Which is why when I read in James that "every good and perfect gift is from above," I how important that gift from God is and how desperately He wants me to have it. In reading James 1:13-15 and 17-18 we see that he warns us not to be deceived and then repeats the concept of birth. My one sentence synopsis of these six verses was this:
God chooses to give us life because He wants only the best for us but we choose fleshly desires that take our lives away.
Jill: I like your sentence Emily. Mine was: God NEVER tempts us, rather what ever is perfect is from God.
Then I sat and thought about how I don't always recognize the gifts that I've been given. In fact, quite often I've been guilty of being annoyed or irritated by something that was meant for a gift (children or spouses anyone? No? Just me? (Jill Ditto BIG TIME) Carry on....) and yet God isn't like me, who sometimes gives the bummer gift because I'm not good at gift giving. God is PERFECT and every single thing he gives me is PERFECT.
After thinking these thoughts I was excited to do the exercise where we divided our lives into four segments and actually wrote down the things that we have been given. I loved seeing all of the blessings in my life take shape in one long and growing column. It was interesting because my life hasn't always been perfect, but none of the things that were painful even crossed my mind and actually some of my gifts came out of the hurt. And THEN I was excited because I loved how it all looped back to a few days ago when we were talking about blessings coming from the trials!
God has given me so many gifts and as I sit and think about my most current precious packages, they are as follows:
A relationship with my mom
My husband who leads our family well
Two sweet babies
Our perfect for us home
The open space behind my house
The new car that gets Kyle to work safely
Being able to plan a vacation for my family
Dear sweet friends who love me no matter what (or at least I always think they do!)
Our kitty whose crazy behavior is exactly what I want in a cat
Honestly, I just look at my life and am overcome by how many gifts God has bestowed upon me because this is just a tiny little list. Jill: Emily I love how you mentioned that you used a past hurt to show a current gift. I sort of had the same thing happen. I put that during my times of struggles I was taking steps to the path to find Him and love and happiness. the other things I put where:
A GIANT (lots of aunts and uncles and cousins) family who loves and loves to show love
My Catholic Education
my braces, my glasses (which I didnt think were a gift at the time but am so happy to have straight teeth and able to see)
Met the love of my life,
Traveled and explored with him
my bible studies with you girls.
At the end of this lesson Beth admonishes us to wait on the Lord. My goal for the foreseeable future is to try not to pick at the gifts I want God to give me, but to be patient and let Him bless me when, how and if He wants to. I think of it like my kids bugging me to open a birthday or Christmas gift early. It makes me want to take the gift back to the store and give them nothing! Gifts are best when they are opened on time.
Jill: Emily I love how you use the example of wanting to open Christmas Presents early. I will have to remember that one. As I have been praying for God to gift Jon and I a special present.
Emily: Isn't it funny when you start looking for the blessings the bad stuff seems to get lost in all the good? It's so dang hard to see the good when it feels like you are slogging through the bad, but God's timing is always perfect and I love being able to look back and see where he held me or blessed me or gave me something I didn't even know I needed. His timing is always perfect. Always. And He gives good and perfect gifts, every time. :)
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