Literally

How often do I read a passage of the Bible and not recognize what it is actually saying, literally? The last several days I've been depressed and wondered how can God use a person who sees things "half-empty" the majority of the time. This afternoon while I was fixing supper I'd been listening to Chris Tomlin's new CD "HELLO LOVE" and I hear scripture woven in his songs. And it made me think about how I see God's words but I don't take it literally. The song that's playing right now says "my deliverer is the Lord" I've heard those verses and read those verses so many times and thought of King David as he wrote them but never, ever realized that the words are alive. God is my deliverer. And if I have to endure this time of depression He is my deliverer. He told Paul that His grace is sufficient. Taking this literally and continually doing so means that as I feel this darkness all I have to do is remember that His grace is sufficient. I'm not alone no matter if that's how I feel.
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 2 Cor 12:9

The meaning of Christmas

I've been concerned lately about the relationship that my children have with God. I tried the other morning to initiate a conversation with my daughter, Kelsey, about her spiritual walk. The talk didn't go very far. But as I was driving her to school that morning something was said about Christmas. I asked her if she knew the true meaning of it. She said something that just hit me as very profound. She said that the true meaning was that God loves us. And I thought, wow, she's right.
Christmas is definitely about the birth of Jesus. But His birth is about the fact that God loves us.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

refrigerator magnet

I was reading a devotional last week named "Hope for the Holidays" It was about labeling ourselves by our past mistakes. It also was about salvation. How because of God's forgiveness and His erasing our past mistakes our slate is clean. And because He forgave us. we should forgive ourselves. And no longer label ourselves by the past.
But, for me as I read this all that really stood out was the labeling. I don't know for how long I'd considered myself to be a failure, unfit parent, unfaithful wife. I look at my past and say, "wish I'd never did that. I such an idiot for having said that." And I began wondering about the people I see everyday at the bank. How many of them consider themselves not to be worthy or unloveable? Maybe they needed to be treated special that day because they didn't feel special.
I also read something else around this time: Remember this, if God had a refrigerator, He'd have your picture on it.
As for my labeling of myself, God's still working on me. Using statements like the latter to remind me of how much He loves me. Showing me that my "slate is clean" That the past is just that, the past. I can't change it. I just need to move on. And to remember that if God had a refrigerator my picture would be on it.
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psalms 103:12