We've been working through Becoming a Woman of Simplicity. It's a great study and we are enjoying meeting together to review each lesson. There's just this one thing, we've made it to chapter six now and each week someone has said, "This is good - - but it is still the basics; it's stuff I already know." And so each week we've discussed how it is good for us to renew ourselves in the basics, re-fortifying the stones resting on the Chief Cornerstone... nonetheless, women are wondering if there is more...
Before we began two of us prayed, and this study was suggested by a mentor of hers. We were excited, eager, filled with anticipation for the discoveries, the learning. So, why is it it all seems so basic? a review of the known? even digging deep it seems we're missing depth.
Last week I began my routine: opened the study, my Bible, began praying for my personal time of study, for each of the women in their study, for our meeting together, and then I asked Him to help me see something new and wonderful in what we feel to be the basics. I began working through the chapter. Good stuff, good foundational stuff. I set it aside.
I continued in the daily. Life lived. Laundry. Reading. Cleaning sinks. Cleaning toilets. Prayer. Schooling. Bible reading. Dishes. Conversations with eternal sisters. Reading Ann, listening to her discuss her book. Giving thanks. And you'll never guess... it happened. The Light began to shine and I could see what I had been missing; what I think we've each been missing as we review these basics.
Here's the thing. When I look at what a life lived by the basics should look like, and then I look at what my life actually looks like - ugh.
I need the basics even more than I could've imagined. I need to return to the basics, to the One Thing, and let all else spring from there, from Him. As it should be. John 15:5 is softly running through my mind.
I need to be mindful of what life with Him as the center, the One Thing, the everything can look like. Beautiful. Fruitful. Rested. Faithful. Relevant. imagine that :)
Yes, imagine that.
ReplyDeleteHere children run crazy, out of control and I tell them that discipline in the small areas trickles into big ones and leads to big things,big change, big developments. Could it be? Truth in the simple, the small, the basic foundational stones. Again I find myself asking how dense can I really be?