11.16.12

Proverbs 27:21 Fire test the purity of silver and gold but a person is tested by being praised.

 

My Thoughts

There was so much I read today that I would think, "I am going to write my thoughts about this verse!" My One Year Bible is set up with some Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms then some verses from Proverbs.  Some of what I read in the New Testament this morning went so well with something I read in the Old Testament and I thought oh I so need to ponder this.  That is what I am doing when I write about a verse, I am pondering it for me ... a chance to figure out just how it applies to my every day life.  Then I came to this verse!!!  Oh how I needed to ponder this verse!!

 

A person is tested by being praised!!  Oh how I can get caught up in praise,  I think we all can!! But the more we are praised the more we can feel a bit puffed up about what we can do!!  Sometimes forgetting that God had His hand in our ability. I know this when I stop to think about it... but so often in the middle of praise I completely forget the God part and I begin to get all puffed up!!  If there was a cartoon picture drawn of me where all my impurities come to the surface in blisters, I could look like a balloon about to take off. 

 

I love to knit on looms and needles. I love to crochet and I even spin yarn on a spinning wheel occasionally...oh and I can weave on these wonderful looms my husband, Robby built me. I spend a lot of time studying about all of this!  I learned to really study what I am interested in from a book called A Woman After God's Own Heart (thank you Susan Glove Strahan!) It was just a small part of the book but it said to make yourself fat files about 5 things you are interested in.  I have 3, maybe 4 if you break down knitting and crocheting into two files.  They are more files in my head...but I am learning all I can.  I was so horrible when I first started...oh those first gifts I gave!!  Those poor people that had to smile and say thank you.  But then I begin to pray about my knitting... I would hold my loom in my hand and say, "God please help me be good at this!"  And He did, I grow better and better all the time...He helps me to retain what I learn...and He has enable me to truly understand how the stitches work so that I am not just doing them...but I am able to apply this knowledge to things I want to design myself.  I have so far to go...but I have come really far in a short period of time.  Because I asked God.  This verse reminded me that I have not done that as much lately... I was getting a bit puffed up with me and what I could do!  I was forgetting to ask and more importantly forgetting to tell God thank you each time I made something or learned something new!!  Praise was showing my impurities!!

 

Today when I knit or crochet I will say my prayers, I will ask for knowledge and the ability to understand what I learn.  I will say, "Thank you God for all that you have given me...thank you God for the ability to understand and apply."  Today I will print this verse on a card and put it on my frig so I will not forget that it isn't me.. it is God working within me!!