Pressing On

I woke up this morning with a fresh sense of God’s grace. “His mercies are new every morning” was the first thing that popped into my mind as I struggled to crawl out of my comfy-cozy bed. I was filled with peace as I set out for the day. I was anxiously desiring to have intimate time with God before the hustle and bustle of the day started.

In the Bible Study I am doing, the question (not a coincidence, of course), was as follows:

Q: “How can we be sure that we won’t sacrifice something wonderful or something of value if we adopt the ultimate goal of following God?

What a perfect question as I am struggling with the sacrifice of ALL that is familiar to me: my friends, family and role as a stay-at-home mom.

The question then pointed me to Mathew 6:33 “Seek first His kindgom and His righteousness and all these things will be given (or added) to you.”

In short, my focus should not be on what I am giving up, but on God’s kingdom and He will fill in the rest in His time. However, the promise is that He will fill it all in. It’s one thing for me to know these things, but it is an entirely different story for me to live them out.

God also pointed me to Phillipians 3:12-14 where Paul talks about pressing on toward the goal and THE ONE THING HE DOES. He says “not that I have already attained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of for me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But the one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

I was struck! He says the one thing he does….the one thing that is vital is to forget what is behind him. And I noticed he didn’t say he just moves on. He says he “strains” toward the prize. Meaning to me, that it probably wasn’t an easy road to forget what was behind if he was straining toward what was ahead, but he pressed on, nonetheless. So, I purposed today to turn my eyes to Lima, Peru and the life we will make there; the ministry God is placing us in; the people we will hopefully share Christ with; and the family of believers that are waiting for us. I HAVE to strain towards this and NOT look back. I probably have the most clarity and peace I've had regarding this during this process. Please remind me of this if I start looking back again.

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I had physical therapy again today. Rosa, my favorite therapist and my friend, told me that when I first came 4 weeks ago, my Spanish was HORRIBLE! Today, she said my Spanish is improving a lot and that she can understand almost everything I say. I asked her about my grammar and she said it is okay. Not terrible, but not perfect. I can only speak in present tense, but I am SAYING SOOO much. I have had conversations about home-schooling, hanging out and cultural issues. God TRULY is helping me to learn 50-80 words a day, to retain them and then to apply them in sentences. This is truly God because I have a TERRIBLE memory.

At the end of our session, I told Rosa that I really didn’t want to come to therapy anymore (time isssues), but that I love coming to talk to her and I also know that I need to continue so my leg will get better. She said something in a Spanish that I didn’t understand. She then, in broken English, said, “You are our favorite patient.” Awwww…..melt my heart. If I could’ve skipped home, I certainly would’ve. Two great comments in ten minutes. Such a change from yesterday.