1 . This is because I’ve been longing for lovely Oregon this past week…
2 . So we have this little weekly tradition at WCHS… that, in all honesty, I dread. I speak of morning staff/faculty devotions. Not that I don’t enjoy having this time in the morning (although lately… tardiness has become a problem for me)… I just dread the part that involves the rotation of teachers to lead the devotions. I’ve already gone once. And I was so deathly nervous that I think I must have blacked out because I seriously don’t remember any of it. My next date with devotion leadership is Jan. 30th… and, seriously, I have been counting down to this day (and not the good kind of countdown) since early December, I think. My assigned passage is Proverbs 10:16-32. I’ve been reading it over an over again… trying to mentally prepare myself (inevitably a fruitless effort). I talked about it with Steven tonight. Can I just say that… this guy… I love him. He always makes everything seem so much simpler… no one can say things that put me at ease like he can. We focused on this part of the passage in particular:
19 In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise. 20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; The heart of the wicked is worth little.
There are so many ways to strive and hope for righteousness. Faith.. works… thoughts… words…. Sometimes we worry so much about saying the right things (example #1: me freaking out about speaking at devotions)… “what can I possibly say that will truly make a difference?”…. But what about what we choose not to say? Steven mentioned something that I’ve been thinking about… what if we were physically only given an allowance of .. say… 20 words a day? It would probably make the words we did choose (out of everything we could say) more valuable to us… they would likely shine more brightly, be more worthwhile and pleasing to God. Maybe we wouldn’t waste our precious words… and maybe even, eventually, our thoughts… on meaningless things.
3 . Randomly came across some ancient and not-so-ancient eastern proverbs that I’d written down a while back (I think I first encountered them in one of my college classes). Forgot how much I loved this one:
“Like treasure hidden in the ground,
taste in the fruit,
gold in the rock,
oil in the seed,
the Absolute hidden away in the heart,
No one can know
the ways of our Lord,
white as jasmine.”
And I shall end on that note 🙂
Shalom.
Aw Britt, I think with that you will do just fine when you do your devotion in a few weeks. How lovely for you to have found someone who can put your heart at ease and bring things to your attention that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. I love you both dearly.
P.s. I really want to see Oregon too. ❤
I love you brit