When you keep getting what you don’t want…
About once a week, we get a double sheet of address labels from some organization that wants to raise money.
And while my Depression-era mom would have said…Yahoo! We don’t have to shell out money for address labels….I am saddled with either ugly address labels that only have my husband’s name on them or guilt for shredding them.
Don’t judge me. I happen to notice things like pretty stamps and cool return address labels and other paper products, because…shiny things…ok?
I also don’t like the tablets that have the name of the organization and OUR NAME printed on them, or the nickels glued to the letter requesting funds or any other gift that is given to me to induce guilt so that I will send a check for something I didn’t ask to receive.
There are other “gifts” I get that I don’t much care for either…things God sends my way that were not things I asked for or particularly want…
Little things like the fact that my voice carries even when I am trying to be quiet…and that my mind has about 10 conversations going at one time….and that I notice stuff and ponder stuff that most people blissfully are spared as they go along their merry way.
But these “unwanted” gifts…are what God has given me to use in teaching and writing.
There are also the trials…the “count it all joy” troubles that come to strengthen my faith and grow me closer to God.
There are the setbacks and adversities that make me test the promises of God against the realities of life.
There is the discipline that comes when I wander away or forget that I am not the god of me, so a little thing called repentance and returning can happen…
Yes, some of the “gifts” from God are not ones that I would have chosen. They are not pretty and suited to my taste and preference and yet…they are definitely bestowed by Him, hand-picked for me.
And every good and perfect gift comes from Him…sooooo
Lord, give me eyes to see Your hand extending the things that You deem fit for me. Help me to yield to You and set aside my own desires so that I might be molded more into the image of Your Son. Father, there are so many gifts You have given me that I love so very much. For these, I pray, help me to remember that all that I have is Yours so that I will not hold on so tightly to the blessings that are sweet but willingly and joyfully return every blessing back to You in praise and thanksgiving. Lord, help me not to wish for the gifts You have chosen to give others. Instead, I pray, grow me up into one who is able to applaud and encourage and comfort my brothers and sisters as they process the various gifts, wanted and unwanted, that You bestow on them. Asking all in the Name of the One who gave His best gift to me…His Life for mine….
Amen and amen <3