Pardon My Progress

Have you ever seen those signs in the mall..."please excuse our progress...". I have & never gave it another thought until now...


Mattie got me up the other morning to go for a walk. Didn't want to & it put me in a bad mood...the way things do when someone is just doing what YOU asked them too!...It took all of about 1 minute for the Lord to get my behind out of the bed (He can be very persuasive). Got ready grabbed the ipod & out the door by about 6 or so...

Listening to "He loves us"-David Crowder Band...My favorite. I tend to have "Aha" moments when I least expect them. I'm a stay@home mom of 3, I don't get a lot of "me" time or time to just think about things uninterrupted...I end up with a lot of thought fragments...if that makes any sense at all. The Lord laid a message on my heart for our Ladies several weeks ago. But as with most things it was just so fragmented...It's about knowing who we are. As women we are rarely our own..we are always some body's someone...Daughter,Friend, Sister, Girlfriend, Wife, Mother...& in so many ways we begrudge those appointments like they take our identity away, therefore we search to"find ourselves". The world would have us to believe there is "more" to us than this...we need to go and "live", "experiment"...do what "feels" right to us. All we're left with is regret & a used shell of who we were meant to be.

What if what we were meant to be was just that...we are a sum of our very own parts I AM a daughter a sister a friend, wife & mother...What if we sought to fulfill those purposes & not run away from them. The Lord has a gentle way of hearing the silent cries of our heart. In order to walk with purpose we have to our needs met fully by our Lord...too often as women we look to the people and things around us to serve a fillers for the places only God can fill...to feed a hunger only God can feed. We where all made in the image and likeness of God...the needs we have as women are fulfilled in the one that created those very needs.

He is God the Father...our protector
"He is like a father to us, tender & sympathetic to those who reverence him...But the loving-kindness of our Lord is from everlasting to everlasting..."-Ps 113: 13 & 17

Most of us have a father...if he is anything like mine he is kind & gentle...when you were a child & fell or hurt yourself he was there to pick you up, dust you off & tend to your boo boos. Praise God that He Is the "Abba" (daddy)father. "If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask & continue to ask Him!"
-Luke 11:13
He too picks us up & dusts us off tends to our wounds. He is always dependable.

He Is Jesus the Bridegroom...the Lover of our soul
This to me is the Most interesting of the three...how can he love me this way, why would he want to?...the countless references in the Songs of Solomon are just a sample of His beautiful love...
"How beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful! Your eyes are soft as doves..."1:15
"A lily among thorns.."2:2
"You are so beautiful, my love,every part of you."4:7
"my darling bride is like a private garden, a spring that no one else can have, a fountain of my own. You are like a lovely orchard bearing precious fruit, with rarest of perfumes...You are a garden fountain, a well of living water..." 4:12
"but you my dove, my perfect one, are the only one among them all, without an equal..."6:9
The chapter later says that He awakened love in us...He hears the silent cries of our heart. He speaks to the unspoken desire we all have to be wanted to be desired. & He is jealous for me..

He is the Holy Spirit...the comforter
The Holy spirit has several purposes, but there is one that I feel particularly resonates with women. The Comforter. Here again I find myself in need of something only God can give. Something that we're very good at is worry...anxiety...fret... analyzing.
When I looked up the meaning of Comfort it simply said-" Providing freedom from worry"...WOW. Jesus left us but provided us freedom...from the very thing that tends to control us...WORRY!..Synonyms for Comfort were Soothe, Console & Reassure. He never ceases to amaze me.

In three parts He completes me...not in that cheesy way we see on Movies or TV but in a real undeniable way. So please pardon my progress...I am overcome by my God. He's showing me who I can be if I can believe in who He created me to be...