Turn passion into life service!

I think God gives us desires and it's up to us to seek if it's from Him, or if it's ourselves wanting it to be more. I have several things on my heart and not sure what that next step is, or if it's the right time. So, I've been praying about them- some for a year, others for months, and a few for weeks.

One example [of many] is a calling to elderly people. I have a heart for the elderly, and never knew what to do with it. I have been praying for months for God to help me realize what I'm supposed to do, that he would open doors, and that I would be obedient (or feel convicted until I did it). I started going with the Senior Adult Choir to sing at the nursing homes...double (triple really) whammy, right? Wrong! I love to sing (passion/gift from God), Senior Adults (passion from God), plus it's going to nursing homes (passion from God). So why do I feel he's calling me to do more?? OK God, what am I supposed to do here? You said to help with the elderly, so why am I still feeling I'm not fulfilling Your desire here?

I'm doing a Beth Moore bible study and one thing she wrote and has really stuck with me this past week was, "Free Christ to be your custom builder. Let Him tell you how He wants your house to look instead of the other way around," this next part really imprinted on my heart, "He alone has the blueprint." God spoke to my heart and told me He wants life service, not lip service. If I'm going to reach out and win souls for His Kingdom, first I have to get my heart right. It's right then that it became so clear. I need to do more for elderly people. Singing to them is great, and I will continue to because it gives ME joy. I've been feeling like I should volunteer at the nursing home for a few weeks now, but I kept saying to myself, "No, I don't have time. I have boys to raise, a house to clean, laundry to be washed and put away, it will cut into my bible study time, and so on...." Sunday during Sunday School there is a nurses aid that asked for prayers because they are short handed at the nursing homes...right here in Grand Saline. It hit me again that I needed to volunteer. And immediately I asked this woman what I would need to do to volunteer. After talking to her, though, here come all of my thoughts of why I can't do it.

Then finally! (I'm sure God is saying) last night I surrendered to the Lord, I'm going to do it- to bring joy to HIM! If that's what He is calling me to do, then he already has the details worked out for me, so I need to stop and look at the big picture. My house will still get cleaned and laundry done, and on Tuesday and Thursday's I don't have any kids. Well, duh! I guess now all I need to do is drive myself up there and talk to them....

I've been trying to teach the boys that it (life) isn't all about them. When all the time, God has probably been looking down on me, thinking "you can't teach them until you get it yourself.." We are here to glorify God and to serve one another; Jesus' character is the standard!..not culture. Maybe this will give me creative ideas to share and teach the boys...

Another thing is to teach a Dave Ramsey FPU class at church. I looked online, signed up for an information packet (which I just got a few minutes ago in the mail), and a few days ago I got a call from a 'Church Advisor' man who works with Dave himself. I thought that was neat, anyhow, I will be in prayer about this as well. Don't know how it's going to pan out, but I'll let you know how it goes!