This is part of an old railroad mile marker. Notice all the potshots someone has taken at it. So symbolic, don't you think?
Have you ever experienced a scenario like this?
Before starting your quiet time, you pray that God will show you what you need to know, that He will convict you where conviction is needed.
Then you begin reading along in the Bible, minding your own business, maybe reading verses you have read many times before, maybe busily applying those verses to other people because that comes so naturally, when SMACK!-God pours conviction on you like he is refilling sweet tea at Cracker Barrell?
Well, that is what happened to me this morning.
Hurts, doesn't it?
The She Reads Truth girls have just started a new Bible study titled This is the Gospel. Part of my reading today was I Corinthians 13:8-13. What a section of scripture with so much truth! The verse that really gobsmacked me was this one:
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
I have read that verse countless times and never once considered that it might still be applicable to me. I've been a Christian a VERY long time, after all. I'm grown up in the Lord, aren't I?
Aren't I?
I guess not because today, I realized that there are many times I still speak and think and reason as a child.
I speak when I should listen.
If I think something, I say it.
I demand my way.
I pout.
I gossip.
I tattle.
I manipulate.
Gosh. I sound pathetic.
Dear Jesus,
Please forgive me. May I listen to the Holy Spirit so that I may GROW UP. May I stop making myself number 1.
I am definitely a work in progress. Quoting that sage philosopher, Oprah,"You can't do better until you know better," now I know better.
So, I will let the gospel do its transformation in me. While that is happening, I will try to follow some of Paul's other words in this section of scripture.
Conviction is a gift. May I receive it with a heart to do something about it.
