The Daily Walk

How do you know if you're on the right path in life?  How do you know it's God speaking to you?

I believe God speaks to us in many ways: dreams, the Word of God, through other people, through nature and through circumstances to name just a few ways.  Sometimes it's obvious. Loud. And sometimes it is in the still quite times.  But I love that the God of the universe is willing to talk to me!

Today I was reminded of that as I read His Word. 

"O LORD, by your hand save me from such men, from men of this world whose reward is in this life.  You still the hunger of those you cherish; their sons have plenty and they store up wealth for their children.  And I - in righteousness will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness."  Psalm 17:14-15
 

Anyone seeing a pattern here?  I'm not searching topically while I have my quiet time, and yet the same subjects keep coming up!  I know that God historically has to tell me things more than once.  (Hmmm.....what does that say about me?)  But when discerning his will, or trying to figure out if I'm thinking right, I've noticed that I see the same things over and over again.  It's almost like on the path there are road signs from God saying, "Come on Candie, you're on the right track.  Stay the course."

My bible has some commentary and so today how fun it was to read this:

"We deceive ourselves when we measure our happiness or contentment in life by the amount of wealth we posses.  When we put riches at the top of our value system, we let power, leisure, and financial security overshadow the eternal value of our relationship with God. We think we will be happy or content when we get riches, only to discover that they don't really satisfy, and the pleasures fade away.  The true measurement of happiness or contentment is found in God's love and in doing his will.  You will find true happiness if you put your relationship with God above earthly riches."  Life Application Bible
 

I was just tickled when I read that!  Yep, his will is all that matters.  Am I beginning to sound like a broken record?

Now it would be super nice if God had a BIG sign that said:  ADOPT or DON'T ADOPT.  I'd really like that....a lot!  But I'm reminded once again that the life of faith is one day at a time with God.  How my flesh and the coach in me would love to see the whole game plan and then run it myself.  But you know what, that would defeat the purpose of life in Christ.  I need him daily to speak to me and let me know if I'm on the right path.

On another note, God has been impressing upon me that I need to get back to the basics with our budget.  Since moving to Illinois this Nutritional Therapist has been in shock as to the food choices we now have and I haven't really gotten in the groove of knowing what grocery stores have what or where the best deals are.  Stacy is my 'hunter-gatherer' for groceries so I make the meal plan and list and he gathers for us!  While I'm totally blessed by his willingness to go to the store, God has been disciplining/rebuking me a bit with regards to the things I need to be doing to help our budget.   So it's time to suck it up and get back on track.  I'm praying God will show me how to cut our food budget and yet still eat to the standards we have for our family.

And another thing:  I'm so blessed by my girls.  Every night we talk at dinner about if any of us have heard from God about adopting.  Both of them have such big hearts.  They both have plans to adopt when they have their own family, so Faith said yesterday, "I'm always going to say yes to adopting".  Stacy and I just looked at each other and said, "Well we must have done something right, they both have the heart of Jesus."   I just love them!  :)

Candie