Facing and Fessing
pamela spurling
Good morning, Dearest Sisters~
I’ve been thinking of you and am praying that God is
blessing you in your home today. These have been busy
days and I’m sorry to have missed writing a letter to
you last week. I’m sure I’m not alone in the busyness
of life or that there’s been more day than the day can
hold sometimes. So I’m wondering how to do more in less
time or how to make sure that each day I do what counts
the most. And, I’ve had to face up and fess up to the
fact that some days it’s not so much that there’s so
much to do but that I’ve been focusing on the wrong
things — allowing the unnecessary to override the
necessary and allowing the frivolous to obscure the
imperatives.
So, what are the imperatives? What things must I focus
on each day or to what must I strive to attend to and
what things have I been sacrificing in the squandering
of the days? These are hard questions –or maybe the
questions aren’t hard, but the conviction is hard to
face and fess up to. Maybe you have things you need to
face and fess up. This “fessing-up” is quite a freeing
exercise. In fact, it’s so freeing, it’s a wonder we
don’t delight in doing it more often. But, while it’s
freeing, it’s also sometimes painful –painful because we
will likely have discomfort as we make changes, painful
because we’ll likely be embarrassed over our behaviour,
and painful because of what’s lost and can never be
retrieved. O, this doesn’t negate the marvelous work
and redemption the LORD can bring to a situation or even
a life, but in reality, time squandered is still time
lost.
When we discover there’s a problem in our home and we
want to get to the bottom of it, we might ask one or
more of the children: what did you do? We might ask:
who did this? Invariably, no one wants to fess up to
the wrongdoing. None of us want to admit that we’ve
either done or been wrong. But the incredible thing is
that when we do fess up, there is a freedom –a sweet
peace washes over us and we’re clean before the LORD.
Our children experience this same freedom when they
“fess-up” to the transgression—even if they face a
discipline for it. Whether or not there is restitution
made or a consequence to be paid, the freedom is sweet
and the restored confidence is precious when they face
and fess up to a transgression. It’s that way for us,
too, before the LORD.
I’ve had to “fess-up” to squandering time, to wasting
the gifts and talents the LORD has given me, to giving
my attention to those things that are only temporal and
have no eternal value or worth. I had to ask myself
again: What would I think if I walked in (as a stranger
who heard that the mother in this home was an aspiring
Titus 2 woman) and browsed through this home
unattended?” Or, “Would my husband’s customers be
satisfied with his work were he to work in the same
manner that I do in our home?”
I keep these questions sort of on the back burner to
keep myself in check.
Probably the most difficult areas for me regard
necessary sleep and computer time. These along with
food preparation are areas that can’t be avoided or
ignored. Since they’re needful or are beneficial, they
can also be neglected or “abused.” In the examples
I’ve given, discipline is required and I fall into that
abyss of often doing what I want rather than what I
ought to do. To rise early requires an earlier retiring
at night – to be refreshed requires adequate sleep. My
flesh fights against that. In addition, losing weight
requires no snacking. My flesh fights against that.
Limiting computer time means less browsing, less
reading, less “justa minute’s” and less entertainment.
My flesh fights against that. Instead of yielding to
the truth of what I know is right, I find ways to
justify what I want
to do rather than what I
ought to
do. So I have to set and live within boundaries… the
boundaries that come from times of facing and ‘fessing
up. These are disciplines and though we may not want
disciplines in our lives, it is through discipline that
we put aside the things of the flesh and yield to the
things of the Spirit.
These thoughts come from spending a bit of time in
Romans 6 and 7. I would encourage the reading of these
chapters and then ask the LORD to reveal to you areas
that you, too, might face and fess up to. Maybe you
have some areas of your life that need facing and
‘fessing up. I pray that as you do, you will see that
the LORD is already there and you have all you need.
He is our all in all.
If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1John 1.9
God bless you in your home this week.
A Christian Home ~ The Welcome Home ~ ©
2007 — Letters to my Sisters
http://www.AChristianHome.org
