Say Uncle!

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." -Matthew 11:27-29

As a child, I liked to wrestle with my siblings (or cousins or any other willing party; I was a tomboy back then). If you were losing and wanted to quit, the victor would always cry out, "Say 'Uncle'!" before they would let you go. Saying "Uncle" meant the battle was over; you were admitting that you were overwhelmed.

Well, life has been amazingly hectic lately, and after looking at today's schedule (four, yes, FOUR things going on after work today), I am officially saying "Uncle." I am overwhelmed! How is it that my life can be one constant rush from one activity to the next? Some of this is inherent in being a mom - two of tonight's activities are for my kids. Another one is a service activity for the church. But regardless of whether the activities are positive or noble or family-oriented, the fact is that our entire lives can easily become stuffed with activities, and just because they're good, that doesn't make the busyness a good thing.

I admit that I bring a lot of this on myself. The fact is that I can get much more done if there are five things on my to-do list than if there is only one. I seem to thrive on busyness. You would think that if I had more free time, my house would be cleaner and my life more organized. But as I quickly learned during a few rather short stay-at-home periods of motherhood, given large expanses of free time, I tend to waste them with TV, computer games and the like. So I definitely tend to err on the side of busyness.

But, as Moses' father-in-law Jethro told him in Exodus 18, "What you are doing is not good. You...will only wear yourself out." The good is in fact the enemy of the best. All this racing around, living a life of "good" but hectic activity, gets in my way. There are no free moments to think, to plan, to set goals. There is not nearly enough time in the Word, and much too little time spent talking to my children about the Lord or His Word. In fact, there's too little time spent talking to my family at all, except for giving advice, instructions, updates, or orders. How can relationships thrive in that environment? They don't.

Satan is more than happy for us to fill our lives with good things as long as they keep us too busy to draw nearer to the Savior, to encourage others in their walk with God, or to spend time in prayer. His plan is subtle but insidious and effective. Blitz our lives with frenetic activity and don't give us time to examine our lives, our thoughts, our hearts...till one day we look up and realize that we have drifted away from our loved ones and the One Who loves us more than anyone else can.

For many years I have regarded busyness as an acquaintance, a regular part of my life. But now I must finally acknowledge that I have let it become a friend...a welcomed and accepted part of my life. I think it's time to "unfriend" this very unfriendly friend.

Lord, help me to become the LEAST busy person in my family, so that I can become the biggest encourager, so that I can model Your peace to my husband and kids, and so I have time to do the things that matter the most. And please put someone in my life to hold me accountable and remind me of this the next time I am tempted to sign up for everything!

The Truth Project

Tonight we gathered with a group of friends to begin viewing Focus on the Family's The Truth Project video series in our home. I saw this series last year in church and loved it; it does a wonderful job at examining our culture and our faith in light of absolute truth, which is found in God alone - He is the author of truth, because He alone is truth.

Yet how quick we are to disregard His Word and His promises, and how quick we are (okay, by WE here I mean ME) to instead believe Satan's lies. The lie that we don't need God, that He doesn't provide, that He doesn't love us, that we need to take care of ourselves because He's too busy or cannot or will not.

One of the things that appeals most about the Truth Project is that so often Christians (especially Bible-believing Christians) are regarded as Neanderthals, belittled for believing a book, and thought to be people who don't think, who unquestioningly trust in an ancient, hopelessly out of date faith. Yet the Word of God is not out of date; it is living and active. And unlike so many mythical tales that have proven false over the ages, scientists and historians and anthropologists make new discoveries each day that attest to the truth of the Bible.

I love knowing that, although God asks us to believe in Him, trust in Him, and read His Word, He also is the God of our minds as well as our hearts. He is deeper than the deepest discoveries man can make, deeper than the greatest mysteries known to science. And He doesn't ask us to shut off our minds when we come to Him; in fact He invites us to get to know Him, to test Him and see that He is trustworthy.

C.S. Lewis, the great scholar, set out to prove that Christianity was a hoax and became converted in the process. Along with others, so did Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel. And then these men wrote books and compiled evidence to show the world - and the church - the proof. God's Word will stand the test of time and every test man can create. Do you doubt? Then earnestly seek the truth and you will find Him!

Just getting started

I've wanted to start a blog for the longest time, but always feared I'd have nothing to say, or that I'd forget my thoughts before actually reaching the computer. Lately, however, I've noticed that LOTS of folks have blogs, including some who seemingly have much less to say than I do. So I've decided to take the plunge.

The goal is not to post my status or complain about life (Facebook works just fine for that), but to share what I learn each day as I embark on this journey...a journey to lose myself and, in so doing, find Christ (Luke 9:24). Hence the title of my blog...Losing Myself.

As for the domain name (The Word Woman), I chose that because (1) I love to write and read and (2) I love God's Word, the Bible. I'll probably be the only one to read this blog, but it's still exciting to try something new.