Whispers of Truth

We forget so quickly what it is like to be a small child, to have the faith a child has so naturally, to look up to the ones we love and want to imitate them, to be just like them.  Last week, my husband fed a friend's catfish one afternoon for him, and since my oldest son and his family were with us, we took them, too, and let them see the fish feeding. Right now, we are in the middle of an extreme heat wave (yes, even the Deep South in August has heat advisories), but the uninitiated might have a hard time appreciating how miserable that can quickly get. All that to say it was hot! But we went and fed the hungry fish as quickly as we could and still let the little ones take it in. As we walked onto the pier, we held tightly to the boys. The oldest grandson wanted to help feed the fish and do everything his daddy and his granddaddy were doing. He imitated them, watching closely, receiving instruction, and then with his own flair, throwing food to the eager catfish until it ran

All Christians struggle at times to know the right thing to do in a particular circumstance whether it is job-related, relationship-related, or service-related. This year, knowing God’s will has been one of those topics that keeps popping up in and around my life.  As our women’s study group finished up 1 Thessalonians earlier in the spring, we encountered Paul teaching about knowing the will of God, and in chapter 4:3 he boils it starkly down to this statement: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (ESV). Lest I ever wonder what God would have me do, my first question should always be how the thing in question would affect my conformity to His will, which is for me to be like Him, to accept the work He is doing in and around my life. My job is to simply obey Him, showing my love for Him and letting His grace wash me clean, not to walk in the way of the world or my own will; so I am to ask, “How will doing this sanctify me?” The problem often is when "simple obedien