What a Beautiful Pot You Are!

Good morning to all on this 2nd Sunday of 2012. The weather in Atlanta is very mild (50-60's) which is unusual for this time of year when we usually get a dusting of snow. Waine and I had a blast with Kai and Hailie last weekend and miss them already. Freddie landed a big contract so has made his marketing sales number for 2012 already! Everything else is gravy for him in 2011 so thank you for your prayers for our children. Also not sure that you know that Portia Simpson Miller is now the new Prime Minister of Jamaica. She is the head of the People's National Party (PNP) the party of Norman Manley. They had been the minority party for the past four years and Waine has been laboring with them to put forward a platform that would benefit the majority of Jamaicans, not just the rich and middle class. My husband was able to attend the inauguration and had VIP seating. As you may imagine Waine was very thrilled! Good things do come to those that wait and are patient!

I am continuing my journey in Jeremiah 18 verses 1-12, " This is the Word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the Word of the LORD came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’ But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word!

In my travels as a Health Care administrator, I have come across so many staff members that "continue with their own plan and follow the stubbornness of their own hearts" much to their and the organization's detriment. I could never quite understand why you get some employees that just can't follow direction even when it is for their own good. When you hire them, they put on a good front of wanting to be a team player; eager to support the organization and my position in it and then the 1st day after their probation period instead of Mr. or Ms. Hyde coming to work, Dr. Jekyll show up! Sound familiar. Many of us when we are in trouble and need God are just like the employee I described. We are humble and seek the face of God; when the crisis passes we turn not to God but to our own way of thinking. I think God at time wonders why we think we know best when, He as the Creator of all things, not only knows best, Is the best. He knows every inch of our psyche, our emotions, our thoughts and He knows them even before we do! Yet we will follow the stubbornness of our own hearts and not obey His commandments; which are to love Him with all of our heart and mind and then to love one another as God loves us. When we asked for repentance and asked God, through Christ, to be Lord of our lives, God shaped the "marred" person we were and formed a new vessel. If you are wondering why things seemed out of sync, it may be because you are trying to be a vessel that no longer exists. That old vessel is gone and now you have a NEW FORM that can only take in new sustenance from the Word of God. You may try to do the old things of the old vessel but they will be very uncomfortable for you. You can remain and be both stubborn and uncomfortable but you only hurt and deprive yourself of the new life that God made for you. Christ taught us this with the parable of the Wineskins.

Resolve in 2012 to leave your stubborness behind and embrace the new YOU. Look at God and your relationship with Him with fresh eyes and be blessed. Now, may the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD make His face to shine on you and be gracious to you; may the LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Stephanie