What message are you sending?

Hey friend! The coolest thing happened Friday night on our way out of town. Earlier in the day, my husband got tied up with some stuff which pushed our leaving much later than anticipated. We didn’t even start packing the truck until nearly 7:30 p.m.. We were all hungry and I was extremely irritated. If ‘hangry’ is a real thing, I had it.

Frustrated, we decided to pull into a Taco Bell on the way. Things just hadn’t gone as I had hoped. My husband even told me I was putting off a real negative vibe. I rolled my eyes of course. Because, well, he was right and I knew it.

As we walked into the restaurant, I noticed my son stopped just outside the door, bent down and picked something up. His face lit up as he turned toward me. He said, “Mom, check this out.” Looking at his discovery, I realized it was a God Rock, a cute little painted rock with a bible verse on it.

I was fascinated. Who would have left that adorable little rock there? I realized, in that moment, my mood had changed. When we got inside, we quickly ordered,  grabbed a table and googled the verse. It read;

“You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. ³ And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”(2 Corinthians 3:2-3; NIV)

Oh my gosh. This was our message in a bottle. We are a physical letter from Christ, carried and delivered by us everywhere we go.

As I write to you today, I am led to a verse similar in nature.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5; The Message says;

“You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God’s master stroke, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.

^3-5 I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.

“The Message came through anyway.” That little rock was a message and I was hearing it loud and clear. It got me thinking. First, had God left that little rock with that specific message there just for me? Second, how foolish I had been carrying around my bad attitude. I was convicted of my bad behavior and the message I had been sending out into the world. I confessed right then and there, asking for forgiveness, first from God and then from my family.

There’s a Proverb that says;