"Contemplation n Hot Chocolate"

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  Recently God blessed us thro' the preaching of His Word on how to live the impossible Christian life. It was explained that there are 6 arenas to a man's life (the message was geared to men, but as women we can apply it very easy to our lives as well.) 1. His God. 2. His wife. 3. His family. 4. His job(the bread winning arena). 5.His friends. 6. His ministry. Well it was explained that we cannot humanly live successfully in all 6 arenas, but with Christ we can. And since it's only possible to  live 2.5 of these areas successfully on our own, I am desiring to focus even more deeply in my relationship with God so, as the Pastor brought out, God can extend His fingers to all the other arenas in my life. So this morning as I prepared to get that "extra" prayer time in, I fixed a cup of hot chocolate and snuggled myself in a comfy blanket with Mike's Bible and my journal within reach and as I sat "relaxing " in the warm cozy atmosphere of our home I....well...really felt myself relaxing to my surroundings. And since having a deep relationship to God means more to me than anything else (Spiritually at least) I knew I had to make a phy. effort to do something about this "falling asleep feeling". So...I began to journal for awhile and then yes, I braved the early morning cold and sat on the back porch! Now fully awake I had some precious time communing with my King Jesus!!  Praise God! I sadly thought of all the comfortable and relaxing situations in my life ( could be Church, private life or the friends we surround ourselves with) and how instead of forcing me to live a spent out life for Christ they cater toward relaxation. Well God's work isn't meant to be relaxing. The Bible bids us to train up our kids in the way they should go so that when they are old they will not depart from it. Well to me that can be anything but relaxing!! Although I enjoy verrry much my role as mommy, it takes a lot of "living outside self" to raise spiritually healthy kids. And I was saddened to contemplate how this life is sometimes nothing more that an over sized playground or self pampering spa. God's teaching Mike and I more and more that we are called to His service in this earthly life and living outside of our self so that we may fulfill all He's called us to. And number 1 on that list, aside from growing in the Lord, is the call to invest much into the lives of our children. Now isn't our time to relax. Now is our time to work. Now is our time to train. Now is our time to build relationship in the hearts of our precious kids. It's so easy to justify turning on a movie and just chillin, but now is our time to live outside of our own comfort and to give our kids 100% of what they need. I write, not as having it figured out. I write this because its truth and I badly want it and hope you do too.