Nope, not good there either.

Anything that crowds out time for God is an idol. That isn't my quote, it's Nancy Leigh DeMoss'.

In the recent past when I had heard talk of idols in the Christian life I immediately thought to myself- "Okay, I'm good there. I don't love anything more than Jesus."

But then she elaborated. And elaborated. And elaborated.

Sleep, family, housework, friends, facebook, books, television. All these things that I never even considered looking at as idols, until I realized how busy they keep me. I make time for them first and then I squeeze in God.

It's amazing how when I sit down for some Bible study how all of a sudden I have a burden for cleaning up the house some more. I lack focus and discipline when it comes to studying God's word, but I can really work my butt off all day keeping my house in order, cooking, doing laundry, and taking care of my kids. It's not right to give my leftover moments. Ugh, but I am not a morning person. Like, at all. I know it's coming down to that I just need to be, because it's wrong for me not to give Him that time. But oh, I love bed.

I'm finding out how incredibly bad I am at this whole "Christian Walk" thing. I don't think there is a single area of my life that I can check off as 'good.' Right now "He's still workin' on me" is playing in my head. I remind myself that I am not the same as ten years ago, five years ago, or even a year ago. So that is progress, but most of the time I'm really looking forward to heaven. No more worries about past failures, current missteps, and future ball dropping.

Doesn't that sound like such a cop out? Oh, I'm too lazy to work harder- just hurry up and get me to heaven where being good won't even be a thought it will just be, well, me. I really do long for it though. It disturbs John I think. I'm all "Won't heaven be great? I can't wait to be there. The smells, the colors, the sounds!" He's all "Yeah, I'm not that excited."

Anyway, one area of the aforementioned change that I have noticed is: decreased sin in my life has led to increased sensitivity to sin. My sense of what is right and wrong is heightened. This saves a lot of heartache for me now. I loathe the thought of hurting someone and also having to apologize.

I've actually had checkout ladies chuckle at me and say "You're the only one that listens" when I put something back in the checkout line and say "that's over my approved budget." This may seem like a silly area to call attention to, but in my home it: A. Shows John I respect him and B. Kills fights over money. I call that a win win.


Some people do it now and ask for forgiveness later, and I used to live that way too, but now I'm big on avoiding the easily avoidable sins. I don't know if this is good theology, it's probably not, but some things are so clearly not right for me to do (IE spending $30 more than what my hubby told me to spend) so I avoid doing it. When I KNOW it's not right and I'm aware of that-it's easier not to do that thing.

All this to say that I'm working on it. I don't have any of it checked off... but I'm gonna keep running the race.