What Are You Waiting For

People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy. Proverbs 28:13 NLT

Good Morning Girlfriends:

Shopping with three children in a grocery store can be a little hairy at times, trying to keep your mind focused on the list that you hold in front of you so you don't forget anything, because what an ordeal if you had to go back. The youngest child would sit in the front of the cart, one would stand on the back as the third one usually walked beside the cart as we scanned the shelves looking for the best buys, checking items off the list one by one. Mothers sure do need to have eyes in the back of their head and arms like an octopus at times, as little hands are grabbing at things on the shelves, sometimes things get thrown in the cart unaware to mama.

Going through our grocery list, looking at the well rounded cart, we stood in line to pay for our goodies, children were all accounted for. Making our way out the door to the car to unload the bags in the trunk, as I started to lift the littlest one from the seat of the cart, that is when I noticed an item that had been wedged down between the seat of the cart and her little back. Now if you have ever went grocery shopping with several children at a time, you would know what a experience that was, as you exhale knowing that you finally made it out of the store all in one piece. At that moment I had a choice to make, whether to go back in the store or just keep going, we made it out of the store, children were almost in the vehicle, groceries were in the trunk, who would know right? With my conscience saying to me, I knew it wouldn't be right if I drove home and had not paid for it, so we turned around and marched back into the store to pay for the item that had been hidden as it was explained to the cashier. When all was well, smiles were exchanged, there was no heavy hearts and we were on our way once again.

Girlfriends, more than once this has happened to me, as I'm sure you can recall a time or two this may have happened to you as well. Each time something like this happens, it is at that very moment when we seem to stop right in our tracks as we realize that we have something that we did not pay for, it is in that moment we have a choice in what to with it. In most cases no one would have ever known about it, and that is true, there is usually so much going on that it wouldn't be noticed. But Proverbs 15:3 says, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good." Jeremiah 16:17 also says it like this, "For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity sealed from my eyes."

God's word tell us plainly that there isn't anything that escapes Him, because His eyes roam to the ends of the earth and sees everything, found in Job 28:24. Some people may think this is a very minor thing, but in God's eyes it would have been stealing if the item had not been returned and paid for. If I had not taken it back and paid for it, what would that have been teaching my children, that because we had made it out of the store then found it and no one had noticed that it would be okay to keep, No, that would be wrong. We are the example to our children and God tells us to teach them in the way they should go so they will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6) We are to lead by example as parents, God says it in 1 Tim. 4:12, 1 Peter 5:3, Hebrews 13:7, just as Jesus is our example that we follow, that is how we are an example to our children. (1 Cor. 11:1, Philippians 4:9)

Girlfriends, God wants us to know that He loves us each one of us in all of our ways, but if we have anything that we have been hiding or that's been hidden, that we are to confess it to Him so that we will prosper, and then after we have confessed whatever it is, we are to turn from it and not do it anymore, so God will shows us mercy. Over the years of becoming closer to the Lord, I have never wanted to do anything that would be displeasing to Him, it's just as a child sometimes we have one parent or the other that we always wanted to please, it's the same way with our heavenly father.

Let's take some time today and sit with the Lord, talking to Him and allowing Him to do whatever work in us that needs to be done, and if there is anything that we need to confess to Him, let it be said in our quiet time with Him so we can walk freely in His love as we show others the way to walk and talk by His example that He has shown us, Amen?

Let's Pray,

Father God, I thank You Lord for Your grace and Your mercy that You have for us. Lord, You do not hold anything against us or hold onto the wrong things we have done after we have repented and given those things over to You. Lord help each one of us to continue to walk in the ways that You have shown us and taught us in Your word so that we can continue to be an example to those out in the the world who have never met You yet, in Jesus mighty name, Amen.

Be blessed dear ones and pass the blessings on to others so they too will learn and see the love of God.