We had a bunch of lights in our basement that needed new bulbs. Some we needed to buy new bulbs for, and some we just had to take the time to find in our garage. Since we weren’t placing a real high priority on changing this situation, it’s been very hard-to-see in our basement. For awhile, that was OK; but after a couple weeks, I started to get a little cranky every time I had to go downstairs. 😦

Since our basement is a walk-out, it’s convenient for it to be our main entry & exit. And, since we are often muddy/dirty, this is a good transition space to change from dirty to clean before we go upstairs. This IS a nice feature, BUT, this also means our basement has a tendency to be a WRECK. I wish I could say it’s just our muddy boots; but the fact is, we can all be pretty lazy, and leave items laying around with the thought of either: “putting that away later” or “someone else will put this away for me”. 😦

This past winter, it seems I was finally able to get into a good routine for keeping it tidy. But once milking picked back up & garden season began, I had to let that routine “slip” so I could focus on other priorities. (I believe that’s called “planfully neglecting” so you can do what’s most important first, lol…)

Our basement is basically a “catch-all”: baseball bags & equipment laying around, shoes & boots strewn all over, work clothes in piles on the freezers, outgrown clothes overflowing in a corner waiting to be taken to Goodwill, misc items from emptying out pockets on the edges of too many steps, various found treasures like pretty rocks or old rusty hinges, chunks of dried earth waiting to get swept up, shirts waiting to get ironed hanging where ever there’s an empty space on a pipe, overflowing bins of laundry waiting to get washed….uggg 😦

And to not be able to see very well, while trying to avoid these obstacles, was not making me very happy…

One day last week, Mike surprised me & put new bulbs in! I walked in and it was beautiful…for about 5 seconds…

All of a sudden I could SEE just how bad this basement had gotten. It was like a veil had been lifted… I wanted to go back to the dark. 😦

Made me think about my walk with the Lord. Like Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:17. He didn’t come to abolish the law, He came to fulfill it. We need to KNOW what His laws are or we’d never know when one was broken. But none of us can ever be perfect at following the law, which is why God sent Jesus to model that for us! As I learn more about His Ways and try to “unlearn” the dark ways, I find myself sometimes thinking, “Wow – sure was easier back when I didn’t know that was wrong.” As long days & exhaustion sets in, the devil is just waiting to throw in his jabs – “the old way was better” or “nobody needs to know” or “just hide that so it’s out of sight”…

Well, thank Heaven for His Spirit Who now dwells in me!!!! I LOVE BEING IN THE LIGHT!! Isn’t this what I often pray for: “Expose the wickedness in me, Lord – bring it to light so I can see it – keep me moldable, rebukeable – cleanse me, Lord from every sin…?” 🙂

I was listening to the radio & a Kari Jobe song came on PERFECT for lifting my eyes back up. Here’s the chorus (from Matthew 5:14-16):
We are the light of the world.
We are a city on a hill.
We are the light of the world.
We gotta, we gotta, we gotta let the light shine.

Father, thank You for answering my prayers & sanctifying me through my life’s walk. 1John 1:5b-7 tells me that You are light. In You there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with You, yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as You are in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, Your Son, purifies us from all sin.

I woke up the other morning reciting “Search me, O God, and know my heart…” This has long been a passage I wanted to memorize, so I thought perhaps that was the day to write it out on a notecard to begin that process. After my devotion, I began my hunt for where this verse is in Scripture. I knew it was in a Psalm, and a quick concordance check brought me to Psalm 139:23-24.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Too funny – I just finished memorizing verses 13-16 of this same Psalm with a baby blanket I just crocheted…I wonder if I should just plan on memorizing the whole Psalm, lol!? 🙂

About an hour later, I was working in the milkhouse & had about 15 minutes to listen to Moody Radio. Just so happened to be a short program by Joni Eareckson-Tada on. Imagine my delight when she began her program with this same Psalm passage as a song!!

After milking, I went online & printed Joni’s program – click here to hear/read it. Then I went to one of my favorite sites – and downloaded the background music for the song. Click here to go to that site.

As I weeded a raised bed that day, I just kept playing this song & practiced memorizing/praying the first verse.  Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.  See if there be some wicked way in me.  Cleanse me from all my sins and set me free.  It was such a comfort for that day – especially since the devil seemed to be working overtime here: cows went through a fence, so Mike had to spend WAY more time than he wanted to getting them back in – boys came home from a sleepover at a friend’s house, so they were SUPER tired & cranky – paid $85 for washing machine repair man to fix an overflow valve only to have the washer still leak after he left… 😦

But somehow, my spirits weren’t dampened that day – hmmmm – wonder why?? 🙂

And the blessings out of those “issues” that day? Well, Mike got the cows back in + all the roundbales moved so they wouldn’t get ruined if they broke through again; the boys rested & were more pleasant after that; Mike was able to re-attach a tube to the washer so we didn’t have to bring the repair man back! Praise God for leading me to LIVING WORDS that helped me to not dwell on our circumstances, but delight IN HIM! 🙂

One final note – I love that the first line of the song ends with “today”. After I’ve had a “high” day with the Lord, I often find myself “coasting” along the next day – perhaps forgetting/neglecting to pursue Him like I did the day before. I like the thought of communicating this request with Him EACH DAY. May I remember Matthew 6:34: Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Help me to remember that You provide the perfect amount of grace that I need EACH DAY. But also, that I still need to seek You each day – not because You won’t still help me or You aren’t there, but because I NEED to remember that it IS NOT ME winning the battles, it is You, working through me. AMEN