So Has God Used You Lately?

"Please God, USE ME!!!" is what I have been praying lately... "Please just let me HEAR YOU and know what You want me to do." Well, He does not disappoint. In addition to becoming an Advocate for Compassion International (which I will write about later, as this is so funny it deserves a post all of its own), He has been showing up and using me in a series of other "smaller" ways as well.

The other morning I was feeling a little grumpy, just too many things to do and not enough time. R and the kids were asking to go to the pool, which of course made me even more grumpy...one more thing to do, right? So I had to pause and go to Him..."What is wrong with me? I don't want to feel this way. Lord, please help me, what do You want me to do?" His answer..."What does your husband need?" This week I am being made aware of the fact that I am to be a helper to my husband. That means I need to think more of him and less about my to do list. What is the real problem here?? PRIDE... pure and simple....whose to do's are more important? When my husband is home I am learning it is suppose to be his. This is hard, I won't lie. I won't say I am working on it either... it is He that is working in me and on me.

A funny thing happens when we obey though, that is when He can use us. Even though I really did not want to, I put aside all the things I had in mind to do and got the gang all lotioned and packed for the pool. R wanted the pool, so that is what he got. And in the process, God put me right where He could use me! At the pool, a familiar looking lady came up to me and started talking. We knew each other from L2's dance studio. She is a newly divorced mom and was looking for a single ladies Bible study... which of course our church has and hers does not. Our single ladies Bible study has some amazing women of God, who I just know will be a great help to her. I heard someone say that today's single mom is the "widow" of Biblical times (that we are commanded to care for in James 1:27) and I think that statement is right on. Sometimes I have wondered if having a husband who walks away from you voluntarily may in ways be more painful than having one pass from this life to the next?  But I digress... my point is that by obeying the command to be my husband's helper, He placed me in a position to help a "widow" in need.


Also awhile back I started writing verses on index cards... just ones I came across that really spoke to me on that day. One day when the hubs (BC) was really challenging my faith I came across this one:

 From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Galatians 6:17

Now granted, Paul was talking about his physical scars, but persecution can be emotional as well and on the day I wrote this one down it was really just the encouragement I needed. 

Some time after that, I was sitting paying bills and found I had lost my little piece of cardboard I use behind my check carbons to keep the writing from going though, so I used this index card with Gal 6:17 in its place and just absently (or so I thought) stuck it in my checkbook.  The other day I was at the drive up atm depositing some checks, my checkbook was out and ...BAM... I was hit with a command from the Holy Spirit.  "Put that Gal 6:17 card in the deposit envelope." It was wild, my hands were shaking, my heart was pumping and I was breathing funny.  I have never been hit that hard with a command where I totally recognized it as for sure from Him.  Really, it was intense.  I have no idea who needed that verse or why, but I have no doubt that it ended up in the right hands that day.