I am a horrible blogger...

Well, so obviously I'm a life fail at blogging consistently, but the summer's been busy and exhausting and goodness gracious I'm almost glad that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Okay, so faith wise...this has been an awesome two months. I'm learning that sometimes God has to hit me upside the head to get my attention, and also that regular time in the Word is a great way to discover God's will. Our pastor just started a series called "Still Standing: The Wisdom of Proverbs" and the church as a whole is going through the book of Proverbs along with the sermons. I really like this, because Proverbs is very practical, and emphasizes that all wisdom comes from God and that he is the infinite source of knowledge. Okay, so totally obvious, but definitely something to remember.

v. 4:23 "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines your path in life." This is a verse that basically every teenage girl has heard as her parents have warned her about some boy that's come along and made her go weak at the knees. But I think that this wisdom applies beyond simply the lines of romantic love. We often give our hearts and energies to lots of things without realizing them, and then those are allowed to determine the decisions we make and the paths we take (a rhyme...look at my skills...not). If the thing you can't live without makes your decisions for you (be it money, marriage, or people's views of you), then that is what holds your heart, not God. *if a significant other asked you to move across the country for them, or someone offered you a great job with a super salary in South America, most of us would take the opportunity. However, if God calls us to serve Him, even on a short-term mission trip, we are often anxious to find an excuse that will get us out of it.* I'm completely guilty of this, and so it's a constant struggle for me to make sure that when I make a decision, I make it because it's what I feel is right in God's eyes, or that my motivation is to serve and glorify Him.

Two really important points that I've gathered (at least in my opinion) from my daily reading though come from Chapter 6 and 8.

-Chapter 6: There are seven things God detests - haughty eyes, a lying tongue, killing of the innocent, plotting evil, wrongdoing, giving false witness, and the person who sows discord in a family.

-Chapter 8: Four things God also hates - pride, arrogance, corruption and perverse speech. I also theorized about the reasons that He so detests these, and this is what I came up with.

• Pride is detested because we have nothing to be prideful about. We do not own anything, even what goes on inside our heads, because we are beings created by God. So the sense of entitlement that leads to pride is like trying to usurp His authority and claim the rewards of something that was never ours.
• Arrogance is along those same lines, and goes with some of the other stuff that's being said in Proverbs here. When we are arrogant, we are not humble servants, and we think that we have wisdom and knowledge. It's said here though that all wisdom and knowledge come from God.
• Corruption is despised because it means that we are giving our heart to something besides the way of God. If we are corrupt, then we are attributing such value to that which we seek to achieve that we forsake our morals and our love for God and concern for others.
• Perverse speech is one that I sometimes do not understand, but what I came to is that it is hated because it is rarely said out of love and is often involved in causing hurt to another. Even if the pain is unintentional, there is the risk, and that should be enough to encourage us to refrain from perverse speech.

Also, the sermon this Sunday was about following the path of God's will, and using the wisdom He gives us to ACT instead of waiting for Him to speak to us. As JD said, He has already spoken to us, that's why we read His Word...good point I thought.

Don't let your heart be timid, or idolatrous, lazy or passive. Live for Him, finding joy and love in your walk with the One who loves you truly and deeply.