My Greatest Strength and My Greatest Weakness...?

I know what you are thinking...It's about time. Okay so maybe starting a blog just before Thanksgiving was not the best timing. Trust me the last three weeks have been hectic with Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, packing and getting ready for our trip, visiting New York, and then coming home to two sick kids, unpacking and all that it entails.

Life really is just getting back to normal around here, though... I do have a little Christmas shopping left to do. I have yet to get my mom or Josh's mom a gift. Why are moms so hard to shop for? Oh, and Friday Josh and I will officially celebrate five years of marriage and of course next week is Christmas followed by New Years. So... maybe things are not back to normal just yet. I guess it just feels that way today.

Oh sweet Jesus, we could really use some energy around here. No lie, we are all exhausted! A little proof; it is 9:33 here and Jeremiah (my 4 yr old) is just getting out of bed, poor baby.

Now, to the point of this blog; in my journey to become a woman of proof God has me examining myself and searching my heart. My most recent revelation is the purpose for this post. See, I have been trying to determine what my strengths are (i.e. personality traits, talents and spiritual gifts), so that I can use them to their fullest and glorify God with them. However, I have also been trying to determine what my weaknesses are, so that I can tame them and thus glorify God in that too. After all, 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." I have long been a believer that the best sign of growth in the Christian walk is self-control. We are all sinners but that does not mean we all have to live in sin. In fact, true sanctification means we move further and further from a life with sin. We become less so that Christ can become more!

So, in my search I discovered that my greatest strength is my passion. After all it's what makes me such a good writer and minister. It is also the reason my husband fell in love with me. And it is the reason why I am so ambitious. However, in my search I also discovered that my greatest weakness is ...dun, dun, dun: my passion. It is probably the driving force behind all my marital problems and my parenting issues. Marital: because it makes me stubborn and prideful. Josh is almost always the first to apologize and acknowledge his faults. Parenting: because my kids are just as passionate, which means we deal with a lot of back talk. God bless my babies they are just so intense.

How can my passion be both? I'll tell you. It has a mind of its own! It like love causes people to be blind. When I am filled with passion I am usually unwilling to back down. I have never had a problem standing firm! That is a great strength of mine ...when I am standing for my faith and what's right. However, I tend to stand firm even when I am wrong or when life is not so black and white. My passion often blinds me from seeing other points of view.

Balance in this area has long been a struggle of mine. But lately God has really been convicting me to get control of it. Oh yes, we are back to that self-control thing. I know it's hard, trust me I know. But just as I am striving to become more self-controlled I challenge you to do the same. I know in this day and age self-control is almost non-existent. After all, we live in the have it your way, anytime, anywhere society. Indulgence is our way of life! However, I think we all know Christ calls us to a different way of living.

Just think... how much happier would you be if you weren't your own worst enemy? We all dig ourselves into holes. But if we would only listen to God to begin with and have some control maybe we would stop hurting ourselves in the long run and learn what the abundant life is all about.

Just some thoughts,

MEL