By Default

{We are gonna take a break from Moms Like Us for a couple of weeks ..with so much going on with everyone during the holidays I would like to just offer some simple thoughts over the next couple of weeks instead...but no worries, we will come back to it!}

I have realized something over the past couple of months. Its not my own idea but rather a concept that several around me have used lately. Its a concept that has got me thinking about me and how the me-ness of me adds to my stress and my use/misuse of the godly resources I have.

Its this concept of "default settings"  ...who you are, when you arent trying to be anyone else. Its what you are doing mentally, spiritually or emotionally when you arent paying attention. It is what comes naturally to you, without thinking or feeling otherwise. Its your default mode. 

How well I relate to that!

There are default settings on our phones/computers/gps/cameras/coffeemakers, our tv's, our laptops..everything electronic that we own.  We can customize the stuff by making some changes,  we can add apps, tweek here and there to make the equipment fit us better ...but the default settings are always accessible by finding that little red button somewhere that wipes the slate clean and returns everything to the way it was fresh out of the box.  

I feel that way sometimes ...like I am working on being a better person, like I tweek and attend to and try to change but it will take one day when my guard is down and my default button is hit and all things are returned to my base line instincts!  Darn default button.

I think that without realizing it, Paul was talking about these settings when he said, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do and what I hate I do." Romans 7:15 

Who cant relate to that?

 

We are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him ..I think that another way to think about that is to say ..."ignore your default settings, sacrifice them and decide to replace them with God's customized settings instead."  

This week, I would like to explore this idea a little more, especially how it relates to stress and how those settings cause us to misuse our resources and lead to a loss of peace overall.  I hope you will join me in looking at those things about ourselves that perhaps God wants us to sacrifice for the benefit of his glory!

Welcome ifellowshippers ..so glad you are here!