To glorify God

3:23 p.m. Today's project was to ride with my neighbor Cindy to morning Bible study, after a whirlwind morning with so much going on that I realized a few moments ago that I even forgot to read the funnies! That NEVER happens!!

It was a fabulous morning. After finishing my Bible study, daily scripture posting on Facebook, and all but the last paragraph of my journal, I decided to open up our email and see if the "Horizon Online" devotional was up, because Steve does their readings each morning. I had an email from well-known Christian author Carole Gift Page, who'd review the manuscript for my Walk in the Word Series: Galatians, and had written a lovely endorsement for the book. Honored beyond belief, I speedily texted family and friends, praising the Lord with delirious excitement. I was exuberantly "rejoicing in the LORD and joying in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:18) when I returned to finish my journal entry: "Lord, thank you for allowing me to 'save the best for last!' Thank you for Carole's endorsement!" I finished with a prayer for my family to walk with Him, every Christian mom's regular petition!

Today is Cindy's birthday, so I prepared her gift, a chocolate pumpkin muffin and a Timewise facial set, and made out her card. Then I saw two other text messages among the many congratulatory ones. One of our Heart to Home teachers was informing me that her husband would be dropping off two boxes of class project samples for me to show at Bible study to encourage sign-ups, because she could not attend. I had to step on it with our breakfast and my personal prep, and called Cindy to let her know she could come early in case I needed to set the items out before study started.

We arrived at church to see all of the class demos set up beautifully on the stage, praise the Lord, and so were able to enjoy some fellowship with the sisters. In the small group discussion time, we shared personal applications of the scripture I Corinthians 10:31:

Whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. I "happened" to mention to the group that I had read in my Oswald Chambers devotional, My Utmost for His Highest this morning these words:

"The test of a man's religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional moments of life, but what he does in the ordinary times, when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on. The worth of a man is revealed in his attitude to ordinary things when he is not before the footlights."

"What?!" one of the gals cried out. "I just bought that book this morning!" and pulled it out of her bag. She'd never read it before, but bought it because it looked good. Cindy read the above sentences aloud to us. Two of us read through this famous devotional once every 5 or 6 years, but always keep it handy. Cindy will be getting a copy, because we all agreed that every day life is so taken for granted that we let our personal vigilance and attentiveness to the voice of the Holy Spirit slip, and our words and actions are anything but "as unto the Lord!" I find myself repenting quite regularly for an assortment of poor behaviors, and even though the Lord forgives as soon as we ask, the embarrassment or even serious consequences can plague us for years. As one gal in our group, Jennifer, put it, "It's so much easier when we ask Him first what we should do or say!"

My prayer is that the Galatians Bible study will glorify God, and be used by many to understand how much God loves us, and what Christ meant when He said from the cross, "It is finished."

But my more urgent prayer is that my daily interactions with family, friends, fellow believers, local acquaintances and total strangers will be humble, sweet, uplifting, honorable and caring--in sum, glorifying to God!