Shaking a Fist at God

This imagery has been brought into my head lately. Whenever we insist on doing what we want- and for years as an addict I did this so I speak from experience- we are pridefully shaking our fist at God. We are saying we want what we want and don’t want to hear what our loving Creator wants from or for us. We are praying our will be done rather than God’s will be done. We are screaming that we know better than almighty God, who made us.

God brought me, loved me, into recovery, into humble submission to His plan. Jesus bought with His own blood and cleaned me up inside and out. I am not who I was and I am free now and joyful, I have peace. All this because I have accepted His plan for me and humbled myself to accept love and grace. It is so very beautiful! I am so thankful! Praise God!😃❤️

The Precious Pain Box

Hanging on to a deep hurt from our past is like clenching a secret box of pain or bad choices or addiction that we have made a treasure of. We protect it. We keep it. We, like Gallum of the Lord of the Rings book series by J. R. Tolkien, call it “my precious” and would die to keep it and protect it.

Meanwhile, this protected box, though feeling familiar and safe and only ours, is killing us softly, keeping us bondage to it. We think we are holding our box but that box is holding us.

How do you feel safe enough to let it go? Only one way. We have to choose to do so. We have to humbly want to put the box down. As soon as we want Him to, God will take it from you. And He is with you along the way trying to get your attention to let you know life is better without that evil box we have been treasuring. Forgiveness is release of the pain and hurt in full pardon- you choose to forgive. Prayer is a powerful tool to help get you there. Love is too.

Let me encourage you by saying how freeing and light is to put the bad box treasure down. You feel as though you can fly without it. It is beautiful! And God is so very good!😄❤

My Tech-Minimized/Old Fashioned Life

My goal is not necessarily to be in the dark ages with no electricity at all (actually, I would probably do fine with that), but I have a goad to minimize tech and it’s over-reach in my life. I do not believe a high-tech life makes anyone’s life better. May make it more convenient or more comfortable. May promote laziness and kill traditional store fronts over time that cannot compete with prices with littleoverhead. May be a tool of greedy people to gain power. So many options, but rarely does it make life or social interactions better. Often, it is quite a bit worse. And I do not like who I am with a phone in front of me all the time. Best thing I ever did was get off all anti-social media and minimize tech in my life. I do not auto-pay any bills. I do not have many online accounts at all. I am old fashioned by choice and love it. My kids love it. My husband loves it. I get things done. My house is clean and organized. My kids and I converse eye to eye, face to face. It is amazing how much better behaved my kids are when they know they have my attention. Yes, I have to call people to find somethings out that people foolishly only post on Facebook which I have no access to, but when the right people know I am not on social media, they call me or text (because most people do not people anymore) and I find out what is important and beautifully ignore what is not. Life has enough distractions. And I sincerely feel I have a close relationship to God because I am not on antisocial media or unnecessary tech. It was hard to find time before because extra time was taken being anti-social. Without that, I have time to be vailable and be still with God and read my Bible and it is so very cool! That is the best thing of all. Praise God for releasing me from that horrible addiction. 1 year sober now! Woo hoo!😄❤

Avoiding Sexual Temptation

Temptation is the only thing I can see in the Bible where we are instructed to run from it. Against giants, we run toward and face, when lied against, we stand on truth from the Bible, with injustice we stand oue ground, when hit we turn the other cheek but still stand. I heard a great teacher of the Bible David Jeremiah say this and it is true. Joseph ran from his boss’ wife’s sexual advances. Sexual temptation us everywhere we allow our natural sex drive to inflate and wander. It has gone from seething and hiding under every rock and dark place to openly flaunted on the internet and in wide open spaces. Kids can wander into it if safeguards are not in place. It can sneak in around even those if we are neglectful. To avoid it, we must decide to run from it. Put the safeguards on everyone’s tech and not just the kids’. If it keeps happening, throw the tech out. Better to be without tech than for tech to rule you and drag you to hell. Get deeper into God’s Word and prayer and He gives strength to run from it. It is a natural impulse Satan uses to imprison people and destroy lives. Just simply run from it and draw near to God. It is just that simple. You have to want to do good more than bad. Choose it and pray and get help and support if you need but keep running from it. Want good more than evil. God will reward and bless your efforts in doing the right thing.❤