Testing Testing…..

I just love Sundays!  Sunday is my day to relax and rest in the Lord.  I spend time every day in God’s Word, but Sundays I set apart especially to learn about God and to fellowship with other believers.  I find that the growth that I see in my life is directly proportional to the amount of time I spend in fellowship with other believers.  When I spend more time with other believers, I grow more.  When I spend less time with other believers, I grow less.

I think some of this has to do with the fact that when I spend time with other believers, they challenge me to learn more about God.  As I learn about God, I grow in Him and through Him.  I allow Him to work in me more.  That, in turn, helps me to challenge other people to grow.  It is amazing to me how fellowship with other believers can push us to grow.  I guess that’s why God tells us in Hebrews 10:23-25 to “hold fast to the confession of our hope” and to “stimulate one another with love and good deeds,” and finally “not forsaking the assembling together.”  It’s interesting how I have heard that my whole life, and only today finally put two and two together.

But then, that has always kind of been my way.  I have a tendency to take seemingly simple things and make them into something more complicated.  This is something I have struggled with for a long time.  I seem to have this habit of learning things the hard way instead of the easy way.  I don’t know why that is.  Perhaps it’s because I have the “need” to test everything for myself.

It’s not that it’s bad for me to test things, but when I am unwilling to accept anything as fact without testing it, I am doing myself a disservice.  There is nothing wrong with learning from the mistakes of others.  In fact, that can save some heartache.

I often find myself telling my daughters that they can learn from some of my mistakes.   The interesting thing is that God has given me two daughters who are just like me.  They test and test, and they make their own mistakes – some of which they could have avoided had they just listened to me.  Yet, they need to figure things out for themselves.  It seems it’s not really in our nature to just take the word of someone else.

It’s good that God has given my children who are like me (as hard as it is for me to admit).   🙂   They challenge me daily to live out my faith.  And they are always watching – and being teenagers, they aren’t afraid to call me on my inconsistencies.  This challenges me to grow.  It challenges me to listen and learn from other Christians who have been through similar trials.  It challenges me to get back up and keep trying – because what I do has an impact on someone else, even if I never realize it.

I am so grateful that God puts godly friends in my life…

Until Next Time,