Skipping Out on Church

Today I skipped out after Sunday School. I hate calling it Sunday School, don't know exactly why, just do. Anyway, my Chinese kiddos were gone on their annual church retreat so I didn't have that normal responsibility.

I came home. I needed quiet. There hasn't been a lot of quiet in the last couple of days or week. In fact, I think the only time I experienced quiet was when I put my earplugs in and went to sleep. But, my brain isn't quiet when I sleep. Lots of crazy, bizarre dreams that don't let me really rest.

So, I came home to a quiet house and picked up my Bible. It opened to Isaiah 61 and I started reading. Now, I thought I was in Psalms so I was a little confused when I picked up another translation and the passages really didn't match. But, I figured it out pretty quickly. I'm smart that way... sometimes.

I love how everything that God puts in my life blends together to teach me, calm me, lift me up.
Sometimes it is gaining the knowledge that I'm not crazy in how I feel about a certain topic, that what the Holy Spirit has been moving and stirring in my heart is the truth.

This morning this is what jumped out to me as something I need to work diligently on cultivating in my life. The Nancy Sapp Purdy paraphrase:

Bring messages of joy instead of news of doom.
Have a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.

My prayer is that I be a messenger of joy. I've got people in my extended family that love to be the bearers of bad news. It just pours out of them. Some of them seem to feel it is their duty to make sure everyone knows the news of doom.

It is very easy for me to have a languid spirit. My prayer is that I work to develop a continuous praising heart.

Sometimes skipping out on church is a good thing. In the quiet I can focus. My mother would be having a cow right now if she knew. Skipping Sunday School and church any time the doors are open leads right to hell. But, it is okay to sleep in church, because you have made the effort to be in the building with the other saints. Okay, I'll stop now. I'm slipping away from being a messenger of joy.