Showing posts with label God's design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's design. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Inner Delight


Confronting and overcoming obstacles while sitting around a dining room table this past Saturday wasn’t about the food. In fact, that peppermint popcorn? Yum! The only obstacle between those kernels of buttery sweetness and my mouth was having only two hands to deliver them. What I’m talking about transpired with a small group of women who’re responding to God calling them to write…to write their stories, explore ideas together and share them with others, learning how to do that effectively. There are casserole-sized doubts and pressure cookers of misgivings and feelings of lack in each of us. As we opened our hearts we found serving platters of encouragement, affirmation, camaraderie, and strength, with a smorgasbord of humor on the side. And I came away with a feeling that I’ve struggled to identify. 

It is a sense of something special and wonderful happening, like when you’ve got the soup kettle on the stove,
and the ingredients are starting to simmer, smelling absolutely heavenly and promising. It finally came to me as I journaled later. I'm calling it "inner delight" and it lines up with a prophetic word given to me quite awhile back. 

It was about 30 years ago; I was attending a women's Bible study in a small church with a friend. During the small group discussion and prayer time, one of the women said that she had a "vision" pertaining to me. She “saw” me leading/teaching/mentoring women in some way. At the time I kind of scoffed at the idea, being a busy wife and mom raising four kids and I couldn't imagine women wanting to follow me anywhere or listen to anything I had to say. And this whole idea of “prophetic vision”? Lets just say it was a dish I was dubious about sampling.

Looking back I can see how God has led me through doors that I wasn't expecting, stage right and stage left and behind the scenes, has brought me through a variety of experiences, including leadership training and positions, and now He shines a light on this particular spot, the spot He intended all along. The inner delight that comes of being where He has called and prepared me to be as He overlooked
my initial scoffing, and the knowledge that He gave me the desire of my heart—His recipe for inner delight. Could be the woman in that Bible study group had a preview glimpse of it for me.

And these women I am privileged now to sit with at a table are ladling out all kinds of tasty words to savor.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Buy My Stuff?

The Lord has filled Bezalel with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft.
Exodus 35:31-33 (NLT)


Something said in a sermon on a recent Sunday, regarding how God shows his delight in us by giving us certain abilities, reminded me of a discussion with my friend a few months ago. We were participating in a Bible study and one of the lessons focused on contentment. April addressed a concern. She makes jewelry, lovely pieces that are more like wearable art. And she sells her jewelry with hopes of making a good income on it. Her question was, “If we’re supposed to be content with what we already have, and not be all about getting more stuff, how do we justify making products for people to buy? And is it wrong for us to want people to want our stuff?”


A paragraph in the study says:


“A study of godly contentment is not a survey of how to get along with less or how to live more simply. It has nothing to do with quelling your ambition. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of all those things. Contentment is all about how to live more abundantly in Christ. How to go deeper into the great things of God. How to press on with holy passion and to take hold with both hands of all that God has for you.” (Lord, Change My Attitude, James MacDonald, Barb Peil)


I read that to April and suggested to her that God has gifted her with the desire, skill, creativity, time, etc, to make beautiful jewelry. Using these gifts from God is pursuing with holy passion all that God has for her. Her motivation is to be all that God designed her to be. She is not responsible for what motivates people to purchase her pieces.


Someone has to make money in order to use that money for good. If we follow the instructions in James to work “as unto the Lord”, making a profit is a righteous endeavor. And another scripture tells us whatever our hands find to do, do it heartily. It’s all about what our attitude is regarding money and “stuff” and what it’s for. Raking in the money and then rolling in it is not where our happiness is produced. When a profit is made we give the glory to God for He has both created and blessed our hands to do so.


I’m delighted to wear April Shelley Jewelry myself. Here are some pieces she created just for me:





I’ll be wearing them at my daughter’s wedding in just a few weeks. Thank you, April!


Want to see more? April welcomes your browsing here: