That Funny Feeling

Didja ever have that feeling that God was trying to tell you something and you can't quite figure out what He means? Sometimes I know exactly what He means and I don't want to do it (which is a problem in itself) so I pretend not to really know what He's saying.

Not this time.

Four times in two days I've heard the same message. Well, really the messages are tripping over themselves. We has a guest speaker in church Sunday morning. And he said so much that was good and that I brought home, but one thing that stood out was "Be faithful in the small things."

Hubs and I discussed it quite a lot Sunday afternoon and evening. And we are both going to make a concentrated effort to do that while we wait for A Bigger Life.

So Monday morning, bright and early, I got my Monday Motivation. She opened it with how she writes the devotionals and that she always prays for guidance because she wants it to be an effective word in season, etc (like it ALWAYS is). What did she say?

Be faithful in the small things.

So I forwarded it to Hubs and said "God is talking to me. What are my small things?????"

In the motivation, she also mentioned an abbreviated version of Beth Moore's story about brushing the stinky man's hair in the airport. (I'll post it in a minute in case you've never heard it.) I heard Beth tell this story back in the fall of 2005 and had totally forgotten it. Didn't hear it again until yesterday. Wouldn't you know it, someone forwarded me Beth's long version last night?

Seriously.

Well another thing the speaker on Sunday talked about was relationship. How you can't really have one without interaction and conversation etc. (And how we can't trust God if we don't know Him and we can't know Him if we don't meet with Him daily.) Yes, I got an email promoting a book that used a similar example. Actually the book wasn't saying that so much, but the example they used was this:

"A young man is in love with a young woman. He sings to her, dances for her, writes poems for her, picks flowers for her.. How does she express her love back to him? She talks to him, usually briefly. And that's all." (for the book Creative Prayer by ChrisTiegreen from Multnomah)

Ouch.

Actually, come to think of it, I'm reading this (really fun and cute) other book, Death of a Garage Sale Newbie (Sharon Dunn) where one of the main characters is having some marital stress. What is the issue? They've been married 35 years, but she doesn't know him. At least not the him she thought she was married to. So she feels like they are married strangers. And that isn't even the vast majority of the plot (as you should be able to tell from the title).

Just typing this I think maybe I know one of my small things. Which is really a big thing. I think God is feeling ignored. That He wants me to know Him better. Which sounds great to me. Now, how to get there?

Other small things that come to mind:
I've decided to quit trying to promote my book (which is quite probably not ready to see print) and focus on my smaller writing pieces. Focus on that which is before me and that I hear I have a talent for. And improve my craft.

And focus on keeping my kitchen clean. One can't fuss at God for an ugly, small kitchen when she doesn't even keep the one she uses nice.

I probably have a glaring "small thing" that I don't see. And if you can tell me about it nicely (I wound easily) I'd like to hear it. For now, I'm watching these.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.