Four years ago my wife wrote a WMD about my friend, Greg.  He is going through a rough chunk of life right now.  I ask any and all who will to pray for him and his family this Christmas season.  I pray that he remembers this as he reads and God just floods his soul.  I pray that he finishes 2013 well and 2014 is the best year of his life. 

My Desire

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  2 Corinthians 4:18

But seek first his kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. — Matt. 6:33

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” When we learn to let the Lord be THE lord of our lives, it is amazing to watch Him in action. I absolutely love to see God in the small details in people‘s lives. I find myself looking for these experiences. When a friend is sharing a story with me, I often ask myself, “I wonder what God is up to?”.

On Palm Sunday, Adam was supposed to help serve communion during the service. He was late getting to the pre-service meeting, so the pastor that was organizing the communion part of the service asked a friend of ours to fill in for Adam. As I was sitting down, Adam joined me and told me that Greg was taking his place. He said Greg was overwhelmed at the opportunity. Greg grew up in a church where only the deacons could serve communion, and his daddy was one of the men that did that in his church. His daddy is now in Heaven. He was so touched to get to do this. He knew how proud his Daddy would have been of him.

As Adam told me this story, I looked down at the front row where the servers were seated. When I spotted Greg, he had his face buried in his hands giving thanks for the opportunity to serve. The tears started to flow for me! If you knew his story, you would know how far he has come over the past few years. He is an example of someone that delights themselves in the Lord. He hungers for more of God…the more he gets, the more he wants. He is an encourager to many around him.

Okay, it gets even better!! When we got home, he and Adam had been texting back and forth. Not only did he get this blessing of an opportunity, his Mom was also at church that morning. She also got to share in this wonderful event in his life. AND, I got to experience one of my favorite things too…seeing God in the small details of somebody’s life.

When we are living our lives for God, our desires begin to change. My desires are not for material things, although those are really nice. Those are my wants. If I get it, that is awesome, if not, it is not a big deal. They are temporal. My wants change with the wind. A desire is a longing. Longings don’t come easy, and they take a long time to happen. They are eternal. That means that we must focus on Jesus day to day. He wants us to experience the good things that come only from pursuing Him. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-Control. When Adam and I are out on a date, we usually end up going shopping. Before Easter, we were in Target looking through the toy aisles for bubble machines when we saw a Sleeping Beauty costume. Caroline loves Sleeping Beauty! Of course, we had to buy it for her. The thing was… we had to wait until Easter to give it to her. We really wanted to give it to her that night, because we knew how happy she was going to be. It made me realize how much our Big Daddy does that all the time. He wants to give us those special blessings in our lives, but too often, we are making Him wait. We are too busy living our lives to please ourselves and not Him. He is waiting on that moment when He looks at us and says, “Great job Kiddo, you are doing a good job pleasing me!” Just like he did for Greg on Palm Sunday morning.

Let’s work on it! Decide today that the things that you long for are worth pursuing on a daily basis. Live to please God in EVERY decision. It is hard…I struggle with it all the time. But I do know this: the more consistent we are in doing it, the easier it gets.

So what is it you desire? I know what I long for. I desire to see my children grow up to be strong in their faith. I desire that every year that Adam and I spend together that we grow deeper in God and closer to each other. I desire to see all the members of my family saved. I desire to see the way God works in the small details of people’s lives. I desire to see my story be a part of His plan.

Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart — Psalms 37:4

Looking forward

Tonya