.

The other night her big brother and I were working in the nursery during an event at church, what a team. Anyway Gracie was in there with her nephew and niece. She was very busy getting in her nieces face and we were having to work hard to keep said niece from getting too upset about all the ‘in your face’ attention.

At that moment I said to my son, “Gracie means well; she just does not do well.”

It is here that many of us find ourselves spiritually is it not? We mean well, we want to do what God wants us to do but well, our actions don’t always match that desire.

We like Gracie go about our business and are trying to do the right thing but never take the quite moments to learn from the Lord, or learn from others reaction to us and instead of doing good; we end up finding ourselves in trouble.

It is not that we don’t try to get Gracie corrected it is just that at this stage in her life she is so focused that she does not hear what we are trying to say and so she just keeps on going. Once again this action is exactly how many of us are spiritually; we are so focused on what we want to do, what we think is right(without asking God) that we never listen to God trying to cool our jets or get us to move our attention elsewhere. God’s still small voice gets louder and louder but still we do not stop, we do not hear. With this attitude we simple run in place spiritually.

Here is another part of the action, the reason we try to move Gracie away from the little ones is we are afraid without intending to she might hurt one of them. Trust me, if you know Gracie that is the last thing she wants to do and the look on her face when that happens will tear even the most insensitive up emotionally.

Once again here we find ourselves; the last thing we would ever want to do is hurt someone else. The thought breaks our heart but when we refuse to listen to instruction, refuse to respond to the warning signs and stay the course inevitably that is exactly what we end up doing. This results in one of the worst emotions; regret. We regret the damage we have done to not only ourselves but others.

Gracie is young and just wants to help, she does not know better though we are working with her on it. She does what she does out of love. You might be the same, you might be young and surely you could easily be doing things out of love. It simply could be that God is working with you to improve your life and the relationships in them.

Take some simple steps; slow down and take a look at those around you, how are they responding to your actions. Stop long enough in your daily routine to hear God’s voice, often he can’t get through all the busyness in your life. Then even if it does not seem like something you want to do, if you determine God needs for you to make a change, do it.

When you do this you will move your life from ‘wanting to do well and just not doing it’ to ‘wanting to do well and completing the task!’

Scripture: Romans 7:17-20 “But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.” Seems as though Paul had the same problem as us! The Message by Eugene Peterson

Prayer: Dear Lord, simply help our actions to match our hearts desire to please you. We ask these things in the name of He who gives us the power to overcome, Christ. Amen.