Passionate Part II:

This post continues my reflections from the women's retreat. For Passionate Part I, go here.

The topic of Saturday morning was "Valuing God Above All Things" What does this mean? It means to delight in God, to long for Him. To do this, we need to realize our own brokenness. The greater an understanding we have of our sin, the greater an understanding we have of God's grace, and the more we delight in it. The more desire we have for God, the more glory we are able to give to Him, and the more we are able to experience His glory!
However, we often fall short. In fact, all of us fall short.
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." -Romans 3:23
Unfortunately, we are much too easily satisfied. We find delight in other things- many of which are not bad, and are even good- but these will not fill us. Hobbies, food, work, relationships, nature- these are necessary things, but they alone cannot bring us ultimate joy. They can only point the way, as they often do.
During the reflection time, we focused on Romans 1:20-2:1; thinking about the personal things that keep us from experiencing God's glory. The list in verses 29-31 is humbling.
"Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful."
It's easy to look at this and think, I'm really not that bad. After all, I'm not wicked, am I? I don't murder, I don't hate God, etc...
However, it's necessary to take a closer look into my own heart and thoughts. How often do I think of myself before others? How often do I react out of anger when someone does something that hurts me? How often am I arrogant in my thoughts? If we take an honest look at ourselves, we won't like what we see! It's so much easier to think about what other's do, and compare ourselves to them.

I spent the rest of the time reflecting on God's glory and enjoying being in His creation. I looked at the tall pine trees, pointing towards heaven; at the beautiful endless blue sky. I thought about those trees. I want to be like them- pointing straight towards God, instead of being so focused on myself. Afterall, this is my calling. I love being a wife and mother, but I am so much more than that. First and foremost, I am a daughter of God. He does not look at me and see "a housewife." He looks at me and sees his child. And when I think of that I am filled with joy and a longing to point towards Him!