The Invisible Kingdom
I have been going to a mom's club at a nearby church. Right now they are going through a book by Nicole Johnson (Women of Faith Speaker/Dramatist), Keeping a Princess Heart in a Not-So-Fairy-Tale World. This last chapter was called "The Invisible Kingdom." The whole chapter really spoke to me. How many times do we feel invisible. That what we do wasn't seen and appreciated - that may happen to all on many levels. I have felt that is has especially happened after becoming a wife and especially a mother. I would like someone to notice that I just spent an hour working on supper. I would like someone to notice I rearranged or decorated. I would like someone to notice that their clothes finally made it back in their drawers, clean and folded.
Now of course, my chlildren are too little to know better if they do notice. The job then falls on my husband to notice. Isn't it great when he does? Don't I try to notice and say something to my husband when the shoe is on the other foot? Yet it just goes back to me putting my husband where God should be. I know that God notices and he appreciates what I do - what I do isn't for my husband. If that is the way it is, then I will never do it right or what I do won't be noticed or appreciated half as much as it should. What I do should be for the glory of God. The question was asked during the study - how can we do that? My answer is that we have to just keep telling ourselves that truth. What we do is for God - His Glory.
Nicole Johnson writes, "In Lloyd Douglas's book Magnificient Obsession, he reveals the strength of humility in the invisible kingdom. Most people, he points out, broadcast their good deeds and hide their bad deeds. What lives on the inside of a person becomes the total of all the things they are hiding. In a sense, you are a sick as your secrets. A heart then is full of the badness tucked away from the rest of the world - even those closest to it. The greater way to live, he suggests, is to hide your good deeds and openly confess your bad. The strength of a good deed done in secret is increased. When you have done a good thing publicly, you are openly applauded and admired, receiving your credit and any reward right then and there. Then it evaporates. But you should you hold good things inside where others do not applaude, the Scripture implies that God applauds. The negative things are confessed, and they evaporate. The good you do in secret then multiplies in your heart and becomes a building block for your character."
That passage that Nicole Johnson wrote struck me. So today, I am pondering those thoughts in my heart.
Now of course, my chlildren are too little to know better if they do notice. The job then falls on my husband to notice. Isn't it great when he does? Don't I try to notice and say something to my husband when the shoe is on the other foot? Yet it just goes back to me putting my husband where God should be. I know that God notices and he appreciates what I do - what I do isn't for my husband. If that is the way it is, then I will never do it right or what I do won't be noticed or appreciated half as much as it should. What I do should be for the glory of God. The question was asked during the study - how can we do that? My answer is that we have to just keep telling ourselves that truth. What we do is for God - His Glory.
Nicole Johnson writes, "In Lloyd Douglas's book Magnificient Obsession, he reveals the strength of humility in the invisible kingdom. Most people, he points out, broadcast their good deeds and hide their bad deeds. What lives on the inside of a person becomes the total of all the things they are hiding. In a sense, you are a sick as your secrets. A heart then is full of the badness tucked away from the rest of the world - even those closest to it. The greater way to live, he suggests, is to hide your good deeds and openly confess your bad. The strength of a good deed done in secret is increased. When you have done a good thing publicly, you are openly applauded and admired, receiving your credit and any reward right then and there. Then it evaporates. But you should you hold good things inside where others do not applaude, the Scripture implies that God applauds. The negative things are confessed, and they evaporate. The good you do in secret then multiplies in your heart and becomes a building block for your character."
That passage that Nicole Johnson wrote struck me. So today, I am pondering those thoughts in my heart.
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