Whats great about the Lords timing is that it is perfect! In just two weeks I was planning on doing the marathon, but I will obviously not be running it but my dear freidn Amber will be!!!! She has endured, she has put in the effort and discipline to be able to run. I am so proud of her. Her humility shines whenever I ask her about her training. (And when i ask anything else about her..she is just a humble servant of the Lord) She is running 26.2 miles in a few weeks but she exudes a tenacious, uncompromising zeal for the Lords glory. She knows the Word of God, she loves Jesus, and she is a huge example to me of what a selfless, teachable, servant is. Amber humbles me without a word. Don't get me wrong, when she does need to use words she humbles me too because she is right! She is only right because she quotes the word of God! Seriously people! What a treasure I have in my sister Amber. What a blessing and major benefit to have her eyes in my life and my eyes in her life! With all that said, I get to cheer her on with her husband Kevin out in Arizona in a few weeks. Pray for her, pray the Lord will be glorified by her attitude and mine!
Other than the running info, 2010 is over! The Lord has been so kind to me. He always is! Specifically, in answering prayer. i have been praying along with my parents for direction with life. Not ministry or moving away.... but with work and desires. Praying for the Lord to make clear the path he wants me to follow him down. And to remain faithful and dependent. This was hard only because my flesh fights to know everything all the time! To sit and wait on the Lord to reveal His will and not fear, this is my fight. With time and prayer, He revealed at his perfect timing. i needed to learn all i was put through to get me to where i am thinking today. I am planning to go to The Master's College to do the One Year Bible Institute starting in just a few weeks. I long to know the Word of God. I want to know Him! This is a gift from my parents to allow this and to support me. Who am I!? What a stewardship I am given and going to be given. =) Pray the Lord keeps me faithful...makes me thankful... and humbles me resulting in perseverence, hope, and joy. To sum it all up... I want to be a worshipper 24/7.. I find my heart prone to think that I, being a woman, need to make myself attractive, becuase if i dont then i will miss out or end up alone, unhappy, and disliked. This sounds crazy I'm sure.. (I promise I still take showers) but let me explain. I am tempted to think that I have the control of you people! That i can make you be attracted to me or not be attracted to me. (Im talking about physically, personality wise, spiritually.. all of it) As if I posses the power within me to control your thoughts! HA!! For instance, like it is up to me to make myself "beautiful" and in order to get the right guy to like me...and if i dont, there is no way he will like me. "I must contribute!" SO STUPID RIGHT!! Paul Washer said in a sermon i just listened to that "Sin is insanity" why would some one ever really think like me. I can't explain how my own brain works, let alone how yours does! What arrogance I am harbouring to think like this automatically. The gospel is OVERWHELMINGLY NEEDED by ME!!
My own thoughts condem me. If it were not for the gospel I am hopeless! Through worship this week the Lord has shown me a glimps of his mighty power. The power of His word, the trustworthiness of His own word. I have it!! Why do I not love it like the Psalmist in Psalm 119!? I long for his word to be my delight. To be my comfort and to be my one true aim to know. My thinking, my attitude, my very thought process needs major changing. And the Lord is so kind to tell me how to do it! Psalm 119 is covered in it. SEEKING THE LORD through his word, will change me. This "change" I desire (and any other Christian) means changing my pursuit... my affections. Only the Lord can change this! To be wholly Christ! I sit and think.. wow.. what would it be like if I, Laura Stone, was wholly about the Lords work, thinking like Christ and unsatisfied with anything but Christ. What would it be like if I was a NORMAL Christian! How attriactive would He look to this world! I have never loved the Lord my God with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind. Never. Yet I claim to love him.
