Skin

Learning to put skin on my desire for Jesus to be ALL I need or in other words, learning to practically live my life in such a way that it reflects Jesus as my ALL, has not been an easy task. Honestly, it is a constant struggle to keep my focus on Him as I go through the daily-ness of my days (washing the dishes, cooking meals, sweeping the floor - again!, doing laundry, picking up toys, ...). God has been kind to put a couple of good books in my path that are helping me make some much needed changes in my way of thinking and consequently living, as well. One of those books is "The Discipline of Grace" by Jerry Bridges. Our Care Group at church is working through this one. The girls in our group are actually doing an online discussion as we read through the book together. Below are some my thoughts that I shared with the girls in my group...

I've been struck lately by how much I focus on me, like the Pharisee. I thought it was a good thing to want to be a great wife and mom, a good housekeeper, etc... What I've come to realize is that anything that takes my focus off of Christ is sin. So when I desire to be a great mom more than I desire Christ, that's wrong. I would never have said that I wanted those things more than Christ, but my life reflected it (still does, all too often). As I learn to keep my focus in the right place I am becoming painfully aware of my inability to be good in any capacity. To put it like Jerry Bridges said in this chapter, I am looking less at the more obvious, blatant sins that are so prevalent in our culture and am comparing myself to Christ, who is holy and perfect. I obviously don't even begin to measure up. I like what Dr. Bridges said on p.36, "I am not suggesting that being irritable at one's spouse is as serious as something like adultery. I am saying that being irritable at one's spouse is sin, and that all sin grieves God and should grieve us." Thankfully, we have the truth of the Gospel to fall back on and that is the topic of our next chapter. :)