As to the Lord

Been thinking a lot recently about my attitude in life and why I do things and the main reason why I complain about having to do things. Mostly, I've been thinking about Colossians 3:23, a well-known verse. "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men."

Why do I clean the church? I don't like cleaning. It's nice that it gives us some extra money, but that's not enough for me to be HAPPY about cleaning the church. But I can reason, it's the church building, we don't have a lot to give financially; this is something I can do. I can give some of my time, if not more money, to help the running of the church go smoothly.

Okay, so what about cleaning our apartment? What about putting time into making healthy and yummy dinners? What about when my husband, as he did today, asks me to do something that I really don't want to do? What about when someone asks me to babysit or house-sit or whatnot? I can come up with reasons to do it all, but none of those apply to making me HAPPY to do them. They just get me through it. Normally, I take the approach of giving myself a guilt trip until I stop complaining about it because I know, "It's the right thing to do" and "I need to be a friend" and "I don't have anything better to do at that time."

The only way I clean the church with a happy heart is when it's for God. The only way I gladly answer the phone when my husband asks is when it's because, in submitting to Zack, I'm submitting to God. The only way I look forward to doing the laundry is when I'm thinking that in doing such a menial household task, I'm able to do part of what God wants of me in taking care of my husband.

The interesting part is that if I don't think about why I'm doing things, I'm automatically doing them for me. I clean the church for the money; I clean the apartment so I can stand to live in it; I do the laundry because I'm out of clothes. It's all about me unless I purpose to do it with God in mind and for His glory, so that I can do it happily in the hopes that someone will notice a difference and ask "How??" And then I can answer honestly that it's because it's not for me; it's the daily worship I can give to my God.

It's been harder than normal lately. I'm not sure why exactly.

Randomly, a little girl came to the door the other day, handed me a paper and said, "This is about God and the number three." I smiled at such unexpected words, thanked her, and then we said "bye" to each other. I opened the paper up which was addressed to "You Guys" and it said: Jesus is Awesome!

It was a little thing but it made me very happy. :)