Living WELL

I woke up this morning extremely tired. With my husband being out of town for the day, I knew this tired mommy was going to need an extra dose of grace to make it through the day well (i.e. with patience, with sufficient energy, with graceful speech, with a good attitude). And so, I simply and succinctly asked God to give me grace today.

A little while later, my friend Stacey text messaged me offering to take Abel and Amariah to Adventureland for the afternoon so that I could have a little break. Knowing how much fun the kids would have, I couldn't say no! As soon as they left, I began considering how I should spend the time, wanting to do the thing that would be most refreshing to me. I put Isabel and Elliana down for their naps, grabbed my Bible, and sat down on the couch for some "R and R" (in this case, Reading and Refreshment)!

I spent most of nap time reading through the book of 2 Corinthians, underlining the verses that stood out to me as I went along. (There were a lot of them--much to meditate on!) When I finished reading the letter in its entirety, I went back through and reread the underlined verses. As I did so, I recognized that God was speaking to me through these verses in what seemed to me a common theme: living well. Living in such a way as to not just "get through the day," but to do it well.

Dear God,

Please help me to live well. Help me to "comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which [I myself am] comforted by [You]" (1:4). Help me to speak because I believe (4:13). Help me to look at not the things which are seen--the temporal--but at the things which are not seen--the eternal (4:18). Help me to have as my ambition to be pleasing to You (5:9). Help me to live not for myself but "for Him who died and rose again on [my] behalf" (5:15). Help me to "be separate" (6:17). Help me to be "sorrowful to the point of repentance" (7:9). Help me to "sow bountifully" (9:6). Help me to be she "whom the Lord commends" (10:18).

Thank You, God, for this time of refreshing by the water of Your Word. Thank You for dying that I might have life; and thank You for asking me--and equipping me--to live it well!

Amen!