Appearances certainly can be deceiving. When I looked outside this morning and saw a nice sunny day with no snow on the ground and dry roads, I assumed it meant it would be a mild enough day to drive to work with the windows down and my music blaring.
But alas, it was -8 when I read the digital thermometer in my car. Not fun AT ALL. But that's life in February I suppose. Instead I turned the music off and prayed the whole way to work.
Last week I made a faith commitment to pray every day for the same 4 things (soon to be upgraded to 5) everytime I was alone in my car for the rest of the month. So far I've not done too badly...there was one day there when I wasn't ever in the car alone but I think I prayed as I was going to bed.
However, it turns out that I've forgotten one of the things I committed to praying for. I know it was about me, but I've completely lost what it is...unless of course I've somehow integrated it into the rest of the praying somehow without realizing it but I'm drawing a blank, presently.
I remember when I was at CBC in Regina, my next door neighbour in the dorms had a prayer wall. She had post-it notes with various prayer requests scribbled all over them and three categories to put them under:
1. Answered
2. In progress
3. Unanswered
She specifically kept the third one there, although it remained empty. It was not only to remind her of what she should be praying for, but also that God doesn't ever NOT answer prayers. He just doesn't necessarily answer them the way we want him to. I thought that was pretty cool.
One thing that God pointed out to me today was to have patience. Of course, I wasn't quite listening to Him until after the fact but I find I'm not as patient as I should be with some of the people at work...specifically the one(s) who are newer and therefore need a little extra guidance. I am going to work on that tomorrow.
Tomorrow and Thursday will require copious amounts of patience. Lori's in court with her husband about a settlement and I'm working alone with the boss all day, both days. Not my idea of a grand old time but it's a good chance for 'character development'.
But that particular phrase carries negative connotations with me - just like "God's been telling me...", and all because of my NZ experience.
But I also learned something from a very wise man named Samuel January when I was in Te Anau...he said that in some cases, instead of saying that we're going to close our minds and hearts to something "because" of a certain circumstance, we should be willing to embrace and be open "in spite of" them.
Three things to embrace and open myself to, "in spite of" past circumstances:
1. Character Development
2. Leading from the Lord
3. Manifestation of the Spirit
I've got a lot of work ahead of me...
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