God's paths get you where you
want to go. Right-living people walk them easily,
wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling.
--Hosea 14:9, The Message
Wisdom
of the Ages
Listen
to your heart and clear your mind, and you will
find the answer every time. Every road you travel
on will lead you to where it is your heart's supposed
to be.
Keith
Urban,
Don't Shut Me Out
A Life Question
What fences are you
cursing rather than being thankful for Him putting
there?
Want to invite a friend?
The Fence
We had
just been talking about it. Not ten minutes before
we were talking about what place God's rules should
play in your life. Are they "in stone"
so that God has something to point to when He throws
you into the fire? "You should've known! I
gave you the Ten Commandments, and you did it anyway!"
We had discussed our children and whether or not
you can teach a child with "only love,"
or do you have to pound the rules into them? How
will they know what's right and wrong if you don't
set down the rules and make sure the child knows
what they are? That was the question. Don't you
need the rules to raise a child?
In the discussion I said what I've said in other
articles, that God gave us the Ten Commandments
because He loves us. He knows that there are times
when we are so in the fog of "right now"
that we, if left to our own experiences and understanding,
might fall into mistakes that will forever alter
our lives for the worse. He knows, and so He gave
us a way to know "this is not done if you want
to live a healthy, prosperous, successful life."
So the rules are there not for punishment, but for
love.
Shortly after our discussion, I walked outside to
go to my vehicle, which was parked a considerable
distance down the road. We were on the far outskirts
of the town. There was very little ambient light
from about a half-mile away. In short, it was dark
out there. I was in a hurry, so I didn't wait for
my eyes to adjust. I stepped off the porch and walked
out to the parked cars.
Not familiar with the lay of the land, I strode
passed the cars. Trying to figure out how I could
get to my van without walking on the road-although
there were no cars there anyway, I kept walking.
I tried to see where I was going, figure out where
I was even as I kept walking. Finally, my brain
said, "Just find the road and then follow it
to the van."
It's interesting how in the fog of "right now"
my brain works. It keeps talking to me, trying to
discern where I am, where I'm going, how I'm going
to get there even as I keep going. Very rarely does
it say, "Hey! Stop and figure it out before
we go forward!" Oh, no. We're going, and we've
got to get there.
Then I realized that my feet were brushing weeds.
"Oh, it's the weeds. I'm in the ditch. The
road should be right here…" Suddenly I
found myself standing six inches from A FENCE! Not
just any fence. This was a four level, barbed-wire,
held together with metal stand-up fence posts. In
less than a heartbeat, I stopped my headlong motion.
I literally said, "A fence? What's a fence
doing on this side of the road?"
Yes, I'm not always the brightest bulb in the lamp.
Then I turned around and realized with some chagrin
that I had gone passed the cars, through one ditch,
onto and over the road, down and back up the other
ditch, and I didn't figure out my mistake…
until I suddenly saw that fence.
Funny, I think that's exactly the lesson we were
just talking about minutes before.
The
other day I read an interesting insight into the second
commandment ("Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
in vain"). I had always heard and been taught that
this meant no cussing. Very well and good, but this Holy
Spirit teacher said that it also meant not to use the Lord's
name as a "front" for unscrupulous practices or
for doing good in His name to promote ourselves rather than
to promote Him and His Kingdom.
I
had never had cause to think about this before, but knowing
Satan and his tricks and traps the way I have come to through
watching my book characters and real live people, it makes
perfect sense. We start out on God's path, doing His will,
letting Him guide, and then things start happening--good
or bad, and we take our eyes off of God and retrain them
to ourselves. Suddenly we forget to put Him in charge of
that sermon we're supposed to give, or that book we're writing,
or that prayer group we're in charge of. We begin to think
we have to do it instead of leaning on His understanding
and His plans for our lives. We get so caught up in doing
things for Him that we forget to let Him in.
Sometimes people forget Him entirely. They begin using His
name to cheat people out of money and time and talent. Sometimes
they use His name to lure people into situations they would
not otherwise subject themselves to. Sometimes in His name
they run others down, judge, demean, and ridicule.
I
once heard the story of a couple who were considered upstanding
members of a particular church. They had invited a young
couple with several children who didn't have a lot of money
to join them for services. The young couple admitted that
they didn't go to church very often because they couldn't
afford nice clothes. So the older gentleman told the younger
that he would show up in jeans so that the young man wouldn't
feel out of place. To put it mildly, they had no idea how
cruel and heartless their own friends could be about what
kind of pants they happened to wear. Sadder still, they
were embarrassed for the young man and his wife--wondering
what made them think inviting them into such a judgmental
situation was a good idea. They felt horrible about the
treatment the young couple had received for coming to God's
house.
Makes
me wonder how many other ways we are taking His name in
vain and not even realizing it. Maybe Satan convinced us
of the narrow meaning of this "fence" so that
we would plow right through it with a Steiger tractor and
a 110-foot implement because we didn't see what God REALLY
meant. Sounds exactly like something Satan would think up...
Don't you think?
Valentine's Day Contest
For those of you enjoying "Princess,"
here's a special reason to click over and get caught up
this month. In honor of Valentine's Day, five lucky readers
will be chosen to receive a free Staci Stallings T-shirt.
What do you have to do to win? Just read
"Princess" like you do every month, and you'll
be entered. Winners will be notified by February 5th.
Happy reading!
Read
& Enjoy...
Princess
(If
you are just joining us and haven't read Princess
yet, or if you need back Chapters, please see the
instructions below.)
Princess will NOT be delivered to your inbox. The
next two chapters are now online.
