Random Musings

So, it’s been a really long time since I posted on this site.  Life’s busy…probably busier than it should be.  And to really live up to my goal of being a good steward, the blog must be secondary to my other duties as wife and mother.

I felt like I needed to post, though, as a way of writing my thoughts down on “paper.”  Lately, God has been using a lot of ordinary things in life to teach me lessons about Him and His Word.  Isn’t that neat how God speaks to us personally?!  And I want to share something that God has been teaching me lately.

Let me back up to the beginning…  After spending 4 years as a completely itchy mess, I finally found out that the cause of my problems (hopefully!) is that I am allergic to 19 foods.  In a desperate attempt to not have to cut things out of my diet again–things like chicken, beef, onions, coffee, chocolate, wheat, milk, cheese, you get the point–I have decided to try doing allergy shots to see if they will offer me any relief from the itchiness.

Here’s how allergy shots work:  The doctor tested me to find out the greatest amount of allergen that I can be injected with and still not have a bad reaction.  Then they mix all of the allergens together into a little cocktail in a vial.  Then twice a week, I inject myself (yes, I inject myself!) with this cocktail.  The idea is that this cocktail will teach my body not to freak out when it encounters these allergens, and it will desensitize me to all these foods.  And hopefully it will get rid of my allergies, or at least the symptoms.

As I was driving home from the doctor, I was pondering what it must have been like for people with food allergies before testing and shots were available.  And then God taught me something really neat.  He reminded me that my spirit, or my heart, unlike my body, was created to be really sensitive to right and wrong.  When wrong things bombard me, it sends up a red flag, and my spirit knows that it is obviously wrong.  Knowing that, Satan attempts to do things much more subtly.  Like the allergy shots, our enemy exposes us to little doses of things that clearly go against God.  The more we are exposed to them, the more desensitized we become.  And that is how people–once Godly people–fall.

I’ve been really enjoying the Casting Crowns song “Slow Fade” lately.  And the lyrics are such a poignant reminder of how easy it is to fall if not guard against it.  Just think about these lyrics:

“It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away.
It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray. 
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away 
People never crumble in a day. 
Daddies never crumble in a day. 
Families never crumble in a day.” 

So, how do we avoid becoming desensitized in a culture that is so against God?  Well, I’m sure everyone knows of obvious places that they are exposed to a desensitizing dose of the enemy’s lies.  For me, it was magazines that I subscribe to.  They’re not the gossip magazines or the fashion magazines.  They’re magazines for women and mothers.  But they are not from a Christian viewpoint.  And so I have been constantly been bombarded with little lies that make me discontent with my life and role in life.  For you, it could be the friends you keep, websites you frequent, or conversations you have.  It could come from any area of life, and that makes discovering these little lies difficult. 

The good news is that we have the ultimate way of strengthening ourselves in the truth so that these little lies will not sink in.  It’s the truth of God’s Word.  In John 17, Jesus prays, “Sanctify them in your truth.  Your Word is truth.”  To keep our hearts in check, and to purify our hearts that have already been desensitized to the world and its lies, we need to be immersed in the Truth of God’s Word!  How awesome that God has given us His Words, and they are alive and active within us!!

So, in conclusion, God reminded me of the daily need of sanctification in my life.  I may want my body to be desensitized to foods, but I want my heart and spirit to be sensitive to God and sensitive enough to detect when the enemy throws lies at me!

Lastly, I titled this post as random because I’m going to switch gears for a second.  My husband and I saw the new movie “Fireproof” in the theater last night.  Let me just say that it is probably the best, most soul stirring movie that I have ever seen.  If you are married and your marriage needs a pick-me-up, or if your marriage is in serious trouble, or even if your marriage is blissfull right now, it is a movie that needs to be seen!  And I’ll leave it at that!  So, please go see that movie and I’m sure God will do something great in your marriage because of it!