When my kids were young, we moved from the lush green hills of Arkansas to the brown rocky landscape of New Mexico.
I didn’t recognize the beauty in either place, until I left them.
It was the season when I did nothing for anyone.
Including myself.
I felt like I lived in circles. Doing the same thing I did the day before. And just thankful to get through it.
I was tired and life was hard. I was stuck in a job I hated. Struggling in a broken marriage and the monotony of motherhood. I was always looking for the next “big thing” in my life to give me a temporary high. Sometimes it was shopping, sometimes it was eating.
Sometimes nothing worked.
Now when I look back, I don’t see wasted time. I see fertile ground.
Because sometimes you have to get so sick of your life, your mess, your view that you begin seeing those around you.
I could not keep living the same empty way another day. When I stopped focusing on my own needs and started meeting needs around me, the most amazing thing happened.
I changed.
My life — and my circumstances — looked the same, but my view was completely different.
I wrote an entire book about saying yes to God in the middle of our mess and I hear this so often: Where do I start? How do I change my view?
This might sound too simple, too easy, but here’s the answer:
Do the last thing God told you to do.
Because sometimes our yes is continued faithfulness.
And faithfulness today — right where we are — always leads to the next yes.
And the next. And before we know it, we are standing at the door that opens to more.
How do we know what God is telling us to do?
I’ve discovered that when an idea is for me, it’s probably by me. It benefits me in some way. But those little thoughts and desires and ideas to do something for someone else? Those are most likely from God. When I do them, I find Him in the middle of it.
The truth is, it’s not a secret at all to discover what God wants us to do next. Because really what we are talking about here is obedience. It’s not necessarily a big yes, although it could lead to that. It’s daily faithful obedience to do whatever God tells you.
We find the next step in the Bible:
“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track.” {Proverbs 3:5-7, MSG}
Send that note. Take that meal. Hug that child. Serve that neighbor.
When you don’t know what to do next, do the thing that’s right in front of you today. It might just change your view.
It will open the door to tomorrow and you just never know where it will lead.
by Kristen Welch, We are THAT family
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