IOU

Our Daily Bread
I didn't understand what the letters IOU meant when I first saw them. I said them out loud trying to figure out what they stood for, then it hit me.  OoooHHHHHhhhhh!  I owe you!  As I joke with some of my friends "I hope I never lose my looks!"  ha!

If we wrote IOUs to God for everything he did for us, I don't think the sky could hold them all!  I love the tag line at the end of this entry -- out God is so MUCH more than just the owner and creator of everything!
We can never repay him for all he has done.  What we can do is give him our lives and serve him to the best of our ability.  I call it a "win-win", not for God, but for us!  God doesn't need our praise, but he deserves all of it!  We get to serve the Almighty God and have an amazing life!

Lord, we love you, we trust you, we thank you, we praise you!

Simply Saturday
Deep Cleaning
I have been on a roller coaster a little bit lately with several areas of my life -- or at least it feels that way.  In some ways I am just bored a little.  In some ways, I am tired.  In some ways, I feel disappointed and alone.  What do all of these have in common other than being normal human feelings?  They can be a symptom of an untidy spiritual house.  Yes, I am using a dirty house as a metaphor!

I think my spiritual house looks like my real house -- it looks clean and neat to the casual observer.  You can usually stop by my house about any time and it looks like it is ready for guests.  I am not a clean freak, I just find it as efficient to be tidy and to be untidy!  ha!  So what is the problem with this?  I hate it when I take a closer look!

I could give several examples of deep cleaning needs around my house from the past few months, but I don't want you to think less of me!  Let's just say I started making deep cleaning more of a priority!  Yikes!

During this roller coaster period, I realized I needed, or should I say God needed, to do some deep cleaning in my spiritual life.  Deeeeeepppp cleaning...  Lord have mercy.  I keep saying one of my mantras as I go through this phase: "I love you.  I trust you. I thank you. I praise you"  God has a way of pushing humans to the edge of their endurance to bring them closer to him.  We have to be willing to push ourselves.  To love God to give ourselves to him.  To trust God to let him work in us.  To thank God for the honor and privilege of serving him.  To praise God for all things in our lives, good and bad!

So put away the Swiffer and get out those deep cleaning tools!  Praise God!

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We too can know this God and be assured of His presence. He has revealed Himself in His creation and in His Word. As we ask Him to make Himself known to us, we’ll learn that He is even more than the owner and creator of everything! - Our Daily Bread web site