Well my morning started off waking up 45 mins before I was due at church. Waking up 5 girls and my husband took a couple of rounds before they finally staggered out of bed and into their bathrooms. It was interesting seeing 5 girls between the ages of 4 to 18 running around. Hmmm....what an experience it will be for Dan in particular, to live with 6 females :) So my morning kicked off pretty slow, having had no breakfast, so my expectations to receive something from God at that time seemed very low on an empty stomach.
I found it so hard to concentrate this morning at church. Allowing myself to be distracted was preventing me to really get into church. I spent most of the morning taking care of my niece during service. But I tried to get as much as I could from the Worship alone. Then it came to the Word. Today's message came from Luke 5, where Jesus had asked Simeon to take his boat out into the deep water. Jesus preached to those on the boat, and then had asked Simeon to caste his nets out into the water. It seemed that Simeon was reluctant at first because he had just been fishing and had caught nothing. However he was obedient and caste his nets into the lake. And to everyone's amazement on the boat, the nets could not contain the amount of fish they collected. They had to call for a second boat to come out into the deep to help with the fish. At first when the Word was shared this morning, the perspective was about Simeon's obedience had brought him blessings.
But with what I was feeling earlier that morning, about the distractions that was deterring my mind from listening to anything during that service. The message revealed that I was the boat. When Jesus comes into my heart, my life I often don't want to leave the shore. Because on the shore are the people that I love, the people that I admire, certain things that distract me, temptations, situations that do not add any value to my life. So many times I do not want to put my boat (myself) out into the deep because I do not have enough faith to see beyond what God asks me to do as Jesus did to these men on the boat. I know in my heart that when Jesus steps onto my boat (into my life), and that I set my boat to sail into the deep seas, only good can come of this journey. Blessings will be caught up in the net that I will not be able to contain it. These blessings will need to be shared with another boat, just as Simeon did. I was so blessed with this perspective, that I felt really good leaving service today. We cannot see beyond our own plans, unless we completely remove our boats from the shore and sail on faith with our Lord!! This was such a great encouragement to be able to visually see myself sail away from my distractions at the shore. On this note...this week I will head out into the deep on complete faith!!!
I am encouraged this week to continue to focus on what is at hand. As we draw near to Mother's day this weekend, I remember the life lessons my mothers (Mum and Mum-in-law) have taught in my young life :). I reflect on all the situations where my mums have said to me "you will understand when you go through it". A statement that will forever ring true to a situation no matter what it is. I think for every single daughter in this world, we try to run away from the unfriendly parts/voices of our mums but all we do is run straight into them because we grow into being exactly like our mums. But it isn't a curse as some may take it, I've grown to love all the advice that has been forcibly and freely given :) I love my mum's so much, as their advice has helped me so much with raising my little family.
And just as my mum's have said....you truly will not understand until you go through it yourself :)
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