Carry Me, Carry Me, Carry Me Now

If you are my friend on Facebook, you have most likely seen that I just got a new baby carrier, my beloved, organic, Ergo. I have noticed that when I wear him more, and follow his cues about wanting to be worn, or to be down and exploring, he is much happier, which in turn means I am much happier.

Yesterday, I was wearing Wilbur and dancing around the living room because he was quite grumpy. While we were dancing, we were listening to KLove, and a couple of songs came on that talked about how God carries us, and holds us, and comforts us when we need Him to.

As I listened to the songs, and sang them to Wilbur, it made me realize that Wilbur needing to be worn, and held, and carried, and comforted, is a need that God has ingrained in everyone of us. And when I wear, and hold, and carry, and comfort Wilbur, I am loving him as God loves us.

Yes, sometimes it is easy to get discouraged, and not want to wear Wilbur, or comfort him,  but now, I realize I have a heavenly example, the best parent ever to follow, and that gives me the patience I need to keep on wearing, keep on holding, keep on comforting, all the while, remembering that God is holding me, just as I am holding Wilbur. 

My life-yes it's a sacrifice

The other day I talked about how our lives are a living sacrifice, and how every day, many times a day we need to give our lives up as a sacrifice. I also said I would share some ways that we can be a living sacrifice.

The first way, and the most important way, is to give our day to God, ask Him to direct how your day will go, and follow His commands that He gives us. It isn't always easy to follow His commands, but as I said in the previous post, being a sacrifice isn't easy, and sometimes it is just plain painful.

One of His commands is to love Him and put Him first. I do this by doing my devotion first thing in the morning. Wilbur gets up at the same time as me, so it is just me reading a chapter of the Bible, but I do that first, and pray to get my mind in the right spot. I also have the radio on most of the time, listening to praise songs to keep my mind in the right spot.

Another command is for wives to respect their husbands. I like my own way, I like doing my own thing, but I need to put Ken first, that is what God asks of me, and it is a way to be a sacrifice, and to give myself for others. When he asks me for something, I need to get up with a smile on my face, and respect his wishes. I am definitely a huge work in progress on this, and I probably always will be, but I am working on it.

I need to be a living sacrifice when I care for Wilbur. Sometimes it is hard, sometimes I do not want to rock him for another minute, sometimes I want to sleep all night without needing to nurse him, sometimes I want to clean the kitchen without an 'interruption', but I need to listen to God when He says children are a blessing, and realize that I am raising Wilbur up not for myself, but for God.

Another way to be a living sacrifice is to trust God in everything, trust Him to lead me in the best way possible. Trust Him to lead Ken and I in the way He wants us to go. Again, is this easy? No, I like to know when things will happen, and what will happen, but that isn't having trust in God, that is having trust in myself, which isn't a good thing.

Do you have other ideas and ways you can be a living sacrifice? Leave a comment and let me know. :)

My Life: A Sacrifice?

Today, Wilbur and I read in Numbers for our daily Bible reading, and the chapter we were reading was one of those chapters. You know the ones, all the rules and regulations of when to make a sacrifice, with what animal, and for what. One of those chapters that I like to just read to say its read because my OCD mind won't let me skip it.
My mind was wandering while I was reading it, but Wilbur was listening, he was not even trying to play with the pages, he was just sitting, listening, so apparently he knew this chapter was important. God was telling Moses that the Isrealites needed to make a sacrifice every morning and every evening, and then extra sacrifices everyday for the first week of every month.
I thought to myself, 'wow, that's a lot of sacrifices, all they seem to do is sacrifice, that must get old after a while.' Then the wheels of my mind starting spinning, 'Christians are supposed to be a living sacrifice, so apparently what this verse is saying to modern day Christians, is that we are to offer ourselves to God everyday, multiple times a day, all the time. Whoa, apparently Numbers isn't all that outdated after all.'
What does it mean to be a living sacrifice? It means giving yourself to God, doing what He wants, not what you want. Living Him and His glory and not living for yourself. Does it sound hard? painful even? Well, not to be disgusting, but what was done to a lamb or a goat when it was sacrificed? It was killed with a knife, and then burned. To me that sounds just a bit painful, a bit not fun, a bit like I don't want to do this anymore.
You know what else it is? It is relief, it is worth it, sometimes, it is even easier. I don't have to know all the answers, I don't have to be right all the time, I don't have to be perfect, I just have to say Lord, I am yours, I am a sacrifice, do what you will with me. He makes all the decisions, I just have to follow.
Tomorrow I will have a post on what it looks like practically to be a sacrifice :)