One thing that has comforted and encouraged me lately - this idea of Jesus' nearness and presence regardless of how I feel or how I've performed.
His nearness does not change.
His love does not change.
His presence stays the same.
It's wonderful to take this in and draw comfort and confidence through it.
He keeps His promise. He loves me. This is wonderful.
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Believing (not just knowing) these truths has been born out of the reality that my feelings aren't so awesome at times, and I found myself telling the Lord, I don't feel close to You. I felt close to You when...and the answer is often rooted in a time when I was accomplishing more of my spiritual checklist. It's occurred to me that it was checking off those boxes and the feeling that came with it that I equated with closeness to Jesus.
But Hello! HE.IS.ALWAYS.NEAR.
Emmanuel. God with ME.
Nothing I think, feel, or experience diminishes or negates His nearness. Hmm, that sounds familiar...
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 8: 38-39 {we could add all sorts of things to this list, yes? performance, feelings, my super-Christian checklist, other people...}
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Psalm 23:4
Late afternoon grocery trips are traumatizing, I'm thinking. It was for me, at least - a rare occurrence: I took all the kids with me for a week's worth of grocery shopping. Eek. Not again anytime soon. (The kids were not bad - it's just a nightmare to move a pod of 8 people through a crowded grocery during the witching hour....)
The feet! Oh, those sweet feet!
She had two "eyebrows," but ate one before I could snap a photo.
Loving this: on the floor beside my desk, trying to allow CJ to have a bit of quiet downtime during the homeschool day without quite crossing over to the full-blown nap, an idea to which she's quite averse.
Peter Piper picked a peck of peppers....and stuck the stickers onto BH's cute little head!
Oh, whoops! I guess someone did cross over to a full-blown nap after all - on the living room floor.
It's exhausting being a 4th grader, for real.
We had a lovely visit from my mom last week!
Holding on to daddy...
Great observation about the Christian life....it's not us, it's Him! He is always faithful to His covenant relationship to us.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard enough to take my group of 3 through a store! can't imagine your pod :)
ReplyDeletelove the last photo.