to live out this faith. Being quiet is hard for me…but I'm learning.
I'm also blessed to have found you, Mary. Thank you for your prayers for me about trusting HIM completely with a situation in our family right now. The very next day after I read that post, a dear friend at church came to me and as we talked she brought out the very thing of trusting HIM and how we tend to take it back…I've been blessed by your prayers and I wanted to say thank you…and to thank you also for becoming a follower of my blog.
BTW, I'm sure you are more than an "Ok mom and a decent wife."