W.O.R.K.E.R.

I'm not really a fan of acrostics as a general rule. Most of the time it leaves me wondering if the speaker spent more time in a thesaurus than he or she did researching the topic at hand. If I'm really honest, my secret idiosyncrasy is to see if I can read ahead and fill in all the blanks before the speaker actually names them, which is understandably a little distracting for me (and quite OCD).

This past Sunday, however, God used the pastor's description of the Willing, Opportunistic, Respectful, Kind, Energetic, Refuge-taking spirit of Ruth in the book of Ruth, Chapter 2, to totally expose the position of my heart toward working. Not necessarily my work, but my husband's work. Put this way: I am a very, very selfish person when it comes to my husband's time. And as I listened to what kind of a "working" spirit honors God, I was convicted that there have been many times when I have stifled this God-honoring spirit in my husband toward his work. There have been many times when his willingness to go the second mile at work has been rewarded only with my frustration and tears that he neglected important duties at home.

I know there is a balance, but the problem up to this point is that I have been the one in control of deciding what the tipping point is. On Sunday, I felt that familiar tug of God saying, "Ok, J, are you ready to allow Me to have control in this area? Are you ready to trust that I know what is best for everybody, and can lead your husband to make the best decision as well, without you pressuring him one way or the other?" To which I replied, "But God, you just don't realize how complicated it is!!" To which he replied, of course, "LOL."

I've got a lot of baggage in this area, so it's not coming easily. I wish I could say that I just handed it all over to God and walked away from it that day, but He knew it would be a tougher journey than that for me. Test #1 came today when my husband asked how I felt about him working on Saturday. Test #2 came tonight when he walked through the door a full 2 1/2 hours later than he projected.

As I sit here tonight and reflect on these lessons, I am reminded of the chorus of a song that I used to sing pretty frequently with our little worship band during college. It's a great reminder to me of the very simple thing God is asking of me during this time: to wait on Him, on His grace, on His hand of blessing, on His love that ever so gently continues to turn my heart toward Him.

"Yes, Lord, walking in the way of Your laws, we wait for You; Your Name and Renown are the desire of our hearts." ~Isaiah 26:8