As you can see, I have redesigned my blog. My youngest son, Brody, helped me with it, but I'm not sure whether it will stay this way or if I'll mess with it even more. :) We'll see. The good news is that with just a few clicks of a button, I can have a completely - and I mean completely - different looking blog. Rather cool.
Don't you wish it was as easy to put on all those virtues it talks about in the New Testament? I wish I could do some clicking with the mouse and put off the old woman and put on the new.
Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
I am reading The Fitting Room by Kelly Minter. If you have never done a Bible study or read one one of her books, I highly recommend her! She is just very real, yet has so many good things to say.
It should be fairly obvious if you have been a believer for any length of time that putting on the various virtues of love and kindness and patience and gentleness is not a matter of will power alone. I know I've thought, "Today will be different - I will be kind" - or loving or patient or fill in the blank. Then I run into real people.
However, it isn't just God working in and through me either. It takes some effort on our part. How that melds together, I'm not sure.
I loved Minter's analogy of Michelangelo and how he would sculpt things. He'd get a big block of marble and he'd "see" the angel or David or whatever he was going to sculpt in the marble. He would chip away the marble to reveal the sculpture that was there.
She gave another analogy that maybe makes a better mental picture if you aren't artsy at all. In Brazil, there is a point where two rivers come together. one is the color of coca-cola and the other is the color of milky coffee. When they meet, they go for about six miles flowing next to each other but not mixed together.
When we believe, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us. It isn't until we start to grow that we "mix" together so that we no longer resemble a totally separate identity. Instead, we start to take on Christ's identity.
Anyway, as I revamp my blog a bit, I find it interesting that I'm reading The Fitting Room. Hopefully, both makeovers will be successful.
~ Blessings, Bronte
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