Another perspective on a frequent struggle…
Hello to you on this gray and rather rudely cold March morning…the photo above has absolutely nothing to do with the writing below..it just makes me smile so I thought I would share.
A dear friend who has the gift of gifting…seriously this girl can find THE best little trinkets and knows all the fun little shops tucked all over central Illinois…gave me a copy of a small monthly magazine she found recently.
It’s called Simple Grace and it is about the size of a Readers’s Digest. In addition to a couple of articles, it has a daily devotion for the month.
The format is done in an interesting way. The first page is as if someone wrote a letter to God about an issue she is struggling with.
This is followed with an applicable Scripture and a restating of the struggle, while asking a thought-provoking question.
The next page is written as if Jesus wrote a note of encouragement back.
It has been a gentle and yet probing addition to my March devotions.
Today’s was from a woman who, after twenty years, was closing out the home she and her husband had raised their family in and she was struggling as she sorted through their childhood, past generations heirlooms and assorted collections of decor and memorabilia.
Not that I can at all relate to this however….
ironic isn’t it that I just wrote about it on FRIDAY?????????
And I know a lot of you all are like me, God help you.
I know we have trouble sometimes deciding what to keep and what to part with so I just wanted to pass along the perspective gleaned from the devotion because this was a new and insightful way to view our “treasures.”
The author suggests that we think on playing a game such as Monopoly. Imagine the course of the purchasing of properties and adding houses and then hotels.
As you move the pieces around the board, you engage in conversation and laughter…
(and with some of our family members this includes cutthroat competition that would make The Donald and all things Trump appear to be child’s play.)
So the game ends and you stow the pieces away because all of that was just part of a game and what you carry away are the memories of time spent with friends and family.
The author writes:
“Whatever you accumulate in this life when it comes to things are like those game tokens. They remind you of the feelings you had while living and loving, but they aren’t those feelings.”
“What you create in love is written in your Father’s Kingdom for all eternity. You don’t need pale imitations in the form of things. You can trust that what you’ve created in love remains in your midst, and when you cross over to the Kingdom, you will see and know your true treasure.” **
**I would give author credit if I knew who wrote it however I have yet to see credit given. So I will credit this to Simple Grace, March 2018; pages 74-75 ISSN 2469-8083 Subscriptions available through simplegrace.com/subscribe
This is a helpful picture to me of the “tokens” I hold on to so tightly.
As I have been working through our boxes of treasures the past few years, I do find it is helpful to do as the devotion continues to suggest.
I hold the objects up and lift the memories and feelings up to the Lord.
He knows my heart.
I have discovered that sometimes the joy and sometimes the pain that old keepsakes can evoke can reveal some kind of idol I have erected.
I find I have somehow convinced myself that the things of my past, for better or worse, anchor my identity.
Yet in reality, I am a sojourner.
A traveler.
On a journey through this land.
What material possessions I take with me when I leave will be what I brought in at the start.
Nothing.
I will, like all who have received Christ, take only a sanctified soul and a regenerated spirit.
Praise Him <3
So as I linger here on planet Earth, it is probably time to put some of the game pieces away and let the echoes of the joys and tears be as incense before His Throne.
All for His glory…
as we…
you and I…
journey onward <3