Sorry Saturday: Let's Focus on Deleting

It's another "Sorry Saturday" (and almost a "Sorry Sunday") but this time it's not entirely my fault. We were camping this week and the campground did not have their internet working on Friday evening. I know, I know, I could have scheduled a post on Thursday when it was working or maybe even could have had one ready to go before we went camping, but this is the best I can do for right now. Today we had a group of kids and sponsors from our youth group come to the campground and we had fun boating, swimming, and cooking at the campfire. What a great group!

So, it's a "Sorry Saturday" night and I need to post this before I go to bed. We have to get up at about 2:30 a.m. so we can get our daughter Erin to the airport by 5:00 for a 7:20 flight. She's going to be doing daycare on a military base in Germany this semester. I'm sure I'll tell you more about that in a future "Focus Friday" sometime.

I had lots of themes swimming around in my head this week for Focus Friday, but I finally settled on one at about 10:00 p.m. Deleting.

You see, at about 9:30 I sat down to play one game of Mahjong tiles on my iPad. "I'll just play one game before I update my blog," I thought. I didn't complete the level in 5 minutes so I had to try again. Missed it. I have to get those three stars for finishing in less than 5 minutes. Tried again. Missed. Realized I just might have a problem with self control. Tried one more time. At 10:00 I looked up and decided that was enough. I held my finger on the app and hit the X to delete it.

This has been a long time coming. I had been spending more and more time on that game throughout the day, even as I thought about other things I could be/should be doing. It was time to get rid of it once and for all. My kids were starting to tease me about that being my new "Candy Crush." I noticed that too often someone in my family would be talking to me and I would keep my eyes down, frantically trying to find matches to click on and get rid of those dumb tiles.

Now, Mahjong Tiles is not a bad game. If I could just play it once in a while for a few minutes that would be fine. But when it starts to get out of control it's time to delete. 

As I look at my life, I realize there have been times where I've had to delete something in order to follow God more closely. Sometimes it has been a hobby that got too time consuming, sometimes it has been a television program that was feeding my mind too much garbage. As I think about it, there are some thoughts and attitudes that I need to keep deleting whenever they show up. 

Negative thoughts about myself, judgmental thoughts about others, pride, shame, insecurity, fear, anxiety...all of those things need to be deleted. I have a great big God who loves me completely and that love frees me up to feel good about myself, show compassion to everyone I meet, stay humble, have good self-esteem, have confidence, be courageous, and have trust that God is in control.

He really is in control. That's why most things in our lives that get out of control need to be deleted.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off [Delete?] everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us," (Hebrews 12: 1 NIV - my question in brackets)

Is there anything in your life that is a bit out of control? What do you need to delete in order to focus more completely on God? 

Focus Friday: Let's Focus on Control

I had most of my Focus Friday written a few minutes ago and then I deleted it all and started over. I had been rambling about control and started giving examples of things I want to control and then I realized that even this blog post is a control thing. I want to say just the right thing so that I inspire or challenge you. I want to control what you think of me.

I don't think you need examples. Either you don't have a problem with control and you can't understand what the problem is or you can totally relate.

Over the past several months I have sensed God pointing out that I don't trust Him when I have gotten quiet and honest enough to really listen to Him. Going into the teaching position I thought I trusted Him but I mostly tried to do everything on my own and things rapidly got out of control. I couldn't handle that. 

On this side of depression I have more peace because I have less stress, but I'm seeing more and more that control is a huge issue for me. I don't want to get into situations where I'm not in control. I don't want to give up control to other people, especially my poor husband. 

Most of all, I haven't been willing to give up my control to God. He's still asking me to trust Him completely. I say "I trust You" with my lips but my thoughts and actions often are exactly the opposite. They say "I don't trust You, God; I'll take it from here."

That's it for this week. Just a reminder about who's in control. We're fooling ourselves if we think we're in control of anything or anyone. We'll only have peace when we give up control and put our trust completely in the Lord.

I'm sorry my thoughts are a little scattered this week. I can't control what you think of me, but I hope you'll look past my words and think about where you put your trust and who is in control. If you want to read more about that you can go over to my web site and read about it in My Life Story. Or don't - I can't control you.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)

Do you have a problem with control? What do you do when you feel out of control? If you focus on God do you think it will help you give up control and feel more peace?