I think I'm wired a bit differently than most people; I've always looked for honesty from others, constructive criticism, and correction when I've been in error. And I've been pretty accommodating and flexible over the years; change was never really difficult for me. However, something seems to have changed over the last few years; I'm suddenly aware that I don't bend the way I used to and I'm more easily offended, especially by those closest to me. And I'm taken back to a Scripture I read in the last few days from Ezekiel, in which God speaks of a heart of stone and a heart of flesh. I realize that maybe what's happening is that my heart is starting to harden; maybe it's like the clay on the potter's wheel. If that clay is not continually shaped and molded, watered and reworked, it will become hard and stony. If the clay does not remain supple and pliable in the potter's hands, it will, with the passing of time, become rigid and will, in fact, begin to shrink. Maybe that's what's been changing...I fear I'm not yielding to the Potter's hands as I once used to. Oh, I hear His voice and feel His touch as I read the Scriptures, but perhaps I'm not as receptive to His voice as I hear it through those around me. When someone tells me, honestly and in love, that my tone was angry or my words cutting, my pride is stepping in and keeping me from making a change. Instead, I sit, doing nothing, like a clay pot on a motionless wheel, hardening. I find myself repeating the words of the apostle Paul: "I do the things I don't want to, and don't do the things I should." I don't want to be inflexible, like clay that becomes useless with the passing of time. It is my soul's desire to remain receptive and yielding, a mature woman with a heart of flesh!
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