He's Still Working on Me

 

If my Heavenly Father had an advisory committee to coach Him, I am sure by now they would be urging Him to give up trying to help me fix certain flaws in my character. “It's no use,” they would say, and they would have every reason to make the claim. After all, He's been working at it for 72 years. “Enough is enough already!” they would exclaim in exasperation.

But thanks be to God, He needs no committee; He needs no board of directors; He needs no nagging wife (like Job's wife) to tell Him when to give up. I thank God that He hasn't given up on me.

On days when the humid index is over the top, and I haven't gotten enough sleep, or old age is flaunting its presence and my shoulder is hurting, sometimes I hear myself sounding way too cross. I answer abruptly and possibly, I offend. I am blessed to have a gentle husband; he doesn't swing back with stinging words, he still loves me. He understands when I am tired or hurting.

God understands too, but He hasn't given up on me. He gives me a firm nudge. He counsels me, just as my earthly father would have done, and lets me know, through my conscience, that I need to make an attitude adjustment. 

He reminds me that I need to apologize. It is essential to my relationship with my husband, and it is essential to my relationship with my Lord. And gradually, though the process still seems slow, He is teaching me, changing me.

Oh how I appreciate those nudges. They tell me how much He loves me, how much He cares, how much He wants to see me continue to grow. It tells me He's still working on me.

He's still working on me,

To make me what I aught to be

It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,

The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.

How loving and patient He must be,

Cause He's still working on me.

                                    by the Hemphills

What a blessing to know that He is still working on me! 

If you would like to be inspired by the many ways God has been at work in my life, please give my story, The Path He Chose for Me a look. I know it will bless you.

For the record: the relationship I have with my beloved Hugh has just been getting better and better, especially as the conditions around us are getting worse and worse. So, once again, I thank God for adversity.

Leaving it behind

 

"I don't want you to give away my toys," my sweet grandaughter pleaded with her mom. “I love them!

Anita tried to reason with her heartbroken daughter. "It's OK, sweety, when we get to our new home, we will get to be with Daddy again, and he will get you some nice new toys. We just can't take a whole lot with us now." But even with the thought of seeing Daddy again and the beautiful new toys, it was hard for Maddie to give up all her old favorites.

Maddie will get to take a few things with her. The items that she cherishes most have been set aside to take along. She clings to those. She doesn't hold all her hopes in a hazy future somewhere else; she grasps the security of that little suitcase of the present.

I just read another writer's blog yesterday morning, What Death is Teaching Me  He was writing from the perspective of having lost a baby, a baby that didn't have a chance to get attached to the the toys of this world. As I read the blog about death, it brought thoughts of Maddie's situation to the forefront.

Many of us are like four year old Maddie. We cling to our present life and the material trinkets we love. Oh yes, we've been told that our Heavenly Father is waiting to give us awesome treasures when we get to our new home, but that future seems hazy, and like Maddie, we cling, and that clinging spoils some of the anticipation of moving on.

The only real way to approach the move we are getting ready to make, is to forget about that suitcase of cherished items that we hold so dear, and focus our thoughts on the One we are going to be able to see face to face.

What a joyful day that will be!