We all have things in our lives that we like to ignore. Pretend it doesn’t exist. That broken relationship. Those sins buried in the heart. The unspoken words in the marriage. That attitude as sour as a\u00a0fresh lemon. You know what yours is. You know that thing you avoid, hide, pretend it isn’t there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My 20-month-old bouncing, spunky toddler has reminded me lately. Reminded me of those things I ignore. Those yucky, bad feeling sins that I can keep hidden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When it comes to dinner time there is often a little girl in a high chair not satisfied. The vegetables are too green and the textures are strange. She usually can find one thing she likes (normally fruit) and suddenly that is what her eyes and tummy focus on. “Mo mo mo!” She exclaims.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Realizing that one bowl of fruit is all she gets, she whines. Thinking that somehow more will plop right into her bowl. However, that doesn’t happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My husband and I explain to her that there is “mo” meat, veggies, casserole or whatever we are having. The more of something else is not pleasing to her toddler tummy. In one quick motion, she turns her head to the side, looks up and says, “No no no.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Somehow looking\u00a0away from her full plate of other foods makes it disappear. She can’t see it so it isn’t there. Right?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The truth is just turning our head in another direction doesn’t magically make that plate of veggies disappear. Nor does looking around or focusing on another thing make that bad attitude or broken relationship suddenly go away and heal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It takes trying. Trying those veggies. Getting used to tasting something different than only sweet fruit.<\/p>\n
It takes trying. Putting our feet in action. Praying for direction. Seeking God’s help with our junk. Our hiccups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ignoring them. Pretending they don’t exist gets us nowhere in our spiritual walk. It leaves us unhappy, frustrated, jealous, and bitter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let’s make an effort to stop ignoring those areas in our hearts. Let’s ask God to help us identify what we have been ignoring and how we can deal with it appropriately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12\u00a0So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/sup>Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be <\/em>honored because of the way you live, and you will be <\/em>honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.\u00a0<\/em>NLT<\/span><\/p>\n Psalm 119:29-32, 34-35\u00a0Keep me from lying to myself;\u00a0<\/span>give me the privilege of knowing your instructions.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>I have chosen to be faithful;\u00a0<\/span>I have determined to live by your regulations.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>I cling to your laws.\u00a0<\/span>Lord<\/span>, don\u2019t let me be put to shame!<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>I will pursue your commands,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>for you expand my understanding. Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions;\u00a0<\/span>I will put them into practice with all my heart.\u00a0<\/span>Make me walk along the path of your commands,\u00a0<\/span>for that is where my happiness is found.<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>NLT<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Matthew 19:26\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>But Jesus looked at them and said, <\/em>\u201cWith man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.\u201d<\/em> ESV<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We all have things in our lives that we like to ignore. Pretend it doesn’t exist. That broken relationship. Those sins buried in the heart. The unspoken words in the marriage. That attitude as sour as a\u00a0fresh lemon. You know what yours is. You know that thing you avoid, hide, pretend it isn’t there.\u00a0 My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","sharing_disabled":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/shutterstock_107322404.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7NWg5-fx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":965,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions\/965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}