I'm sensing a pattern...

...in the things God has been teaching me.

First, it was Colossians 3:23: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord."

Okay, great. I've been trying to keep that in mind. I guess I've learned my lesson about complaining about my job, right?

WRONG. God has brought something else to my attention about work, and He used a source I wouldn't have expected, personally. Genesis (and the extensive footnotes in Genesis in my ESV Study Bible).

There I was, reading along in Genesis when BAM! Not even two full chapters in, God commands Adam to work and keep the land (in 2:15). I've read that verse a lot of times. A LOT. I've never really thought much of it. But the footnote for that verse brought to my attention the fact that God gave this command BEFORE the fall.

Yeah, so? What does that have to do with ME?

Well, I'll tell you what it has to do with me (and everyone else on Earth). This means that work is NOT a curse. It is NOT a result of the fall or of sin. Work is something God intended for humans to do from the beginning. Crazy, huh? So many of us really don't like work at all. I know I often would rather just do what I feel like doing, not going to a job where I have to do what someone else wants me to do. It's just not as fun as sitting at home in my pajamas all day, watching Disney Channel and working on the various creative (but not really beneficial to society) projects I'd like to finish this summer. But God WANTS us to be productive members of the world. I never really thought of it that way...and I never realized why it's important that work was around even when sin and evil and all that other bad stuff wasn't.

Today, I told my mom about my discovery. She said "Maybe it's our discontentment with work that's a result of the fall, and not work itself."

It was such a simple, nonchalant statement that I didn't really think much about it at first. But now that I have let the idea bounce around in my head I realize that it's SO true. Before the fall, there was no discontentment with work. There was the garden and the animals, and humans were supposed to look after them...and Adam and Eve were okay with that. But now, we humans so easily grow discontent with our lots in life...AS A RESULT OF OUR SINFUL NATURE! That's why we don't like that God has ordained for humans do DO WORK. Maybe that's why so many people are drawn to the lottery and "get rich quick" schemes. We'd rather have money just given to us rather than having to work for a living. Sorry, guys. That's not what God has planned for all of us.

Anyways, I'm starting to get the feeling that God really wants me to learn to be content with where He's put me and what he's given me--especially in the arena of work and jobs. I say that He really wants me to as opposed to just kind of wanting me to because I feel like I've been neglecting to listen for God's voice lately...and yet He is still showing me things. I'm so blessed to have a Creator that pursues me even when I'm not pursuing Him like I should <3

Lemony Snicket Quote of the Day

It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting.

lol

a funny conversation just happened between my om and brother, and i feel the need to document it. My brother incorrectly used the word ''procrastinate'' and my mom was like ''do you even know what that means?'' He said '' yeah, it means to eat'' We kind of just looked at him confusedly. Turns out he had it wrong because whenever my mom is avoiding doing something she eats a snack as a method of procrastinating and says ''gosh. I'm just procrastinating...'' and so my brother thought procrastinating meant eating. It made me laugh :-D

This is the chorus of the saints singing "Hallelujah! Our God is faithful!"

Aloha!
God has been revealing something to me this week...I am so often not thankful and satisfied in the ways that God provides for me.

Example: my job. Since before school ended and continuing into the summer, I asked God countless times to provide income for me this summer. Now, for some reason I expected a new job. A job I like more than the job I've had for the past 5 years or so. So when the job I was able to work at turned out to be the same old job I've always had, my instinct was to complain. Just ask my family, and they would tell you that I was not a happy camper when my old job started asking me to come back. I felt forced into going back there, because I need the money and in this economy it's hard to find a summer job.

Fast forward to yesterday or so. I was reading my Bible, and came across a verse which I've read a million times before, and it convicted me that my attitude has been all wrong. Seriously, a very common verse...but it hadn't ever really hit me very deep before. That verse was Colossians 3:23 -- Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord. It didn't even hit me right away. In fact, I was kind of like "hey, I know someone who could really benefit from this verse. I'll keep it in mind and tell them later..." How oblivious can I be? Seriously, I need to learn the skill of removing the log from my own eye before I worry about other people's specks. But that's off topic. Anyways, later that day I was at work and, to be honest, I was in a terrible mood and just kept thinking about how I'd rather be anywhere but there. My job is a little monotonous, so I have some thinking time while I'm working. God seriously used that thinking time for me that day, because He interrupted my inner complaining with Colossians 3:23.

It kept replaying itself over and over in my head for like a half hour. So I was like "okay...I'm starting to think this applies more to ME than to my friend who I was going to share the verse with..." and I started realizing that God had something to teach me with Colossians 3:23.

Sure, the job I have right now isn't really what I had in mind for myself and sometimes drives me a little insane. But as far as I recall, God never promised that I would always have an easy time in every situation He places me in. And does working as if I'm working for the Lord include only my outward effort...how hard I work physically? I don't really think so. I think it also has to do with my attitude...my heart. Think about it...if Jesus were physically at my workplace and asked me to do something...would I be like "FINE! But I'm definitely not going to like it and I'm totally going to complain to myself the whole time and become bitter toward this job because I DON'T LIKE WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO!" ? I hope not. Hopefully I would trust that because the Lord was telling me to do it, that it was for the best. Hopefully, in light of that trust, I would work joyfully and "heartily" as some translations of Colossians 3:23 say.

I learned the answer to the question "WHY should I work with all my heart in whatever I'm doing, as if I'm working for the Lord?" Here's why: because God puts me places doing things I might not like because it's what's best for me at the time. So having a bad attitude toward the work I have to do is essentially like having a bad attitude toward where God himself has placed me. And even though Jesus is not physically overseeing my work at my job, He's ultimately my "boss." I have to trust that God has control of things, and that He's answering my prayers and providing for me in the best way possible, even if it's a different approach than I would take. And in light of this trust, I need to work joyfully at whatever I'm doing because God is always faithful to me even when I don't see it. He knows what He's doing, and if He's placing me back at my old job then I have to have faith that there's a reason for it.

Lemony Snicket Quote of the Day:

"Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like."