BLANK PAGE PROGRESS

Blank Page Progress by Deena McDaniel Positively Beautiful Blog 7/15/22 Get your goals set straight! We’ve all heard it said that we should have a 5, 10, and 15-year plan. We’re encouraged to set up retirement funds. Even some arrange their pregnancy spacings, but no one has a step-by-step program for a chapter that’s empty. What if you’ve done all the things, you’ve set out to do? Are you prepared to grab and go with gusto to the unknown? Spontaneous living is not what I’m all about. The Lord never has writer’s block, but I’ve hit a stalemate. The other Sunday our pastor was talking about Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourselves in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” First, we’re to delight and then he delivers. I closed my eyes and imagined the chapter of a book ends. My page turned. I opened to what would be the desires of my heart. The pages were blank. Not a single thing came to mind. God’s not done with me yet. The young-at-heart lifestyle I live blesses me beyond measure. Recognizing how “spoiled” or blessed I am I began to wonder. What are the desires of my heart? I could see in my mind turning page after page and every single page was not written yet. Ah, yes. The “need to know basis project.” God never seems to let me in on his future plans for me. I never ever need to know because I’d try to change them. Sometimes, the desire has come first in my life instead of Him. I moped around the house as I cleaned. Boxes that hadn’t been opened in years were being discovered as I dove into the past. Packrat I am not. Clutter Queen is a more appealing title. It’s easy to blame your parents and they were quite the savers. “You never know when you might need this,” my dad would smile as he tucked another treasure away. He had 4,000 square feet of a storage area filled with “treasures” when God called him home. It slowly builds over the years. I only brought back 2 boxes from his house of treasures. “Mom. It’s a practice to pass along treasures,” our oldest daughter Mary encouraged me. I donated some furniture that had heartfelt memories. Those chapters closed. Time is difficult to see move. Sand in a minute timer is simple. Seeing your children move out is a quick eye opener. “It’s been 13 years living in this house,” my husband reminded me, “and 18 years in Florida!” Ready for what lies ahead, I begin to hear God ask, “What is man’s chief end?” It is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Over and over, I say that phrase to myself to understand we’re in the right place. Even last night at 2 am when I couldn’t sleep, I popped into a podcast at random. Ligonier ministries with R.C. Sproul continues to capture my thoughts. Right after a fabulous teaching on values, exploring the parable of the “pearl of great price,” the transition to the next teaching was the shorter Catechism questions… What is man’s chief end… onward the teacher proceeded through question 1 through 7. https://www.shortercatechism.com/ I get it. God was reassuring me I’m exactly where I need to be. In his presence, I’m understanding the open pages of my life. It's significant to slowly reflect on scripture and realize where God is leading. He’s taking us all down the same path. We’re to glorify him in all we do. Nothing must be grandiose. We’re simply to focus on learning, teaching, and living out his instructions in his word…the Bible. A lifetime isn’t enough to comprehend all he has for us. Open the page of your life today and simply live. It’s okay to not have goals. It’s okay to bring a pen to the paper not knowing the future. All of us would love to look at our lives in a timeline of achievements. God sees the tiniest of details no one on earth could imagine are important. Therefore, live your life with great anticipation. He is using each and every one of us each and every day. “I love the energy you bring to class, and you smile every day,” Rose an 80-year-old fitness student grinned. “It’s the love of Jesus in me that keeps me going. His love is poured out through me.” I smiled! “I’m Jewish,” she grinned and walked away. I do work in a Jewish Community Center, so I’d guessed as much. My point is I can’t hold back who I am, no matter where I am and who I’m speaking to. God has me farming and I believe another will harvest. Use every opportunity. Hear the parable of the mustard seed. Mark 4:30-32 – “And he said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’” Never underestimate God’s power to use the tiniest of tasks in your life. Cast good seeds! I look forward to 80 acres in the country and my farming life. God is writing the story, but I seem to fill in the blanks.

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