A few weeks ago, I had that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. You know the one that makes you instantly want to lose all you ate? The one where it feels like the feet under you may go at any moment.
I had just dropped off my son at youth group and was making a quick kid free run to Target and the Dollar Store with another youth mom, when I looked up and saw my daughter. Across the store was a girl wearing a similar jumper to my daughter’s, long blonde hair, exact build, and the same mannerisms. I gasped. My daughter, wearing a mask, was standing with another family. I continued to stare at her. Then my friend looked over and said, “Wow! I thought that was Irelyn!” Me too.
Thankfully my daughter was safe at home.
I couldn’t shake the feeling I felt when I thought I saw my daughter with someone else.
You see I have known about sex trafficking and human trafficking but recently, as many of you have seen, more our posting about it. If I am honest, I would read some but most of the time I just keep scrolling. Why? Because I have become complacent.
Are you in your own bubble? So many cries across various platforms for a variety of issues that we can become numb to the ones that don’t impact us personally. This isn’t a new concept. I had never heard of a child being born with a congenital heart defect until I was personally impacted by the experience but the information was already out there.
Maybe you are very aware and contribute to multiple issues illuminated by the media. Maybe your complacency is instead more personal.
Complacent about your kids or family? It is so easy to get wrapped up in all the things that need to “get done” and all the places they need to be shuffled to. But are you investing in them emotionally?
Complacent about your spouse? There are so many distractions. Whether it is your children, your pets, your job, or even needy friends our spouse can be pushed to the end of the list. Is your spouse just as much a priority to you as when you first began dating?
Complacent about your job? You have had it for years and believe replacing you would be an inconvenience. If you have lost your love for your job, most likely you have also lost your luster to the employer. When we become complacent we make mistakes. Even the minor mistakes begin to add up.
Complacent about your health? Just one more handful of M&M’s won’t hurt. The workout you make an excuse to skip today, for the fourth day in a row, will be fine too. That is until your jeans no longer button and you feel miserable.
What about your spiritual health? Ooh. That is the hardest hit.
Maybe it is just me, but my spiritual health is the easiest to put on the back burner.
As I read Luke 21:1-4 I felt conviction to my complacence.
1 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
Mark chapter 12, he chose to say, “put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Are you putting in all you have or are you just doing the bare minimum?
Our older two children are invested in highly competitive teams for soccer and dance. We are constantly reminding them they must practice EVERYDAY on their own. They can not count on just the times they have practice or rehearsal, but instead should be spending time each day to improve their craft. The reason we tell them this is of course because we want them to improve but also because we have invested monetarily in these teams. We do not want them to become complacent in something we have an investment in. Bare minimum is not acceptable.
What are you investing in today, right now?
I spend far too much investment in social media, reading the news, and worrying about others’ opinions. Instead of focusing on my spiritual health I have been giving it the bare minimum. To some it may appear I am putting in my all. That’s just it, Jesus knows my heart. He knows that I am not giving all I have to live on.
What always surprises me is when I put my focus into my spiritual health it pours into the other parts of my life. My kids, my job, my husband, and my physical health all reap the benefits of my spiritual health.
So are you giving all you have to God or just enough?
Scripture says, Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
As we read through Scripture, it tells us to “work hard” “run the race set before us” and so forth. It also tells us the use the gifts and talents we were given by God.
I believe it comes down to loving God first and foremost, and asking Him what to do and when. When Paul talks about running our personal race, he talks about training, denying the flesh, removing outside distractions, etc.
But we also hear him say in other places that it was in his heart to preach at a certain place, but the Holy Spirit restrained him. So listening for God’s leading is also vital.
1 Cor 14:40 says to do everything decently and in order. Scripture says that a single person should be doing more for the Lord as once they marry, their attention it’s turned to their house and family. It changes the order of “extra curricular activities.” Family moves up above doing extra things for the Lord, not because the Lord’s work isn’t as important, but because raising our family is now the mission field and training up the next generation of God fearing, God loving, adults. When they are grown, you again have time for more “church activities.”
Another Scripture tells us that we aren’t all hands, or eyes, or feet, or mouths, but we’re all parts of one body with different functions. So, to me that says that one person may have a work to do for the Lord that requires a lot of computer time, even social media time. But another it’s supposed to be doing physical labor in the church and social media is their distraction. Not to say they can’t ever be in social media, it’s doing what God has called you to do FIRST and making that a “way down the list of priorities” item.
In today’s world we have SO many things vying for our attention. Our house is too find out what God has for each of us INDIVIDUALLY and work at that. Parts of it will change throughout our life (we aren’t call called to leave our families to evangelize the world, but a select few are, and God will provide for those who do – the Biblical example is Peter leaving his wife to be a disciple, but when her mother was ill, Jesus came and healed her so Peter could get back to being a full time disciple and not be distracted).
And on the flip part of this, it’s not too judge others when they are running the race God gave them. Several times we see in Scripture that someone said, “but what about so and so?” Jesus’ response was to mind your own business, do your own work. For some it is REALLY wrong to run off leaving your family to preach, but for the chosen few, we should be saying, “God bless you, I’m praying for you and your family.” But usually you hear lots of comments behind their back about how wrong they are to be away from their family, with.
It comes down to: we will ALL be judged for every thought, word, deed, and motive when we stand before Jesus. There will be no blameshifting and no excuses. We can only hear, “well done my good and faithful servant” if we run our own race.
Linda,
I love this! Thank you for taking the time to share your heart and God’s Word. Keep sharing!
Oh boy. This post and the quail and manna post….I’m convicted!
Amber,
Conviction can be so hard but on the other hand just the thing to kick our butt into gear! Hoping this was the latter for you. Love you friend!