Lessons From Elizabeth
I'm reading a book right now about the life of Elizabeth Prentiss. She is the author of Stepping Heavenward and the well-known hymn "More Love to Thee." I have learned so much the last few days from reading this book, it's full of lessons and struggles she faced only through the grace and strength of God. I will have to tell you more about it later, but I wanted to quote something that I just read that fits into my last post about being annoyed at my time being interrupted. This is from her book Stepping Heavenward. Conviction is what I'm feeling right now."I have made prayer too much of a luxury, and have often inwardly chafed and fretted when the care of my children at times made it utterly impossible to leave them for private devotion-when they have been sick, for instance, or in other similar emergencies. I reasoned this way: 'Here is a special demand on my patience, and I am naturally impatient. I must have time to go away and entreat the Lord to equip me for this conflict.' But I see now that the simple act of cheerful acceptance of the duty imposed and the solace and support withdrawn would have united me more fully to Christ than the highest enjoyment of His presence in prayer could."
I see several things here that I need to work on.1. I am impatient. I'm not just now figuring this out, but I get annoyed way too easily.2. When I'm trying to spend time alone with the Lord and I am interrupted, I get extremely annoyed and ask the Lord if He even cares that I can't even sit down to read my Bible or pray for 5 minutes without a little voice calling for me. Yes, of course He knows that. And I don't need to be so hard on myself. I expect perfection out of me and that is silly.3. I need to "cheerfully accept the duty imposed" upon me and quit grumbling as I walk up the stairs, or wait for another load of laundry to wash (our washer takes 155 minutes to wash on load, but hey at least we have one!) or change another nappy (diaper) or sheets in the middle of the night.
I see several things here that I need to work on.1. I am impatient. I'm not just now figuring this out, but I get annoyed way too easily.2. When I'm trying to spend time alone with the Lord and I am interrupted, I get extremely annoyed and ask the Lord if He even cares that I can't even sit down to read my Bible or pray for 5 minutes without a little voice calling for me. Yes, of course He knows that. And I don't need to be so hard on myself. I expect perfection out of me and that is silly.3. I need to "cheerfully accept the duty imposed" upon me and quit grumbling as I walk up the stairs, or wait for another load of laundry to wash (our washer takes 155 minutes to wash on load, but hey at least we have one!) or change another nappy (diaper) or sheets in the middle of the night.