Daily Dose

So, this morning...it is actually morning while I'm writing this blog! Score one point for the team!

My hair is super poofy this morning and I'm not exactly sure why. Eh, it happens. After getting B all set with lunch and breakfast. I sat down to read, realizing then that it was in fact, Tuesday and today I don't have reading to do. LOL

Did some pre-reading as the computer booted and started to hum to herself.

Devotional Passage: Revelation19:9 (also Luke 14:16-20)

The title of this devotional is Dressed for the Party. We get invited to so many parties this time of year and we always know when and where and what time to show up for the best parts. Well, it goes on to talk about how in the time of Jesus, that's not exactly how it went. In Luke, we see the story of the  man that planned a party, sent out invites (by his servants) and then prepared everything. He sent the servants back out to notify his guests and they started making excuses. So, the man then tells his servants to start inviting other people and ends up with the poor, crippled, blind and lame at his table.

The fun part about reading this story in this devotion is remembering studying this with the youth kids at LOCC. This was a talking point during some gathering and we took it to the kids. The point we made was that God invited people by sending Christ, and people are saying no, God moves on. Now, maybe we're the crippled or the blind..but we're still invited. Everyone is. The close similarities to the way we talked about it and the way it's talked about in the devotion are very interesting.


In the devotion, she mentions how sad she is for the people that missed out. And really, I have to say that I felt the same way. They're missing out on a GREAT invitation. Then I continue to read to verse 24. "I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet." (NIV) Wow! They really really really missed out.

Then I think to myself, "wait...I keep saying they...what that they is actually ME." Am I ready for the banquet? Have a I been preparing myself and making myself ready for the banquet or just sitting by? Have I really been active to "dress" for the biggest party I could have ever been invited to? Or do I get easily distracted? (this is a rhetorical question ;) Have we seen my last few posts...goodness)

The application steps are to take some time to close your eyes and quiet your mind to draw close to God. Praise Him and express your gratitude and love.

Reflections? (for those of you following along at home)
What excuses do I make for not being ready - for not meeting with God?
Am I too busy or distracted with the ordinary to see the sacred?

My answers? I make a lot of excuses...you've seen them here in just the short time I've been writing. I wake up and have too much going on and too much to do to make the time first thing in the morning that I should make. I let other people's priorities of the order of the day interfere with the way mine should be. I worry too much about if I am doing this or that right in other people's standards and do not worry enough about God's. My daily devotional that is supposed to be first thing in the morning often gets pushed back behind other things because of all this. I'm doing this blog before eating breakfast today because I've been so convicted about this very thing. I need to set my day straight. Other things can and will wait. I can and will be able to do the other things as soon as I'm done with this. If I haven't set my day straight to begin with, what am doing? I glance around and know that there are things that could have been done before I sat down here...and I also know that in putting those in line before doing this, I've setting a bad example in my life and allowing other things to come before my relationship with God. That is NEVER ok. Now...I have to get myself out of bed earlier and do this even before getting lunch and breakfast ready for B...because honestly, that's where it belongs.

And my answer to the second question? Yes, many times I am. But I'm a work in progress (shush, yes, I started a sentence with but). I know that I can do this and I know it takes a lot of will power and work on my part...but all that follows all the prayer as well.

Now...I think I'm ready to start my day. What do you think?

M