God and the crock pot

For those who have known me long enough, you know God speaks to me in all different ways. Today it was the crock pot, one of my very favorite kitchen appliances, right up there with my George Foreman grill with removable plates.

God has sweetly and gently been talking to me about how much I do outside the home and how much I am not doing in my home, and how if maybe I let go of some stuff outside the home, I wouldn't feel so stressed and crazy. I really don't like Him saying what He is, but I know it is spoken in truth and love. I have even been slowly opening myself up to the possibility of this, but have been very unsure about what it looked like. When I think of "doing it all for your family first" I think of being a slave, as such, for everything they want and not getting anything I want. (I know this may come as a shock to some of you that I would even say something like that....)

I have been trying to pray, study and think about all this. I am realizing that there are some things I could let go of, but some things I just feel like I can't, or don't want to. So this morning I got up at 5:00 like always, with another migraine. Granted it's a monthly thing, not necessarily related to stress, but I am sure the stress does play a part in it. Anyhow, I got up and got my workout clothes on, and went downstairs. Found my medicine fast, then sat down to put on my shoes. I just started praying, "Ok Lord, you know what I need to do. I just look around at the clock and see I have about 40 mins...I want time with you, to catch up on Bible Study, I want to clean my kitchen to see the way out, I want to go get back in bed where it is warm and hide from everything. I need to know right now what you want me to do." So I sat there about a minute, waiting for the voice from heaven which never came. I decided I'd get up and start cleaning up while I was waiting for Him to tell me. I got this great worship song stuck in my head that I could only remember only 2 lines from, but I just kept singing those 2 lines over and over again.

Man I want my mp3 back or a new one!!!

So I just kept working on washing dishes and praying my heart out...cleanse me as I cleanse these dishes, wash away my sins, show me what You want me to do, ..... finally I got most of the dishes clean except the crockpot which had beans cooking in it all day yesterday. I knew last night when I went to bed too late I should at least let it soak, but I was too tired. It was time to face the music and start scrubbing on that thing. As I was carrying it over to the sink, I was just thinking that maybe I would let it soak now for a while to make it easier. When I got it in the sink, I starting running nice, warm water over it, using the soapy washcloth to start working on the stuff that might come off easily. Lo and behold, most of that crud practically slid right off! It took very little scrubbing from me to get it clean and smooth and good as new!!! As I was doing this, the Lord was like, "You thought it would be hard to clean, but it wasn't. You think you can't let go and do this because it will be too hard, but it isn't." Wow! I'm still shaking from it, just a direct word from the Lord! Through the crockpot, no less!

Already today I have dropped two commitments at least for this week and it really doesn't hurt like I thought it would!

Please pray for me through this. It still doesn't look easy, but I believe that the more I am willing to give up, the easier it will get. My goal is truly a Prov31 woman (not like, next week or anything!) and however that looks for this Roger Campbell family.

O:)
Melissa