Friday, October 23, 2009

A Heart of Humility

It is so sad, how sinful I am, yet so beautiful how much grace God shows.

This morning I woke up to a...not so clean kitchen/living room combo. When I went to bed, I saw it was a mess, but I assumed the dishes on the counter would be put in the DIRTY dishwasher, the food would be put away, and the plates would be rinsed off. I woke up to my worst nightmare. :)

I almost got very angry. This is something the girls and I have been talking about, and I was, honestly, very frustrated. In my head I knew I had two choices: 1. Yell like a crazy person when they woke up. 2. Talk about how I can't handle living in a zoo, and how the house needs to stay clean. Either way I knew my attitude was going to come across (something I wasn't sure I wanted to happen.) Then, I thought of a third, unheard of option. I clean up the mess. I show the body of Christ love by doing something I don't really want to do, and then I talk to my housemates, my closest friends about a small problem in our house. I love them in Christ through my actions, they hear my words because of that love and those actions.

But...here is where I begin to really disgust myself.

As I completed the task, closing the dishwasher and throwing away the last of the food, I caught myself thinking, "That was a pretty cool thing to do." WOW. I CAN'T EVEN SERVE CHRIST--> I CAN'T DO ANYTHING FOR HIM WITHOUT MY PRIDE GETTING IN THE WAY!! I turned an act of service to my God and His children into a self-serving, self-glorifying task. All this by thinking about it and analyzing it too much. Where is my humility? Did I even start out with the right motives?

Lord, cleanse this heart of pride, replacing it with a heart of humility, a heart of service that beats for You and Your people. Move me out of the way, and open my eyes to more ways, large or small, that I can serve You. Help me to me mindful of my reasons and my motives. May they be for Your glory alone.

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