Bathrooms and God-thoughts

We surely did paint (Daniel's post)! And I have since decided that if we ever have to paint a bathroom again, we will scrimp and save until we can pay someone else to do it. I don't mind "regular" rooms, but bathrooms are horrendous! It took me all day on Friday just to tape the blame room. Daniel did a marvelous job painting it on Saturday. And now that it is done, I am SO glad we did it...we'll just never do it again! It makes the bathroom seem much more calming and refreshing, rather than a place where I cringed each time I walked in. I'll post some pics of it tomorrow once I get them off of my camera. It is really fun to have our own place that we can change and decorate however we want. The next big project for which we are saving is to replace the carpet in the kitchen and bathroom (WHY, oh WHY did anyone decide that carpet in a kitchen and bathroom was a good idea?!?!) with vinyl or linoleum.

Our preacher at church is in the middle of a sermon series on Job. These are just a few of the really great points that struck home with me over the past few weeks.
**As Christians, sometimes I think we are given the impression that it is not okay to grieve, that you must put on your happy face and pretend that everything is okay because we have God. It IS okay to grieve, to tear your clothes and put ashes on your head. It is not a bad thing to admit that things are not okay, that we are grieving and are devastated by something that has happened. Job did all of this and we are told "In all this, Job did not sin..." (Job 1.22)
**A question that was asked by Randy (our preacher): If you lost every earthly reason for loving and obeying God...would you still love and obey Him? A really hard question! Do I love and obey God because of Who He is or because of what He does for me?
**We made it to Elihu yesterday, the fourth friend who berates both Job and Job's friends, preparing the way for God to speak. He pointed out that Job was speaking to God as if God owed him something. "I've been upright and haven't sinned, therefore You owe me an explanation." The correct response to suffering and hard situations, however, is "What are You teaching me? What training am I supposed to be understanding?" This, too, is a really hard thing. I often think that because I am a "good girl who goes to church and tries to love and obey God", that God then owes me good things. Daniel and I both did this when we got back from China. We had a hard time finding jobs and we both had the feeling that because we had spent a really hard year serving God in China, that now He owed us an easy transition back to the States. I forget that God sending His Son to die for me was infinitely more than I deserved, and yet He does so much more for me every day! God owes me NOTHING...rather, I owe Him EVERYTHING. When I am going through a really hard thing, I need to be like a small child who can't understand that the pain is good for me but I trust that it is okay because my Father is there. To trust that if I did know the reason, I would absolutely adore God for it! Not that I'm any good at this...I just know that this is how I should handle this sort of thing! :)

Just a few of my own thoughts. Interesting to some, not so much to others. Peace!