May. 30, 2007 - ~* Well....I did it!....And it wasn't just my template that was changed... *~
It was soooo hard to do, but the time had come. I uploaded a new template, which of course, meant losing all my personalizations from the last template. I had finally gotten my template to where I loved it....there was just one problem, more and more visitors complained they couldn't read all of my posts. Something I'd added seemed to have overridden my actual posting space.
It's funny, but the Lord really spoke to me this morning through this little template change-up. Let me give you a bit of background: I like security...I'm not fond of change, unless my mind, emotions, heart have all had time to think it through, absorb it, and accept it.
The last four years of our lives have been total upheaval and change, and very little of those changes or that upheaval was in my control. How I've battled and struggled. How I've cried. But then, the tears became tears of anger. I began to withdraw from the Lord because He hadn't protected us from the hurt and disappointment, when all we've ever wanted all of our lives, was to please Him and serve Him (I don't like how that sounds, but it is how I felt). I wondered how he could allow us to go through such a yo-yo experience day in and day out.
Then, slowly, through friends (some IRL, some ol friends that I may never meet in person until Heaven), I felt myself being lifted to the throne of grace, even when I couldn't quite bring myself there. I began to hear the music again and it began to minister healing to me.
No, I haven't fully recovered, it's been a slow journey...one that I'm still traveling. but today I began to understand, that maybe I'm not supposed to "fully recover".
Maybe, just like my old template, just maybe we were adding too many items, even if unknowingly, into our lives. Items that were actually, somehow interfering with the message that our lives were created to share. Maybe He needed to break the old template and give us a fresh uncluttered one.
And just like I'll add my little flourishes here and there, while trying to avoid interfering with my actual posts, just maybe He's going to do that to us. Maybe once His message starts shining through again, He'll begin to add in little flourishes bit by bit....as long as they don't interfere with the postings He wants written on our hearts.
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Comments
May. 30, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
What a beautiful analogy. It'll take me a little while to get used to your new "look" - though it was well worth the opportunity to hear His voice in your life.
http://steph-roomofmyown.blogspot.com/
May. 30, 2007 - new template
Posted by annie
Well Sheryl, you know how much I loved visiting your old page. It was cute and friendly, but it's you I come to visit ... not your template. This one is bright and cheerful and I like your analogy. It is hard to find God in a cluttered life.
I'm glad you are finding your way back to God, and I thank you for all the love you have shined my way!
May. 30, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by ClagettsFLStyle
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.Ecclesiastes 2:11
I remember reading this as a new Christian and thinking.. wow, that's harsh. But now I understand it a little better. It reminds me that no matter what 'I' do, nothing is important until Christ touches it or orders it.
This year has been interesting to me. I'm witnessing A LOT of pain. A dear friend loosing a child, much sickness (including my own) and much more.
I feel and felt like you. Kind of weary. Pulled away. It's like something ways you down so much you can't see God through it all. I call that my 'dessert' times. My dry seasons. But God is ALWAYS so faithful, and I eventually get to the place where HE quenches my thirst. Sometimes I'm REALLY parched and sometimes I just thirsty. But it's always the LIVING Water. PTL.
Glad to see your getting 'quenched' again. The new template is bright and cheery. I like it.
I've learned to copy my old templates and save them on a word document. Don't know if that will help you in the future..
Wishing you a Beautiful day sitting at His Feet.
May. 30, 2007 - *sniff*
Posted by cellomom
I can read it! What a beautiful reminder to keep from overloading our lives. Thanks for sharing.
Hugs,
cellomom
May. 30, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by hugs4Him
I'm so glad you changed it - I couldn't read the other one either, even though it was very nice. I appreciate what you are saying too...blessings, Michele
