The sky was incredible just before sunset one day earlier this week. Can you see the shafts of light piercing the clouds? I only had my phone camera to capture it, unfortunately, but it made me think about how the light is always shining...it's just our view of the clouds that makes it seem like things are dark.In my reading in The Purpose-Driven Life this morning, the idea Rick Warren presented was that we should take temptation as a compliment. It means that we're maturing.
Hmm...an interesting thought. He was relating it to living a spiritual life, but I think it just might apply to everything.
Here's just one way I think of it: I've struggled with my weight since a pill changed my body's hormonal balance, but despite having grown older I've not matured in the management of my weight. I know what foods will contribute to staying overweight and which ones will assist in losing it. I'm still tempted by all kinds of food (this week it's Cadbury Caramel Eggs in particular) and haven't gained the maturity to resist temptation.
This has given me something to "chew" on for the weekend, and I hope that my level of maturity will increase by Monday so that I can begin to resist that temptation. :)
Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.
2 comments:
Hmm. This is really deep and just what I needed to read and be reminded of right now. I am really frustrated with basketball at the moment and asking myself (and yes, God too...) a lot of questions about why the situation has turned out this way. I keep thinking "I'm in the grandma years of my career...everything should be easy and happy and feel good. I should get to play with the grandkids and have a nice time and as soon as they become a problem, I can just hand them back to their parents." But it's not fun right now and I can't hand them back. I have to figure out a way to deal with it, to make it better, and quickly. It's early and there's far too much season left to just "let it go" and start over next year.
Reading the blog today gave me the realization that obviously I still need to mature as a player (hopefully this old dog can still learn a new trick or two).
I am tempted (and I am falling to the temptation) right now to be very frustrated and depressed. Apparently I need to see our teams' struggles as a compliment...as a challenge to be overcome (and that can be overcome) instead of yet another hurdle between me and the basketball experience I want to have and to create for my teammates.
As I sit here typing, my head throbs, there is a piercing pain in my side, and my foot aches. My knees are buzzing the old-age groan. My neck is stiff and I have a bruise the size of Alaska on the back of my arm. But a little, child-like voice in the back of my head keeps adamently crying out "I wouldn't change it for the world!!!"
Perhaps my moment of maturity will be to let that little voice have center stage the next time I walk on the court...to let that little voice speak to my teammates and recruit the little voice inside each of them that they are failing to hear. Perhaps sometimes the temptation calling us to maturity is, in fact, to be more childlike.
And yet, perhaps it is more than that. Perhaps it is also not letting the more sinister, self-serving, id-oriented voice of that child ever to take center stage...to catch it sneaking around back stage and quickly remove it through a side exit.
So yeah. So easy to know what's wrong...so hard to know how to fix it. What can I do? What should I do? How should I do it? What shouldn't I do? I know I have to change my attitude. I know I have to take the high road. I know I have to model the behavior that I is required for our team to mature. I know that it's my ego that hurts worse than any bodily pain I have right now. The temptation is to overcome it. The compliment is knowing that, with God's help, I can and will. Maturity is making the choice and getting it done.
Please pray for me... :)
You are such an inspiration, dorothy. Your team will either come together or it won't and you're in a desirable position to help see that it DOES come together.
Hang in there and get some ice!
Post a Comment