Your Abilities....Your Distractions

 You have 500 to 800 abilities.  What are you doing with them?  

This is a touchy topic for me.  It makes me rather sad to think about how much wasted talent is out there.   

I am still working through Pastor Rick Warren's Study and yesterday was about using your abilities for God's Purpose and for Good.   

There are two sides to this story - actually using your abilities and using them for God's Good.   

I think first about the struggle to actually use our abilities.  Are we really living to our full ability?  Probably daily, I hear "I wish I had your energy" and "it is easier when you are your age and not my age"....Umm, okay, I am exhausted, my hip hurts, my shoulder hurts, I drink 90,000 cups of coffee a week, and I am still NOT living to my full purpose.  

DISTRACTIONS is my greatest weakness.  Yesterday, I really wanted to finish my bathroom paint job, organize my office, clean off my kitchen table, and get the 2 boxes of sidewalk sale priced and out of my house.  At eight pm last night I picked up my brush, opened the can of paint and started painting.   I flipped on the podcast for the third time that day and listened to the message on my abilities.  

As I painted, I thought about how much time I waste on my cell phone.  Scrolling Facebook is the devil....and I know I am down screen time significantly compared to others - even those in my own house.  BUT I still waste so much time not doing work that I need to be doing.  Not just work around my house and my shop but work for the good of God's Kingdom.  

I put off writing all weekend.  I was convicted all weekend, but I felt to bothered to write.  I did, however, have time to make a lengthy reply on a Facebook post that really didn't matter.  

WE as in our SOCIETY are addicted to our cell phones.   I am going to throw my husband under the bus here - because I don't have an Apple watch.   The continuous notifications are Satan's temptation.  I was watching him drive the other day and his Apple Watch pinged, it was a notification for SEMO Alerts, so then he felt compelled to get his phone out - I said, "I will look" because I knew he "needed" to know.  We interrupted our conversation to look at an alert for a fire alarm notification in Downtown Cape.   Like we interrupted our time together for a pointless notification.  

I could document a book where cell phones have prevented us from having time together, accomplishing task, interrupted our time with God, took away from family time, and cost us important things.  

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Thank you for the grace that you give us.  Thank you for loving us even though we fail so often.  Thank you for giving use the tools that we need and the ability to work for you.  

Father, I pray you cleanse our society of our addition to our screens.  I pray that you open eyes to waste we have become as we sit, and we scroll.  I pray you take that need to check notifications away from us.  I pray that you silence the distractions so we can be focused on your mission. 

Father God, I pray you work in my own heart against this temptation.  I pray that you help me stay focused on what I need to be doing that it be working physically or working spiritually.  

I pray that you help those in my own house.  I pray you make our phones and digital connections not needed and you make our connection to you a priority.  

God, phones are an addiction that takes away from you.   We need you.  We need to be working for you. 

Your Daughter, Becky of Marble Hill 

(If you landed on this page and are thinking what in the world is this girl talking about.  I am a writer, I struggle to pray out loud, but I can write my prayers.   Praying for my community, the people in my community, and for a hedge around my community is the best act of leadership I can do.  This is my personal prayer journal titled "My City Prayers")