you did well

This week, four girls have been at camp. Which has made me quickly realize I've been believing the "What's one more kiddo?" lie the last two years. We've added and added, and I get frustrated that I can't keep up, that I can't do all the things, that I can't push harder, that I can barely stay on top of the dishes and laundry and house and groceries...and then I have only three for a week, and realize that there IS a big difference between 3 and 7!  

The days apart (and Matt in Mexico) have renewed my calling to do what Timothy urges again and again, "Guard the good deposits entrusted to you." He isn't as interested as I am about folded laundry and meal plans and crumb-free living and doing more and more.  God IS highly invested in how I carry the seven gifts He has given me (and the gifts of His grace and love and mercy and salvation!), and I have spent the week finding some freedoms in refocusing on praying for, raising up and discipling the priceless gifts He has deposited in my life, and giving myself some grace.  One more, one more, one more is s-e-v-e-n, and that IS a lot of feelings, emotions, schedules, clothes, food, and hearts! Guarding them and guiding them well IS allowed to be enough. 

Guarding and guiding well what God has entrusted you with IS to be full-time! The pressure that we should be able to do that priceless and weighty calling of what He has given us, AND also "everything else" the world gives us is not from Him.

The other treasure He has given me this week has been extra time in His Word (have I pushed this five-day reading plan on you enough times yet?) This week I was reading in Timothy and Chronicles, and found in 2nd Chronicles 6 a precious idea I don't recall ever seeing. 

Solomon records "It was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the God of Israel, but the Lord said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, it is not you who shall build it, but your son..." 

I was touched yesterday that while David building a house for the Lord was not God's plan nor what God wanted, it still blessed the Lord that it was in David's heart. David's desire to honor the Lord - even though he wasn't the person God wanted for this work - well, it did.

What a sweet reminder for me another version of "God looks at the heart."  He is not just concerned with sin actions in our lives...He is concerned with our sinful attitudes. Complaining heart postures. Our heavy, invisible worries.  He is not only blessed by our obedience. He is blessed by our willing hearts, by our abiding open hands, by our heart's desire to bless and honor Him. 

That means that even on the days when I can't "stay on top" of things or achieve for Him all that I want to or intend to,  the Lord can still look at my life and say, "you did well that it was in your heart".  It means that all the things I have for myself to do for Him, He isn't always wanting me to do...but just as I am touched by Ben's efforts to love me well (even when a mess is the true result) the Lord sees my heart and finds joy in it when it's full of love for Himself. 

So may we be more concerned today, and always, with what is in our heart...the same thing He is focused on!

Praying for the many who are hurting today and grateful to have you as family.