i had to help pap put on his socks this morning

this past month, especially since gram got home from the hospital, i've been reflecting a lot on a lesson i first learned in tanzania in the spring of 2001. i had some really great alone time with God at the guest house we stayed at in dar es salaam. mike and i were doing seminars morning and evening, but in the afternoons i got to spend some precious time in study and prayer on a patio overlooking the indian ocean...

anyway, for several years, one of our key thoughts that we kept coming back to at Bible study was "pleasing God is a good thing" (originally springing from Hebrews 11:6... it was the answer i could always count on jen roberts to come up with)... as i was reading my Bible in tanzania, i came across Ephesians 5:10: "find out what pleases the Lord." hmmm - a command - i like straight forward commands. kinda like having a to do list, it gives direction.

now this was several years before i read "the pleasures of God," (i HIGHLY recommend it) and i didn't go nearly as in depth as john piper did... but, what i did do was to flip through my concordance and look for the words "this pleases the Lord." seemed pretty logical ;)

well, one of the first passages i came to was 1 Timothy 5:4 "if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing to God."

boom! smack in the face. i had to repent of the fact that i sometimes resented the "inconvenience" of going down the driveway to my grandmother's trailer to help her with things. this was a mirror into the selfishness of my sin nature... i want my own way and to control my own schedule... i need to constantly be reminded to humble myself before God's will, saying "USE ME! HOWEVER, WHEREVER, WHENEVER!"

little did i realize at the time, that i had less than a year to put this lesson into practice with gram... next week, it'll be 7 years she's been gone. but now, as i live next to my other grandparents, and as they struggle with failing health and many "difficult" days, may my service to them be a reflection of my gratitude to Jesus for His gracious sacrifice for me and of gratitude for godly grandparents who are in a large part responsible for who i am today! Lord, help me to serve you with JOY!