Monday, October 24, 2011

Following that inner prompt...

Have you ever signed up to do something or made an appointment, and then talked yourself out of it or changed your mind last minute? I can be bad about that. I get all geared up for something and then think "you know, it'd be much more convenient if I just skipped it" or "I don't have time for that now, I'll get my money back or reschedule", etc.

There's been a few instances in my life this year that is making me think twice about changing my mind, if that makes sense.

First example - in January, I FINALLY decided to go have this freckle on my leg looked at it. I don't even want to call it a mole because it wasn't raised. It just didn't look exactly like my other freckles. It'd been bothering me for a year or two, and I made an appointment. The day of the appointment, I started to change my mind. I didn't want to deal with a doctor's office after work, all that paperwork, co-pay, insurance drama, etc. Too much hassle for a freckle, right? Well for some reason (now officially labeled The Grace of God) I kept that appt.

And found out the "freckle" was melanoma.

I had to go back three other times to have the spot cut out and thankfully it was still surface level. But if I had ignored it another five to ten years, it could have been a totally different story. Even more so, that incident prompted me to take my daughter, who was 2 at the time, to the same doctor to look at a suspicious spot on her temple over her ear - which turned out to be A-Typical. (not cancer but potential to become that way).

Now I have a nice two inch reminder on my right thigh to always listen to my inner promptings. Because more often than not, if you're a Christian actively desiring God's will, that prompting is the Holy Spirit.

Second example - this past weekend, my husband and I signed up for a marriage conference. It was taught by Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains and the movie Fireproof. He's been married 20 years and is an excellent Bible teacher. Last minute, I almost bailed. Hubby and I had been arguing and emotionally I wasn't in the mood. I wanted to bag the whole thing. But we went, mostly because we'd paid for tickets and our church had paid half of the tickets for it's members, so that would have been rude.

We got there, and it was great - but MAN were those seats uncomfortable. The event was fabulous but it was running over, my back was throbbing from the wooden pew, and we hadn't eaten dinner and it was almost 9:00. I started to suggest to my hubby that we leave during intermission, that'd we gotten a ton of good info already and had a nice time together and enjoyed the worship music.

But for some reason (now officially labeled The Grace of God) I didn't, and we stayed, and that next hour was life-changing. If I had left because of desiring to ease my physical discomfort of back pains and hunger pains, I'd have missed a very special time with my husband that was worth a year of back pains and hunger pains. We ended up eating dinner at 10:30 p.m. and having a fabulous date after :)

You've heard it said before that there are no accidents, that you are where you are for a reason. That's been proven true so many times in my life. So I urge you today to trust your inner promptings. Trust the work and that still small whisper of the Holy Spirit. You won't ever be sorry.

3 comments:

Kyla Makay said...

What a wonderfully composed post... and yes... always follow God's will. That is the truth. :) Trust.
Love,

Makay

www.thebirdssay.blogspot.com

emii said...

You must be an insanely talented writer, because if I was sitting on a seat I would have been on the edge of it right now -- I was leaning in closer to the screen, just to see where the story of the marriage conference ended.

This post... comes across so powerfully to me. Thankyou.

emii said...

Haha, this post was on my favourites and I'm going through them and I had to laugh at myself. What was I doing, standing while I read posts on my laptop?! "IF i was sitting on a seat..."