Little Colds...And God's wisdom

Well, I haven't been much of anywhere for a couple of weeks, mostly due to a cold and cough that has worked its way through the kids. So, I didn't post last week about Life Design, and I missed this week too. Also, I started a new Bible Study at my church on Wednesday night...I was so excited about it, but I haven't been able to go since that first meeting a couple of weeks ago. But anyway, here's some food for thought:

Ephesians 5:1-20
We were discussing walking in the light/being wise how you live.
Which interestingly enough corresponded with the first week's lesson in my other Bible study.
How can we become more wise?
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Prov.1:7) and "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Prov. 9:10)
Which, in my own little paraphrase becomes..."Respecting God is the starting point of wisdom." The more we respect God, the more we trust him. The more we trust Him, the more we obey Him and actually put our knowledge of Him into practice.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 (my paraphrase here...)
"Respect God and obey Him--this is the whole job of mankind."

Then, this week's lesson in Life Design was about yielding, most specifically within the husband/wife relationship.
My dictionary defines yield as:
1. to give forth by a natural process
2. to surrender, to give way
3. the profit obtained from an investment (a return)
This was so absolutely interesting to me, because I noticed that the times in my relationships (marriage, friendship, or as a mommy) when I received the greatest return (definition #3) was often when I yielded the most (#2).

And oh yes, from my other Bible Study, God spoke most clearly to my heart through the words Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:25-26...(my paraphrase)
You should be more concerned with what's truly in your heart, rather than how you appear in the eyes of others.

So, hey, that is so amazing...The Lord can speak to us in our hearts, gently correcting and rebuking without you ever having to leave the house. Hopefully I will leave the house soon, so I can put this all into practice. Of course, I have three (and sometimes four if Ben is home) great test subjects always at my disposal!!