Abundance is overrated?
This week as I sat reading my two devotionals, one brings me to 1 Timothy chapter 2. Let's get right to it, it is convicting. Verse 9 states:
"I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pears or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God."
I am but a student of the Bible, I find reading it, interpreting, and understanding it very difficult. But trying...I love that. I often snap photos of Bible verses or book readings that speak to me that day but then don't ever re-visit them.
Probably by no accident, an index card fell out that I had written a verse on a few years back. It felt important to me at the time and fitting for this day:
"Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear." 1 Peter 3:1-6
Is this how our world thinks? Quite the opposite. Internally, I know that the way I look outwardly is not what is important to God or life. My heart, thoughts, and actions -- those things that one cannot visibly see -- those are what counts. I can't say that I spend more time letting my heart lead me than my eyes. I want to. How does one get there? Simply wanting does not cut it.
Knowing all this doesn't stop me from buying a new pair of pants or shirt when the ones I have are already plentiful and still good. There is a desire in us to want - more things, new things, the latest things. We want to look like A, B, and C. We want to have the latest X. I can't tell you how many times I've spent online adding items to my shopping cart only to never buy them, instead of using that time for something actually useful. So many wasted seconds. In the present it seems as though time is endless, but when you really stop to think about life and how precious it is and how much time in yours has passed (I'm getting dangerously close to the halfway part of an average lifespan) you realize, or at least I do, all the useless ways you have used your time. I'm starting to use my time better. I'm likely not even 25% there but it's progress. I just bought a new pair of leggings and have an appointment to get my hair cut and colored next week, but I am also reading my Bible more, thinking more. and meditating. Trying to be present - because that's really all we have isn't it? I think about the past a lot but that is a time gone. I worry about the future A TON, but I have no control or idea really what is to come of it. I have this second, this minute, and maybe the next if the Lord grants them. Keeping this in mind has helped tremendously.
I'll be me, you be you. Come as you are. Open your Bible...
"I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pears or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God."
I am but a student of the Bible, I find reading it, interpreting, and understanding it very difficult. But trying...I love that. I often snap photos of Bible verses or book readings that speak to me that day but then don't ever re-visit them.
Probably by no accident, an index card fell out that I had written a verse on a few years back. It felt important to me at the time and fitting for this day:
"Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear." 1 Peter 3:1-6
Is this how our world thinks? Quite the opposite. Internally, I know that the way I look outwardly is not what is important to God or life. My heart, thoughts, and actions -- those things that one cannot visibly see -- those are what counts. I can't say that I spend more time letting my heart lead me than my eyes. I want to. How does one get there? Simply wanting does not cut it.
Knowing all this doesn't stop me from buying a new pair of pants or shirt when the ones I have are already plentiful and still good. There is a desire in us to want - more things, new things, the latest things. We want to look like A, B, and C. We want to have the latest X. I can't tell you how many times I've spent online adding items to my shopping cart only to never buy them, instead of using that time for something actually useful. So many wasted seconds. In the present it seems as though time is endless, but when you really stop to think about life and how precious it is and how much time in yours has passed (I'm getting dangerously close to the halfway part of an average lifespan) you realize, or at least I do, all the useless ways you have used your time. I'm starting to use my time better. I'm likely not even 25% there but it's progress. I just bought a new pair of leggings and have an appointment to get my hair cut and colored next week, but I am also reading my Bible more, thinking more. and meditating. Trying to be present - because that's really all we have isn't it? I think about the past a lot but that is a time gone. I worry about the future A TON, but I have no control or idea really what is to come of it. I have this second, this minute, and maybe the next if the Lord grants them. Keeping this in mind has helped tremendously.
I'll be me, you be you. Come as you are. Open your Bible...
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