Facing and ‘fessing – The Welcome Home

I’ve been thinking of you and am praying that God is blessing you in your home today. I’m sure I’m not alone in the busyness of life or that there’s been more day than the day can hold sometimes. So I’m [still!] wondering how to do more in less time or how to make sure that each day I do what counts the most. And, I’ve had to face up and fess up to the fact that some days it’s not so much that there’s so much to do but that I’ve been focusing on the wrong things — allowing the unnecessary to override the necessary and allowing the frivolous to obscure the imperatives.

So, what are the imperatives? What things must I focus on each day or to what must I strive to attend to and what things have I been sacrificing in the squandering of the days? These are hard questions – or maybe the questions aren’t hard, but the conviction is hard to face and fess up to. Maybe you have things you need to face and fess up. This “fessing-up” is quite a freeing exercise. In fact, it’s so freeing, it’s a wonder we don’t delight in doing it more often. But, while it’s freeing, it’s also sometimes painful –painful because we will likely have discomfort as we make changes, painful because we’ll likely be embarrassed over our behaviour, and painful because of what’s lost and can never be retrieved. O, this doesn’t negate the marvelous work and redemption the LORD can bring to a situation or even a life, but in reality, time squandered is still time lost.

When we discover there’s a problem in our home and we want to get to the bottom of it, we might ask one or more of the children: what did you do? We might ask: who did this? Invariably, no one wants to fess up to the wrongdoing. None of us want to admit that we’ve either done or been wrong. But the incredible thing is that when we do fess up, there is a freedom –a sweet peace washes over us and we’re clean before the LORD. Our children experience this same freedom when they “fess-up” to the transgression—even if they face a discipline for it. Whether or not there is restitution made or a consequence to be paid, the freedom is sweet and the restored confidence is precious when they face and fess up to a transgression. It’s that way for us, too, before the LORD.

I’ve had to “fess-up” to squandering time, to wasting the gifts and talents the LORD has given me, to giving my attention to those things that are only temporal and have little eternal value or worth. I’ve had to ask myself again: What would I think if I walked in (as a stranger who heard that the mother in this home was an aspiring Titus 2 woman) and browsed through this home unattended?” Or, “Would my husband’s customers be satisfied with his work were he to work in the same manner that I do in our home?”

I keep these questions sort of simmering on the back burner to keep myself in check.

Probably the most difficult areas for me regard necessary sleep and computer time. These, along with food preparation are areas that can’t be avoided, put off or ignored. Since they’re needful or are beneficial, they can also be neglected or “abused.” In the examples I’ve given, discipline is required and I fall into that abyss of often doing what I want rather than what I ought to do. To rise early requires an earlier retiring at night – to be refreshed requires adequate sleep. My flesh fights against that. In addition, losing weight requires no snacking. My flesh fights against that. Limiting computer time means less browsing, less reading, less “justa minute’s” and less entertainment. My flesh fights against that. Instead of yielding to the truth of what I know is right, I find ways to justify what I want to do rather than what I ought to do. So I have to set and live within boundaries… the boundaries that come from times of facing and ‘fessing up. These are disciplines and though we may not want disciplines in our lives, it is through discipline that we put aside the things of the flesh and yield to the things of the Spirit.

These thoughts come from spending a bit of time in Romans 6 and 7. I would encourage the reading of these chapters and then ask the LORD to reveal to you areas that you, too, might face and fess up to. Maybe you have some areas of your life that need facing and ‘fessing up. I pray that as you do, you will see that the LORD is already there and you have all you need. He is your all in all.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1John 1.9

May you always be blessed.

Related Posts

Leave a Reply