Take aways from Titus

Okay this blog has been in my head since Christmas. I went into Christmas break both mentally and physically exhausted. I had been working long hours and on top of that some of my students had been emotionally draining. While in Tenn. for the break, I dropped off Nana and the kids at church for Sunday school and treated myself to Starbucks. It was just what the doctor ordered. Listening to praise music on my iPod, I poured out my heart to God and somehow found myself reading the book of Titus.

Here is my prayer from reading Titus:

God, help me to be reverent in the way that I live. My I teach what is good. Help me to love my husband and my children, to be self controlled and pure, busy at home and to be kind and subject to my husband. Help me to find a balance between my work and home.

May I make the teaching about God Our Savior attractive by the way I live. May people see God in me. Amen

Two take aways that were God’s gifts for me in my situation:

1. God’s grace teaches me to say NO to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controled, upright lives in this present age while I wait for the blessed hope –Jesus. I am waiting for my blessed hope Jesus and in the meantime, I am to somehow love on these teenagers that are apart of my daily life. My words affect them. I often need to speak the truth in love but I need to make sure that is what I am really doing not just reacting to the situation.

2. Do what is Good. I need to be about the business of doing good. You know it works. When I am focused on doing good, I am not focused on myself. I am focused on others. When I am doing good, I am more likely to extend grace. Something else I noticed about doing good that it is not the opposite of doing bad. It is a conscious effort to put the needs of others before what I want to do. Plus it can be fun.

Each year I have a verse that I like to try to live out and this year it comes from Titus. Titus 3:7 says ” This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.”