Thursday, October 2, 2014

Lean NOT unto thine own understanding

Why is this so hard for me?  I want everything to make sense.  I want the answers to be logical and rational.  I want the solutions that have been proven scientifically.  How can I learn to trust that God knows better than I even when things don't make sense?
I KNOW He knows better than I.  He's proven it many times.  But I forget it so easily.  My brain wants to understand things that maybe only my heart can understand. 
I often have nights when my mind is so full of thoughts that I can't sleep.  That happened last night.  I was fighting what I thought I should do but just didn't feel like doing.  I was tired and frustrated and disappointed in myself.  I wanted to sleep, but my brain just wouldn't let me.  So I did what I usually do when this happens.  I took a book and a blanket and sat in the recliner with a lamp right next to me and started reading.  Reading almost always puts me to sleep.  With the lamp next to me, I could easily turn it off when I was about to fall asleep.  And I slept pretty well.  But I woke up to the same thoughts swirling in my head - worries about problems I didn't have a clear solution for, guilt for making the same dumb mistakes over and over. 
As my family gathered in the living room to pray and read scriptures I told my kids (who were also pretty tired too) I'd like to just go back to bed and sleep all day and they agreed that sounded good.  But we didn't.  We got ourselves moving and getting ready for school.  And off to school we went. 

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Beginning

I've decided to start this online journal as a way for me to put my thoughts in writing.  I don't plan on responding to comments, so if you really want to communicate with me send me an e-mail.  The blog title comes from two of my favorite scriptures.  The first has become my daily mantra of late because I've found myself stressed out about things I can't control.  It is found in Proverbs, Chapter 3, verses 5 and 6: 
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him and He shall direct they paths.  
I committed this one to memory over two decades ago as I realized that it meant a lot to me.  I have difficulty NOT depending too much on my own understanding.  I have a hard time just trusting God.  Grace is a word that I discovered happily during my 20s and have come to rely more and more on it each day.  I have to remind myself that "His grace is sufficient" when I seem to make  the same mistakes over and over.