We all have good habits and we all have bad habits. Some of these habits are healthy for our lives and will help us to live a full life. I want to use my CLS for example short for Community Living Support Services. In this program we are trying to build a more independent me and trying to to build good habits that will help me later in life that will help me to take better care of myself and to be able to possibly live on my own one day. I know I have talked about this a couple times but this will be interpreted in a different message. I want to share this with you what happened to me this morning
This morning for example... I woke up at around 9:30 which is good for me because I am trying to wake up earlier and practice waking up earlier so that I can do this program called "Ready For Life". Ready for life is a program that is held at Calvin College and Hope College. It is a program for people with any types of disabilities to help them to be able to have the full college experience because some of us may not be able to get into college, therefore, this program will give us that experience. We will learn independent living skills and skills to help us take better care for our self. You can check out more about them here... http://www.rflnetwork.org/
Here is a story I would like to share with you. This morning do you know when you sometimes wake up with a certain song in your head? Maybe it's a song you haven't listened to in quite a while? Well this song that I woke up too I hadn't listened to it in quite a while and it's called "Burn away" by Meredith Andrews I will share some of the lyrics below...
"Only You, only You All I need, let nothing stand In between, make me Yours Consuming fire
Burn away Everything that breaks Your heart Everything that is not love Purify my every thought Take away Everything that comes between us Everything that is untrue Jesus make me more like You Burn away"
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When it talks about burning away in other words taking away everything that isn't of God and purifying our every thought. That's the part I want to focus on. Then when I read the devotional from a women's daily devotional the topic today was called "Pruning: Part of God's plan" and the verse it shared with it was
"He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful" John 15:2. The devotional was talking about how like God has to prune us and grow us into who He wants us to be. As well as taking things away in our lives that are not helping us in our walk with God... Here are a few of the things she shared that I thought was interesting that I would like to share with you...
"But first, He has to cut away the dead wood. God has to strip away anything and anyone who wants to keep us "this church" and you from becoming all He wants it to be. Pruning is painful, but it is apart of God's plan'
and...
"The dictionary defines pruning as the process of "cutting off or removing dead or living parts to improve shape and growth to; to remove the superflous in order to make room for new growth. Sounds painful, doesn't it? But the pain is worth the beauty of a life fully surrendered to Him"
With all that said. I feel like throughout this year and the last couple months as I am working on things with my CLS worker and working on all this living independent skills that are helping me to actually be able to do this Ready For Life program and as I am trying to wake up earlier and have more time during my day for opportunities like for a job and such it will help me prune and grow into who God wants me to be. This also makes me think how I am trying to fit in more time to read the Bible, pray, spending time with God that will help me and my faith to grow for God to teach me the way in which I am supposed to go. I thought it was really interesting how I woke up with that song in my head and that devotional that I read talked about the same thing. I feel like that is God's message to me and all you guys. To remember that God is pruning us and helping us grow. Everything that God disciplines us on may be hard at times but is out of love
"For the LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child." Hebrews 12:6