I took on a 31 Days Writing Challenge to get back into blogging, again. I’ve been blogging quietly and communal, off and on for the past 10 years. I get anxious or overwhelmed with putting myself out there and then quickly close up shop. But I always come back…always. Blogging serves a creative good for me, confirmed over and over again by my husband and my spiritual father. So this morning, I said a prayer for strength. I know what I am supposed to be doing. I know why and I’m learning how. Now I need the strength. Sunday morning, I didn’t sit down with the intention to pray for strength. I sat down and read from Divine Intimacy and the section I read was all about the life of the apostolate. An in my reading, I felt compelled to write and the result was this prayer…
And Then…A Heart Attack
So yesterday, we considered, what is ebola…to me. I shared with you ebola is a thief that has been lurking in the shadows of my mind since elementary school some 30 plus years ago. This definitely explains why I recently forbid my husband from flying…and he laughed. We’re a pretty good pair. But it’s not just ebola, there was as time when the fear was a heart attack and it was not lurking. That fear had me in a strangle hold for at least a year and wrestling that demon, left me with a mental limp even Jacob would recognize. {Genesis 32:25} This mental limp was a reminder that my battle was not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities–this battle was ultimately in my mind.
What is Ebola
Oh yes I did. As part of my 31 Days Writing Challenge, I decided to tackle the word everyone is talking about, Googling and whispering. What is ebola? I am, obviously not a scientist. Maybe not so obvious, I also am not a medical professional–although I do play one in the middle of the night or after office hours whichever comes first–when one of my children gets sick. If you Googled “What is Ebola” looking for scientific or medical knowledge, you are clearly in the wrong place.
As you can tell by my introduction, I have no idea, medically speaking, what ebola is. I mean, I know it’s a virus, but I cannot explain those wormy looking diagrams of the virus I see on the internet. I can tell you the symptoms, or at least what I’ve read the symptoms are and I might be able to tell you how it’s transmitted provided the information would stay consistent or make sense, and I can tell you the most likely outcome. But this post is none of the above. Here, right now, I’m going to share with you what ebola is to me.
What is Religion
St James, in James 1:27 states, “What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.” We’re going to focus on the part about not being corrupted by the world.
31 Days: Sirach 27
I’m reading and writing about spending 31 Days reading the book of Sirach. Here’s a printable for you with a scripture quote from Sirach 27.
Positive Affirmations
You know I’m going to quote from The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life, one of my all time favorite books, next to the Bible. Chapter 4, the author states, “Too many people resign themselves to lives far below what God intended. They don’t see themselves as worthy…Much discouragement and underachievement result from dwelling on the failings of our human nature. A mediocre self concept does not come from God but from the stains of the world. It comes from seeing ourselves different from how God sees us.” So how does God see us?
According to Ephesians 2:10 we are God’s accomplishment, His workmanship, His masterpiece. Wow. Let that sit a bit. Now say out loud, “I am God’s masterpiece.” Powerful isn’t it? What if we started our day first with an act of gratitude for the day and then put both feet on the floor with the words, “I am God’s masterpiece.” What if some time during the morning we told our children they were God’s masterpiece before we sent them on their way?