Everyday Lessons. . .

Usually the Lord speaks to me in one of two ways, either through reading His Word or by teaching me through everyday life situations.

Take yesterday for instance, it was a nice sunny day here in our area of Thailand, so I did laundry.  I had the laundry hanging out on the clothes line, blowing in the wind.  Generally things dry quickly in the Thailand heat, so several hours later I went out to see if the clothes were dry. 

Some of the clothes were dry so I started to take them off the line, and that’s when I saw it. . .gecko poop.  Ewwww!  There on the collar of two of my husband’s shirts, and on a bed cover.  Yuck!

I immediately thought, I just cleaned these clothes and here they are dirty already!  And that is when the Lord spoke to my heart. . .”Just like when you come to Me asking for forgiveness, asking Me to cleanse you; and then, a short time later you are back again asking for forgiveness and cleansing for the very same thing.”

I stopped my indignant march to the washer to rewash the three items.  Oh, wow!  How true.  Well, of course, it is the Lord addressing this issue with me.   

I immediately thought of how I had gone to the Lord about letting other people’s anger or negative actions toward me lead me to become angry as well.  I know that returning anger for anger is not how the Lord wants me to react, and yet, I find myself returning to the Lord for forgiveness for that very thing.

The Lord then put Paul’s words on my heart.  In Romans 7:15 Paul says "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."

I have been there!  I want to be fast to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger, and then I falter.  Thankfully the Lord is doing a work in me on this, and I am getting better at not returning anger for anger.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not walk around angry (my normal disposition is joyful), but I do sometimes let other people’s anger make me react in a way I don’t want too.

James 1:19 says "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;"

Here is, Shoey, a gecko we took a picture of when we first moved to Thailand.  We called him that to remind us to look in our shoes, because you never know what might crawl into your shoe in Thailand.  J

“Thank you Lord for the daily lessons you teach me, and thank you for always welcoming me when I come back again and again asking for forgiveness.”

Blessings,

April