One can’t miss the intricate handiwork of spiders, especially in the fall. I recently found myself mesmerized by them on my morning walk. I looked up high in the changing trees and tried to follow the lines and curves. I couldn’t imagine how such a small creature could pull off such a great task. The picture at the top of this post shows one that must have been at least one and a half feet in diameter. The spider’s work is beyond me!

This may seem unrelated, but I promise it will come together! I recently watched a hilarious, sweet video of a toddler baking with his grandmother. He kept grabbing the ingredients and putting them in his mouth. It brought fun memories back of baking with my own children! In order to understand this post, you just have to watch the minute-long hilarity, so here it is:

Isn’t that precious?!

What is even more precious are some things I think the Lord worked in my heart after watching it. Just after watching that video, I had my morning quiet time. I was reading a book called Keeping the Heart, by John Flavel. I was on the chapter about keeping the heart when tempted to yield to sin. It drew me to meditate on Psalm 131.

“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” -Psalm 131

That was a morning I found myself wallowing in a week of thinking I knew more about a person and situation than I really did. I was listening to my own thoughts, instead of truth and I was in a dark place. The Lord brought to mind the video as I read Psalm 131. There was a very clear call to stop occupying myself with things too high and beyond what I can truly know in my circumstances. I was trying to grab the butter and sugar like the little boy in the video. I was looking past the Lord just as the little boy ignored grandma’s presence and encouragement.

So here is the question for myself (and for you if you choose to ask it) this week:

Am I occupying myself too much with things too great; things I can’t really change or things I just can’t truly know for sure?

Like the woman in the video, the Lord patiently stands by and beckons to us to leave certain things alone; to drop them! Some things aren’t healthy and it will ruin the recipe of abundant life with Him. He calls us, instead, to lift our eyes up only to Him and to occupy ourselves with the things of Him. Are you, like me, still learning that there are just some things that are too great for you to try to figure out? Are you, too, learning to calm and quiet your soul like a weaned child with it’s mother?

O Friend, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. He is even more patient than this woman in the video! He is calling you to drop what is too much for you. He assists us and enables us to return to gospel sanity. We cannot know what’s really going on in people’s hearts and we can’t fully figure out the world around us. We must set our eyes on Jesus.

Let us say, like a weaned child, “no” to these things that do not contribute to the abundant life; things that do not add to the light of life and lead us toward the darkened corners of our minds and hearts.

I will leave you this week with a portion of a Psalm that comes just before Psalm 131.

“Wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.” -Psalm 130:5-6

And an older but lovely worship song I was reminded of this week. It reminds me that there is no greater thing to wrap my mind around than knowing Jesus.

Blessings to you today and, if at all possible, go bake with a little child in order to grasp these truths even more!

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