Thankful Thursday

God is so good.... Click over to Greg's and enjoy more thankfuls and thanks for sharing in mine.

I'm married to a hard working, devoted, God-honoring man, who is committed to our family and gives generously of his time, resources and love. And guess what?

He's a human being.

I've been trying to make a god out of this guy. I've been expecting him to meet my every need. And he's been trying to. But the harder he tries, the more vivid the inevitable failures. Misunderstandings. Confusion. Hurt. Almost complete breakdown in communication.

Here's what I learned yesterday- from a book I just finished reading, Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller:

"...No human relationship can bear the burden of godhood...However much we may idealize and idolize him (the love partner), he inevitably reflects earthly decay and imperfection.....After all, what is it that we want when we elevate the love partner to this position? We want to be rid of our faults, of our feeling of nothingness. We want to be justified, to know our existence has not been in vain. We want redemption- nothing less. Needless to say, human partners cannot give this."

So, what does Keller suggest we do? Love the spouse less? Not at all. We need to know and love God more. "We need to stop trying to make others into saviors, because we have a Savior."

Colossians 3:1-4 assures me that my life is now hidden with Christ in God and when Christ, who is my life, appears- I will appear with Him in glory. The thing is, God is ravished with me, approves of me, loves me to the full. He is my life. It is only Jesus Christ who saves me- redeems me and makes me whole.

Reading this book, plus a devotion from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young (the March 22 entry) and having a conversation with my bloggirlfriend, Frank, and another with my longtime neighbor KT, all came together this week at a very good time for me and I learned something that I should have already known- and maybe I did know it, but just wasn't doing it. I learned this:

I must set my heart securely on Jesus Christ as my peace and my life. I must replace the idol I have been making out of my husband, with El Olam- the God whose Son is called the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the God whose love endures forever.

How will I do it?

I will rejoice and be thankful! I've already begun to practice. Whenever I feel afraid, hurt, alone, misunderstood, wronged, or any other joy zapping emotion- I begin to silently, or audibly, thank the Lord for very specific things: my husband, his love for me, my kids, my health, the ability to ride my bike, birds singing and that I can hear them sing....on and on. On top of that- I'm trusting Him. When I am done thanking Him, I tell Him, "hey, I'm trusting you to work out every single detail of this life I'm living down here- just want you to know that." Then I believe it.

That's what the March 22 devotion taught me. Author, Sarah Young, said that if I replace all my planning, evaluating, calculating, agonizing and all that- with trusting and thanking God, continually- that I will be implementing a paradigm shift in behavior and thinking that will revolutionize my life.

Last night I took a bike ride with I.T. Everything was going along just fine with our new plan to do one activity together each day and have a minimum of 30 minutes of conversation together with not one hint of negativity from either party. Then he said something like: "the sky's blue" and I thought, "the sky is not blue, he is just trying to make me nuts again." (words changed to protect the innocent, but seriously the dumb things that irk me..geez) BUT then I remembered the paradigm shift and I began to silently thank the Lord. When I got done doing some thanking, I told the Lord I was trusting Him to work out every detail of every single thing in my life.

I.T. asked, "what are you doing?"

I told him all about Sarah Young's devotion and that I was implementing the paradigm shift.

He thought about it for a second, bobbed his head up and down a couple of times and replied, "sounds good."

I asked the Lord to help me and He showed me The Way. And for that- I am truly thankful.

Tellin' it on the mountain-