Monday, February 18, 2008

more of HIM

Welcome to More of HIM


More of HIM is a place to find encouragement, support, and honesty as we each strive to live in God's grace and love. Join in with your own post sharing how God is speaking to you through His word ~or~ how He is working in your life. Leave a link to your post on Mr. Linkly below. Or visit those who have shared this week and leave them a comment. Sharing our spiritual journeys with each other can help us to grow not only as a community here in bloggyland, but closer to our Lord and Savior.

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ANNOUNCEMENT

After some thought and prayer, I have decided to stop hosting More of HIM Mondays. I still strongly believe in the concept and feel that it ministers to readers and writers alike. Heather of Not A DIY Life has graciously offered to continue More of HIM by hosting it on her blog.

Heather is a wife and mother to a darling little "ladybug." You can tell that she obviously loves the Lord through her posts and how she lives her life. I think she will be a wonderful host and I hope you will continue to participate over at her place. If you don't know Heather, stop by and say hi.

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HIM in my life...

It's been a week and a half since Lent started and I've been enjoying reading Max Lucado's book, 3:16. He is such a good writer. Like I said in this post, there is a 40 day devotional in the back of the book and I've been reading that each day as well as the main part of the book. Both are really good. He has made me think about this specific verse in ways that I haven't before. And the book has been good for me to have as a focus for this period leading up to Easter.

My other focus for this time is to ask God daily to show me how I can reach out to someone - in the small or big ways. This is a little harder to measure, but I do feel like He has shown me some specific things and I have responded the best I can.

At first, I was looking so hard for some kind of act of kindness or reaching out that I was counting something I would normally have done as something to check off on my daily list. For example; I'd hold the door open for someone. Well, I normally do this, so I realized I couldn't count that.

I found that once i discounted my normal deeds of kindness, and relaxed a little, other things would come up that I knew God was asking me to do. How I recognized these was that they would cause me some level of discomfort or giving up of my precious time. But as you can guess, I've been blessed in the end by reaching out and getting involved.

Now, don't get me wrong... I haven't done this perfectly since Lent started. In fact, I know there has been times God was nudging me towards something and I turned and walked away. But I'm getting better. Better at hearing God's voice, better at knowing what He wants me to do, and better at obeying. It is a process after all. That why this is one of my favorite sayings:

Life is a journey, not a destination.

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6 comments:

Unknown said...

And what a journey it is! I also feel that nudge, ignore it, and feel horrible for ignoring it. That person needed me, even in a small way, and I didn't respond. Then I usually spend the rest of the day kicking myself for failing. But when we realize that life with God is a journey, and this "failure" is just one step on that journey, the enormity of the failure is lessened. If we learn from that experience, then we can move along.

Have a great day, Diana!

Pen of Jen said...

Diana, I am inspired by this challenge you have taken upon yourself, and how you are holding the bar up(instead of lowering it)

Good that More Of Him Mondays will continue.

Have a great Monday!
Jennifer

Susan said...

Sounds like you are stretching for your Lord. I can just imagine how it must please him when we do that?
Susan

Barb said...

Good for you for "keeping the faith."

I find that often at the end of the day I can see things I could have done better for God. Maybe that is why we have 24 hour days, always a chance to start over.

Mary@notbefore7 said...

Diana,

It is truly a journey! I am currently reading, "He speaks to me" and it is GREAT on hearing the "voice" of God and its connection to obedience, etc. YOu might check it out.

Mary@notbefore7 said...

BTW...thanks for your honest. It is so easy to get caught up on the "to do" instead of following God's guiding. Thansk for the reminder.