JOIN.
(Verb) To link, connect. (Noun) a place or line where two or more things are connected or fastened together. [Oxford Dictionary]
Many years ago, I learned the value of this word through an embarrassing experience.
I was waiting with my husband on date night for our dinner to be made at Harvey’s, and was chatting away with him on my right hand side as I faced the counter. I was feeling very connected to him, so I slipped my hand in his left back pocket. As physical touch is his primary love language, I was intentionally trying to show him I loved him in that moment.
Unbenounced to me, my husband had stepped away to grab a paper and was standing a few feet behind me.
You guessed it, I had been chatting away to a stranger, and put my hand in his pocket! ( I stammered out an, “I am SO SORRY!” to which he replied, “That’s okay. That’s the most action I have had in a long time.” Awkward!!)
Suffice it to say, I am exceptionally aware of my surroundings now when out in public. And I am very careful who I join with as a result!
For I have learned (mostly the hard way) that we are both positively and negatively impacted by those we choose to join with in action, thought, word and/or spirit.
I now filter any request to join anything through my personal mission statement, and bring it to the Lord in prayer. If it doesn’t sit right with Him, I say no. If it isn’t the right timing, I say no.
Just because we are asked does not obligate us to fulfill the request.
My first and foremost responsibility is to connect with God on a regular basis, to join my heart to His. Then it is to join God in what He is doing, and do my part, whatever it is He is asking me to do.
But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.
1 Corinthians 6:17 ESV
#fiveminute #freewrites #31days2019
KARLA LEES 