Winter has finally come to Michigan. Not much in the way of snow here, but cold temps. I don't normally drink coffee, but when I'm cold it tastes good. I really love it in the evenings with some caramel mocohito flavored coffee creamer. I have to be careful tho, to much and I'm up for hours.
Today was a good day for coffee and some reflecting on the past week.
Our ladies at Church have some small prayer group that meet to pray for the Church and each other at various time during the month. We share our lives and prayers and a short devotion. I have been privileged to lead the devotional part the past couple of meetings. This week I found a sweet little devotional book that focuses on the Blessings of God. I thought we might take a blessing at each meeting and focus on it. Many times we don't realize how many things in our lives are blessings.
The book is in alphabetical order so I thought we would start at A.. LOL those of you who know me will not find this odd. In my mind I would never think of starting anywhere but at the beginning and methodically move through each word in order to the end. Thankfully those attending suggested I hop around in the book and they suggested I use the first letter of their names. This time we decided our hostess, Arlene, would get the first choice.. A it was.. I don't mind saying that I was thankful we started at A. I did skip around in the A's and chose one of the A words toward the end. That was quite a bold step for me.
Our word was Acceptance. As we read Ephesians 1:4-6 we see that That God chose us even before He formed the world according to His will and His good pleasure. He made us accepted. Then we read Romans: 15:7 where we honor God when we accept others.
I was quite surprised to learn that I was not the only one who had felt unaccepted. almost all the ladies had felt that way at some point and some still fell like they just don't quite fit in. To realize that God Accepted us before He even created the world was quite an eye opener, But I think the thing that impressed me the most was the idea that by accepting others I honor God Himself.
Sometimes I think we as Christians get this part mixed up. We often forget that accepting someone does not mean we must accept their wrong behaviors, and choices.. It does mean that we should appreciate that each person no matter who they are or what they do, was created and is loved by God. If I truly love Him, I must love who He loves and accept who He accepts. Quite the little word acceptance. I'm thinking that I'll grab another cup of coffee and ponder that a little more.
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