My prince is home today!  Yipee!

My big boy is at Mom’s Day Out and my little boy is napping.  Later today I teach a class and then we’re taking a family swim.  (Our gym’s indoor pool has family hours on the weekends.  And all 3 of my guys enjoy the water.)  What a fun Friday!

I was all fired up to write this post as the second installment of simplicity.  Then I started thinking about sharing some details of our time overseas and I got all protective.  There are just some lessons that don’t need to be broadcast to the whole world.  And most of the ones He taught me there qualify as between-me-and-Him.

But it was interesting to see our American selves through the eyes of others.  We by far bought more groceries and put out more trash than several of our neighbors combined.  The consumer mentality we took for granted was seen for what it was.

Different people questioned why we needed a 2-bedroom apartment just for us.  Even when Caden was born, most of our friends saw no reason for such a big living space.  Which makes sense because our neighbors had raised both their daughters in a 2-bedroom apartment their whole life.

It’s just things like that which made us question what we’d never questioned before.  Our “rights.”  Expectations of a comfortable life.  The American dream.

But more importantly, we were being weaned from the “bigness” of our spirituality.  How much did we need other people around in order to commune with God?  If we didn’t have a typical Sunday morning worship service, were we okay with an iPod and our 5 friends?  Could we find Jesus in language study, pride-crushing cultural mistakes, and limited friendships?

We were being centered down on the core of our faith.  And I loved it.  It all felt so authentic.  I began to look forward to the next difficult personal lesson He wanted to teach me.  I came to delight in seeing character issues so they could be dealt with in His power.  And I adored having like-minded people surrounding us.  No.  It wasn’t perfect.  But it was wonderful.  I really felt like I was aware of what a gift it was even at the time, and attempted to soak it all in.

The hardest part?  I couldn’t earn any of it.  As a recovering legalist, in my flesh driven to somehow earn grace and perform for love, I had to accept the fact that I couldn’t.  I had to rest in the fact that it was a gift that couldn’t be earned.  Oh, I tried.  I’m always trying.  But He isn’t impressed with all that.  And He insists on out-giving my desire to be some sort of martyr.

He’s still doing that, you know.  As much as I want to make up for mistakes or out-serve my sin, He won’t let me.  Then, once again, it would be about me.  I just need to rest.  In His love, his provision for my needs, and the way He wants to bless me.

I just love Him so much.  I want Him to know how grateful I am for everything He has done and is doing in my life.  The way I do that?  Daily faithfulness.  Our church is so good about putting wisdom back in our face week after week.  I want to take that wisdom and join Him in how He’s at work in my life and others’ lives all around us.