Someone shared a story with me the other day about a man who retired at the age 42 from the financial business, spending countless hours making his millions. He put 4 children through private school and university. I asked “but how much time did he spend with his children?” Interestingly enough after that conversation, I was reading chapter 16 of The Purpose Driven Life and it spoke on what matters most is love, and that time is the best expression of love. The other night my daughter suffering from a flu and cold virus came into my room in the middle of the night, saying that she had been awake for several hours and couldn’t sleep. I got up with her and gave her a drink and sat with her downstairs for about an hour until she felt ready to go back to sleep. After tucking her back into bed, she said “I love you mom”. I was reminded once again of Chapter 16. Just being with her and spending that time with her was an expression of love.

Do you ever wish God would wave a magic wand over you and remove all your character flaws?  I mean, wouldn’t that be nice?  All our warts, bumps, and ugly all gone – presto!  I know that’s how I feel sometimes; this whole transformation process is not pretty, however, I have learned some secrets along the way.

First of all, God can’t get the ball rolling without our surrender, and I guess that’s where the messiness comes in.  When I was reading the Purpose Driven Life, it was noted that the problem with living sacrifices is that they have a tendency to crawl back off the altar! If we want God to transform us into His image we must be willing to surrender, and that may mean putting ourselves back on the altar, perhaps even several times a day.  Galatians 5:16-17 says, “Walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.”  Can you see where it gets messy with this battle of flesh opposing spirit?!  The Apostle Paul said, “What I want to do I do not do and what I don’t want to do I do”.