A few days after my last blog, I found myself battling the exact thing I had blogged about. While I won’t make this my platform for confession, (although I did share with a couple of people what I had done), I will say that even as I was doing it, I knew better. Hopefully I’m not alone when I say that. I think we all find ourselves at times giving in to that temptation- whether it be lying, gluttony, gossip, even the act of just not doing what we are supposed to do, or worse. We, like Paul, struggle with doing what we are supposed to, and not doing what we should.
I tried to justify my sin, and to some, they may even think it was no big deal. But I knew what God had said to me, and I disobeyed anyway.
That was brought back to mind today when I saw this:

Now, I haven’t researched cicadas, and don’t know the process of their shedding... maybe I’ll do some research later! But immediately when I saw it, I was reminded of Scripture.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says “if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.”
Romans 6 tells us we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ!

How often do I find myself hanging on to my old self, just like this cicada. I watched him for a little bit, and he continued to hold on to his old shell.
Over and over again, I find myself doing the same. Are you like me or am I alone? Why is it so difficult to let go of some of our old ways? Or maybe we do let go for a while, only to find ourselves right back where we started. It’s the continual struggle- the battle of the flesh.

I’m also reminded of familiar yet powerful verses that God uses in my life several years ago: “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free....If the Son has set you free then you are free indeed.”

I think therein lies the answer. The Truth! We must be ever leaning on the Truth.
I will confess here a different sin, that I also confessed to Jason yesterday. I was getting ready to leave for the weekend, and asked, “Have you seen my Bible?” I think you know where this is going... obviously I hadn’t read it much this week if I couldn’t seem to find it.  Oh, I had used my Bible app on my phone a couple of times, and read a devotion. But spending valuable time in the Word had not been a priority. Instead, it was lesson plans, housework, long hours at work and other things that I easily let fill my time.
If I’m not walking in the Truth, I’m much more likely to be hanging on to the ways of the old man.
Maybe I’m not alone. Maybe we can all lift each other up as well and “encourage each other all the more as we see the Day approaching.”
I know I sure need it. Do you?

So........It has been FOREVER since I've blogged- I'm actually surprised I remembered how to log in.......Life has certainly been moving along since my last post.
We've since gone through graduation that was expected and a diagnosis that was not, and now another Senior year upon us.
Today's day to day was no different......work until 5:30, home to eat, and an unforeseen burst of energy spurred me into "cleaning like your mother-in-law is coming."
I eventually found myself once again on my hands and knees in the kitchen. I've been there several times, usually with a magic eraser. The reason: 

The linoleum should look white with gray........but these little grooves hold dirt that I've tried to scrub many times. The magic eraser cleans it at a surface level but doesn't quite do the job.

Tonight, I decided to use a brush. Why this never occurred to me before, I don't know. Maybe because I've just done the same thing over and over.........I think there's a word for that. 

Insanity, anyone?

As I was brushing away, I found myself thinking how silly it really was that I had never used a brush. The results were not lost on me.

Maybe the difference isn't staggering to you, but if you had looked at those little black grimy spots as many times as I have, you would be just as excited to see them gone!

I scrubbed and scrubbed for as long as I could, until my sugar dropping called me to stop!

But once again, as I was there on the floor, God was speaking. And I'm so glad He did.

I know He's spoken over the past year and a half, but my blogs sure aren't evident of it, and I began to wonder, "Does my LIFE give evidence that He's still speaking to me?"

I went back to those spots of dirt that had collected in those tiny little crevices. The Lord was asking me to look at my own heart. How many little nooks and crannies were there in my heart that were speckled with sin. Maybe from a distance, they weren't that noticeable to others, unless they were looking for them. But they were noticeable to me.

I knew exactly what was in those places.

And all the while, I have tried to "surface" clean them, when I needed Him to take His brush and scrub them away. 

Romans 8:13 says "If you use your lives to do the wrong things your sinful selves want, you will die spiritually. But if you use the Spirit's help to stop doing the wrong things you do with your body, you will have true life."

If you come inspect my kitchen floor, you will definitely not find it perfect. It's still a work in progress. 

We all are. But once we realize that we need Him and that we must confess and repent, He begins to make us new, in each and every area. 

Then, as 2 Corinthians 7:1 says, "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God."

It feels good to write again, but even better to know that God continues to have a Word for me; and even if I don't get it out to the social media outlets, I pray others will see the that "He's still working on me."