Making a Difference

I started off this week pumped and ready to tackle the last week of school. I now feel like the last week of school may have tackled me. This has been a LONG week period, but Friday has finally arrived. The end of the week and the end of the school year have both finally come. Time has flown. Some weeks truly felt like they took forever, but looking back now they went faster than I realized. So many times when we feel our way through the week we may feel like it is taking longer than it should. It's not really. Time goes by quicker than we think. When it's gone, it's gone. Today is a gift from God to you. Did you open it and enjoy the present? or Are you complaining because it's not wrapped the way you thought it should be(or better yet the way you envisioned it to be)?

Honesty check for a minute: We are all tasked with making a difference each and every day. Our choice is whether that difference is going to be a positive one or a negative one. The difference will be made, but you decide the effect you will have on it. God has been dealing with me over the last couple of weeks(this week particularly) about this whole concept. I can start the day without the intentions of letting Eeyore show up, but by the end of the day Eeyore is there and Tigger is no where to be found. Let's face it, this dying to flesh truth is HARD. If you find someone that says it is easy, send them my way. Some days I can push through anything and some days I can't push myself forward.  The hardest thing is to pour yourself into a day and at the end of it not know whether all of that pouring made a difference. I've learned over the years doing what I do that sometimes you have to keep pouring even though you can't see that the glass is getting full. We feel like giving up because we have poured all we can into the container, but if we can step back and see the container through God's eyes we would see there is still more pouring to be done. The flesh wants to hear thank you and to feel appreciated. Sometimes you have to just trust Him that you are making a difference in what you do otherwise He would move you. The hardest thing is to bloom where you are planted and then step back to see the bloom. We concentrate so much on taking care of what needs to be done that we lose sight that the flower is starting to grow. In time it will bloom...don't be so busy that you miss it.

Where is all this coming from? Well that long week has really had me thinking. (Not sure when in the middle of the paperwork I found the time, but anyway). God asked me a question tonight and it left me speechless. My heart knew what answer I needed to say, but my head said what I was feeling. Are you doing what you do so I'll notice He asked or so they'll notice? If we truly live our lives for an audience of One and do what we do because He cares, the rest will fade away. It won't matter when we don't hear a thank you. It won't matter that the list keeps growing. It won't matter when someone else gets to put the lid on the container that you have poured yourself in to. It won't matter because we will be focused on Who does matter. I'm not there yet. I'm making progress, but some weeks the steps are smaller than others. My flesh still wants to hear a thank you and to know that my efforts have made a difference, but that doesn't always come.  It's in those moments we have to let Him whisper that He noticed. We have to stay focused on the One who can not only move mountains, but He can open doors we never dreamed. He knows how we feel. He knows what it is like to move a mountain and make a difference for someone without ever hearing a thank you. Remember when He healed the ten lepers, only one came back to thank Him.

Do what you do sweet reader not because anyone else is noticing but because He is. You make the biggest difference just by being who He has called you to be. When you sow love, the harvest you will reap is endless. The more the enemy tells you that you aren't making a difference, the more you need to smile and know that you are. After all, why we he be trying to make you doubt yourself?

You make a difference each and every day!
Focused on the journey,
~Melissa