I'm always amazed at the varied tactics God uses to teach and grow me. He used so many of those tactics this weekend and it took left over pumpkin cake to drive God's point home.
God began his subtle nudging on Friday night when I had a little emotional break down. I was feeling very common, insignificant, and ordinary. For over a year, I have been a full time housewife. Such a change for a girl who had worked full time in a career-building field since graduating from college. So the weeks are full of washing dishes, doing laundry, vacuuming and mopping floors, cooking meals, and cleaning our house. Troy is great about telling me how much he appreciates my efforts, but there are no accolades from others about the unique ability I have to complete my job. How much special training is needed to scrub a toilet?
Saturday, I was busy preparing the house and dinner for special guests. Troy invited his friend from work and his wife for a little dinner party. In this preparation, I ordered a pumpkin spice bundt cake from a local bakery. The cake was beautiful, with cream cheese icing curled in thick ribbons around the whole cake. As I brought it on it's cake stand into the dining room for dessert, the guests commented on how special they felt because I had ordered such a beautiful and flavorful cake for them. God has a way of highlighting certain comments or moments in a day that he wants me to refer back to again when the lesson is complete. Our guests's comments of feeling special was highlighted for me in bright pink.
On Sunday, God was in full-force, all-out teaching mode. The sermon was based on Romans 11:36 which says, "For from him, through him and to him are all things, to him be the glory forever! Amen." God showed me that he has allowed me to borrow everything that I have so that I can use these treasures for his glory. Everything I have is God's...everything. My body, my abilities, my material possessions, my relationships...everything. All for his glory. The Sunday school lesson was based on Daniel 5:3-4 which says, "So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone." God continued to teach by showing me how wrong it was to use these goblets for a common use. I was beginning to grasp the lesson, but hadn't quite understood how it applied to me.
This morning, as I was making Troy's lunch, I opened the fridge to find the left over pumpkin cake. I had already decided to send it to work with Troy so that I wouldn't eat it. I was afraid it would go to waste if I sent the whole section so I cut it into four pieces and put each in a plastic bag to keep it nice and moist. I included one piece in his lunch for today. I placed the remaining bags of pumpkin deliciousness on the shelf in the fridge as I told myself these were set aside for Troy's lunches this week. Set aside...holy. Ding, Ding, Ding! God's provision in my life is to be set aside as holy. He has allowed me to have what I have for a purpose...to give him glory. I am not common. I am God's special order. My tasks throughout the day are only mundane and ordinary if they are not used for God's glory.
My task list today includes cleaning, washing dishes, and doing laundry. But I'm looking at this list with new eyes. My ability to clean these possessions God has lent me also comes from him for his glory. So, yes there is a special training involved in order to scrub a toilet...for God's glory.
