Thoughts

As Austin and I are coming into a new season of life (GETTING out of the Navy!) there has been a lot going through my mind about what it is that affects the decisions we make in life. What is the primary factor I want in my decision making is God's will. Sounds great but can be hard to discern sometimes right. Really if I'm walking in God's will for my life then it's not MY decision making right it's God's. I still struggle with understanding God's will for my life. There have been a time or two where I feel God has clearly spoken to me but I think God uses a lot of things in our life to shepherd us and guide us in His will. I think a big thing is in understanding His Will is throwing out other factors that can affect a decision. One of the big ones I've been trying to understand lately is the effects culture has on my decisions and my thought process. WARNING: once you start going down this path it's hard to stop. I find myself then being critical of the world when I start understanding how it effects me. As a Christian I am not to be critical of others. I am to love them as Christ loves. I love this quote from the Peacemakers book we've been going through at Community group: "Christians are the most forgiven people in the world. Therefore, we should be the most forgiving people in the world." How do I offer that true forgiveness? "I realized that I could not consistently weave the gospel into my conversations with others until the Gospel was woven deeply into my own heart." Simple truths right? Forgive as Jesus forgave us, if you are going to speak the truth of God's word you have to be in it. Sometimes carrying that out in my life doesn't look so beautiful. I've found that in my parenting. If I am in the Word with myself and with my kids then it is so much easier to speak Gospel truth into their lives rather then condemnation. Okay so to wrap this up, I think outside of God's will the biggest factor in any decision is the culture around me. How do I not let the culture around me affect my decision? To be in God's word living out the Gospel in my heart and my actions. Easy to say not so easy to carry out sometimes.