Called Back to Remember Why..

   Several thoughts ran through my mind this morning as I walked along the path. I thought of some things that related to our last trip, of sights, of places, of people, of thoughts. I thought about things that I may have missed by hurrying through the places, items that I could have learned and people that I could have interacted with, if I had given the proper time.

   I thought about things that I could write about when I sat back down, things that fit in to how I felt my life needed to be lived in light of what God had put in my path. I realized that all these things were not happenstance, but road signs that I needed to heed, to live as I should.

   All of this was good, but then I understood that a lot of times I had been putting these experiences and thoughts ahead of what God might have been trying to say to me. My priorities were somewhat mixed up.

   When I started this blog, some time back, it was an attempt to see what God was saying to me through the Scriptures that I read each morning. I believe that He can, and wants to, speak in this way to each of us if we will take the time to listen.

   I also feel that He speaks to us through our experiences, and the combination of the two, experiences and reading His Word, form the backdrop for learning the hows and whys of living.

   But I found myself taking my experiences and trying to shoe horn them into the Scriptures that I read. Some days I used the happenings by themselves, without any thought of verses that might have shed some light on them.

   Three times in Psalm 80 this morning the psalmist says:

" Restore us, O Lord God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

   Or the translation in The Message:

"God, come back!
    Smile your blessing smile:
    That will be our salvation.

   This seemed to be God's Word to me today. Put things in their proper order. Put Me first, and then see how your experiences tie into that, not the other way around.

   I believe that God has been there to show me lots of things through the people and events that He has put into my life, but I also believe that there could have been more if I had used the correct order.

   The difference between good and better, and the possibility that the right combination of the two could be the best.

   It is not all about me, though sometimes I want to make it that way.

   God help me to put You first and get it right.