Fat Tuesday has come and gone.
I often wonder if people who celebrate it realize
its purpose.
We are now entering the weeks before Easter.
It is supposed to be the 40 weekdays leading up
to Easter Sunday.
I know that Lent is man-made activity, it is not
in the Bible.
I choose to observe it to give me a more intentional
focus. I am in deep prayer for the week before
Ash Wednesday (which is today).
I ask God to show me where/what he wants me
to put my focus.
If you recall, last year he had me doing intentional
blessings. It was a difficult but rewarding task.
I also choose to continue my Lenten Focus on weekends.
I do not feel it is genuine if I have weekends off...this isn't
a work week thing.
My spiritual growth has been a work in progress as it was meant to be for Christians.
If we try to do ALL the stuff in one shot, we would FAIL.
The area God has me focusing on this season is.........
MY CURSING (cussing if you are an Okie).
YES!!! I have a FOUL mouth...ugh.
There I said it!!!!
Now don't get me wrong, I would NEVER say GD....and only if
I were realllllly made did I let loose with an "F" bomb.
Which in my little brain was okay.
Then God pointed me to this verse in the Bible.
LUKE 6:45
45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
I tried to quickly skim right on by that verse....
then came
LUKE 6:46
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
UGH!!!!
How do you argue with that?????
So, here I go.....giving up CURSING.
He doesn't have me JUST giving up cursing....no! of course not!
I now have 100 one dollar bills.
Every time I let lose with a curse word, the person hearing it
is allowed to ask for $1 for every bad word.
On Easter Sunday, whatever amount I still have left will be given to God.
Why am I doing the money thing?
Because I am either witnessing FOR God or AGAINST God.
Would I rather give the money for God's work or Satan's work?
At the end of Lent, I will figure out how often I let Satan
speak for me.
If I run out of money, I will get another $100 and keep going.
Just know that if you haven't started cursing yet....DON'T START!!!
I want to have that moment when I get startled and the
"S" word doesn't fly out of my mouth.
I CAN DO THIS!!!!
I CAN DO THIS!!!
With God's help, I CAN DO THIS!!!
2 comments:
You were an answer to my prayer today. Forwarded from a friend that knew I need your message. I, too, am a work in process but have always loved the Lenten season even as a teenager.
Today while cleaning off my desk, I found a note from a couple of years ago with blog sites and rather than toss them aside assuming that I'd already bookmarked them (they could be from the previous hard drive), I decided to revisit them.
So here I am, and I'm glad I did.
I'm a native Tulsan (living in Texas) and a Believer.
Your post about cussing really hit home. My family is experiencing a very difficult and scary situation with our grandchildren and I've become aware that my heart is full of anger. Every time I stub my toe or drop something or anything unexpected happens, there I go blurting out things I shouldn't.
Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated and identified with your post.
I'll be back soon.
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