Good EARLY morning, you guys!

Well, I won’t even admit what time it is. 🙂 But I will say I fell asleep on the couch way too early! And the deal at our house is “If MOM falls asleep, DON’T WAKE her up!” LOL!

Yes, I am super great at falling asleep, but staying asleep — especially after that middle-of-the night pee?? 🙂 — is a whole different story. 🙂 I chuckle, but honestly? It is really kinda true. And I don’t know about you, but a ton of people I talk to “struggle with sleep” for a variety of reasons. But for me? It all comes down to being suckered into buying-into-the-belief of finding my  VALUE in PRODUCTIVITY.

EWWW, ahhh, ohh and huh?? 🙂

Well, I don’t know if anyone remembers me saying this before, but I’ve come to realize and fully admit that I have been SO UN-wise in an area of my calling. Like, I AM called to be an “ACTION girl,” but back in the day, I would have to say that the level and amount of activity and things I could “DO and get DONE” was the KEY to the VALUE in me … my day … my week … my world! AND as a good-Godly-productivity-kinda girl, all my “to-do things” all looked and landed so, well, OUTSIDE of my house. But inside? Hmmmm, talk about a crumbling home — and heart and roles and souls. And so, why bring all this up today?

Because that suckered-season is such a great reflection of Proverbs 11! Did you get your chapter reading done? Well, I LOVE Bible reading now. (Hmm, what a heart-shift as you are not “doing” one thing involving physical movement but, ahhhh … the “rewards” of this “ACTIVITY” are unreal!) And God was pretty clear in here that we again have some CHOICES to make. And it did not take me long to SEE where I have “gone SO wrong” before and caused myself a CRASH right into a ton of …

SELF-HARM (verse 17).

Yes, why wasn’t I sleeping well? Well, I was not getting (or, better said, LETTING) the message into my head that in the battle between GOD’S Want-To’s and MY Want-To’s, that even when I don’t FEEL like it, I gotta learn to let HIS WIN. Because in the end, HIS will always work far more “well” for me (verse 28). Whereas mine? Always — and, yes, that is ALWAYS! — equal DEATH (verse 4) with certainty.

Yes, let’s take a look at my choice NOT to listen to the very-clear message to REST well (physically, mentally, emotionally, etc. etc.). How did I end up there?

Well, it came from

1. Not knowing I should be resting (because I wasn’t reading GOD’S Word), but then grew to … 
2. Becoming an area I “sorta-knew I shouldn’t be doing,” to finally …
3. Straight-up sticking with my DESIRE to not be resting (verse 23). And, oooohhh, what soon happened to this little disobedient heart?

How about a little “wages for the wicked” (verse 18)! Yes, I can SO relate to THAT concept!! And just what “wages” was I getting paid with? Hmm, how about a little (OK, after a while, a lot!!) of GUILT from the struggle in my heart … then my home … and with my husband. ’Cause, oh yes, my choice to disobey did not EVER “only affect me” (which is soooo what I told myself). Can anyone else relate to using THAT sneaky “reason and rationalization”??! 🙂 

Oh my, what a silly, suckered and self-harming girl I was. I was so blind to the damage I was doing…. And mostly to ME!

BUT, GOD is so much more WISE than I could ever be. And HE could totally SEE just how messed up, in this area, my heart and head had grown to be.

And HIS goal became RE-building a BLAMELESS heart — and growing a little more SOUL-SMART (verse 20). 

Yes! It was time to focus on this messed-up piece and patch (verse 27) — until it would MATCH HIS and then could be more trusted (verse 30).

Oh, the journey to being obedient to what HE said was HIS RIGHT was not easy or simple. But the truth is simply this: all the things I dreaded would come … never happened! And MANY things I so love and value NOW (but I never knew I was missing) have come right in! And I guess that’s why God has put in HIS WORD so many verses on what “REWARDS” will result when I come to CHOOSE HIS VALUES over the world’s “worthless wind” (verse 29).

So, here is a challenge, ladies: I am asking EVERYONE to take two seconds to find one REWARD listed in Proverbs 11 and share it with someone in your world…. Because you will begin to see, just like me, a pattern of VALUES which, when we consistently CHOOSE HIS WISDOM, even in the hardest-spots-that-sometimes-I-don’t-really-even-want-to-give-up, really DO impact more than than we ever thought … and not just impact us, but our WHOLE world too!

YES! I want to become the woman making consistent-RIGHTEOUS-choices who, in her small “city” (aka my small world), can bring a bubble of joy (verse 10) and all of the blessings (verse 11) we will post today. ‘Cause did you see? Just like when I was choosing UN-wisely it affected more than just me, when I CHOOSE WISELY, the same ripple-effect happens too! But for good, for GOD, for growth, for TRUTH.

And if it can happen to a messed-up me? It can soooo happen to YOU.

Because it is from HIM that it comes THROUGH.

Thank you for participating today! I know I wrote of a TON of verses out in my devotions on the VALUE when we, as women, build the skill of making RIGHTEOUS choices — and so, here is my takeaway:

“The RIGHTEOUSNESS of the upright delivers them but the unfaithful are trapped by their evil desire” (verse 6).

Happy reading and writing out the REAL REWARDS that are coming our way — all with one WISE choice at a time — starting today!

Love ya, ladies.

Carol 😉

Change-CHOICE-Truth