Whiteboard Wisdom

This morning I was spending my quiet time with God, while doing an exercise in my Beth Moore "90 Days with Jesus" devotional journal.  Today, Beth was taking us back to the days of John the Baptist, well... baptizing people.  Even though I had read the passage in Matthew 3 numerous times before, this time, with Beth's insight, I understood that John the Baptist was baptizing people unto repentance, which got me thinking about the whole area of confession/repentance.

As I reflected on my personal journey of confession, I had to admit to myself that I kind of, well... suck at it.  I am pretty good at confessing the "big sins" I find myself committing, like swearing... but some of the other things that prick my conscience, I get confused as to whether they are actual sins or false guilt.  Other times, I hat to admit, I am just lazy and if truth be told, too prideful to get down on my knees and lay it all out before my Lord.

With these thoughts swirling in my head, I felt God give me picture to help me understand my relationship with Him in this area.  What I saw was a big whiteboard.  On the white board in red, permanent marker was written... "I love you... to death" which was my message from Jesus.  In this picture in my mind I then saw my sins written across the board in dry erase marker.  So many sins that Jesus' words were getting harder and harder to read.  Then, as I began confessing those sins to Him, those words began erasing off the board, leaving only His message of love to me again.

This mental picture reawakened a truth I've known for a long time.  When I neglect confessing my sins to the Lord, my spirit gets all gunked up like that whiteboard, making His "voice" to me more unclear.  I was spurred today to keep confessing and repenting daily so my whiteboard remains clear for me to see Jesus.

...

So... after I had this quiet time with God, I was writing in my journal about this "funk" I'd been feeling this week.  As I wrote I was trying to determine what exactly was the cause.  I had just written that I was feeling a little withdrawl from "Abide", our church ladies' program that is done for the summer.  Without Abide, my life is very quiet and solitary so as I was whining in my journal to God, the phone rang.  I picked it up and it was my friend, Amy, who was likewise going through a little Abide withdrawl herself.  Amazed, I read to her from my journal, sharing that her call was an answer to my prayers!  We enjoyed a lovely phone visit before I head off to clean my upstairs carpet and Amy got busy and joined us in the wonderful world of blogging.  She started a brand new blog today called Blessed Beyond Belief, and if you'd like to go over and meet one of my Difference Makers, I'm sure she'd love the company!  Amy is an amazing friend, a wonderful wife and mother and one of the most godly women I know.  We have walked together through many a heartache and I consider myself blessed beyond belief to call Amy my friend.  You'll love her too.  I just know it!


Oh... and before I head off to bed... here is this week's

What are your Top 3 Magazine that you LOVE to read?

Before the dawn of the Kindle and ereader phenomenon, Today's Christian Women was one of my top 3 favorite magazines, but since they have gone the age of digital/online magazines, I'm not as up to reading that so... here we go:

People/People Country

Country Weekly 

Now I am realizing just how trivial my magazine reading is.  Hmm... what about you?  What would you say are your top 3 for this Thursday?  Head on over to Kelly's Avenue to play along and happy reading!