Month in Review-November

I looked down at my calendar today and said "Wow! Tomorrow is the first day of December!"  Time has really whizzed by these last few weeks. 

This month was full of good things, such as taking another part of the CPA exam (still don't know my score yet!), surprising my family with a house full of holiday decorations, my brother's graduation from another school in the Army, running my first 5K race, a heartwarming Thanksgiving Day surprise of my brother coming in from his Post for the holiday weekend, a stunning Thanksgiving Day feast prepared almost ENTIRELY by my father, and a surprise visit from my Boston family. 

November has been delightful and difficult at the same time.  As a matter of fact, most of my year has been like that.  I'm so thankful for the delightful times.  I don't care for the difficult times, but if I look at them from a different perspective, I can always see how God makes the difficult into beautiful and useful.  Like polishing rubbish to find a treasure. 

I know I have treasure deep inside me.  Some parts of it are surfacing and shining, other parts are still buried under "difficult" that I need to get through in order for the treasure to shine. 


But all in good time, I will surely be shining forever... 

Can't wait for that day!

:)

Happy November, everyone! 

Outside the Frame

I'm new to glasses.  I was just prescribed them for certain conditions, and they aren't the same as wearing sunglasses.  There are two little shapes for my eyes to look through, surrounded by a frame.  I can see the frame with my peripheral. What I noticed the other day was that my eyes don't want to stretch to look outside of those frames.  While without glasses, I look to my right and left to see things out of the corner of my eye, wearing the glasses deceives my eyes into thinking it is only supposed to see what is within the frames. 

I know.  I can pull a lesson from anything it seems.  But I did learn something about myself here.  I learned that too often I find myself focused within my own frame of mind, not allowing myself to look in the peripheral - or to even consider there is a peripheral. 

And how often do things turn out differently than I could foresee?  Often. 

Just another reminder to me to try to consider that I do not have all the options in front of me.  And that God does.  He can work a miracle out of something, even when I see there is no room for one to be worked. 

Assumptions

I've discovered I have a knack for making assumptions.  In some circumstances, I'm taught, I must make assumptions in order to come to a reasonable conclusion.  In most life situations, however, I've found assumptions are borderline, if not completely, destructive. 

Recently I read a devotional that talked about how often we put words into other people's mouths while they've not said a thing. It hit me today that I tend to put words into God's mouth too.  Not for other people, but for myself.

I was told this morning that an event was cancelled due to extremely unfortunate circumstances.  The writer told me, however, that he was "thankful for our Lord's constant reminder of His involvement in each of our lives."

Hmmmm...


What a  good reminder to me to stop putting God in a box of my own understanding.  He is God.  Let Him be so, Crystal; let Him be God.

Redemption (II)

Redemption is such a powerful and soothing word.  Redemption implies that someone has done something wrong, and that they do not have what it takes to make things right.

Psalm 49:15 NLT
But as for me, God will redeem my life. He will snatch me from the power of the grave.

Redemption in this life means I have done something worthy of death itself, yet I don't have to die.  Not because I am so powerful to avoid death, but because someone has paid the price I owed.  This someone is God through Jesus Christ. 

Oh, how desperately I need this redemption all too often.  I need to be redeemed from myself!  Plus, I don't want to live a life of doing things wrong. 


I've grown up in church and done my best to follow God my entire life.  I've realized how bad of a person I am on my own, and how much I need Jesus as my eternal savior.  And I have accepted Him as such.  Yet I still do wrong.  The decision to accept salvation has not made me exempt from being human.  I need redemption just as much as the next person.  I need help to make good decisions and to quickly forgive those around me. 


We're all headed for the same place - a courtroom.  And nothing will be hidden here.  HOWEVER, if I chose Jesus as my attorney, my records are sealed, and the accusations against me are blotted out.  Any objections to my innocence are overruled when I've repented and been redeemed.  Redeemed.  This is my judgment.  I have been found in the wrong, but I have been redeemed.  And this is why, as a Christian, I can say, "I am set free".