Road Construction Ahead

 

Winter in Ohio; ice one day, snow the next, then the 50 degree day. Cinders, salt and farm manure; it’s all a part of Ohio’s winter roads. Then add traffic to all that mess and it just tears them apart. Every winter. POTHOLES appear. Roads fall apart.

In Ohio, you know it is summer when the road construction starts again. Every summer the crews are out spending their time fixing the roads. Putting down new pavement, filling in the potholes. Getting the road ready for another batch of winter salt and cinders. (and farm manure!)

Sometimes the road is a quick fix, you see just two guys and a truck filling in potholes. Other times you see a whole crew out, completely starting over on the road. Tearing it all out and starting completely over.

Ohio road construction; It is a continuous state of re-doing, A continual state of improvement.

This is how our life needs to be. A continuous state of improving. A continual state of fixing and repairing.

We all have things, that need fixed.
For us it might be, our before school routine; it worked smoothly till our son started middle school and got on the bus at 6:45. Just a little ‘pothole’ repair, a little timing adjustment.

It may be our supper making methods, we may have used to make supper the night before back when we worked full time; now being at home all day finds us too tired to even get our pjs on for bed, let alone make supper for the next day. A little detour needs to happen for a while, till we figure out how to get it to work again.

Our homeschool schedule; it worked for a while then the baby drops her morning nap and we have to tear out the whole road and construct it into something that works again.

It may be our our cleaning day routine; when the day you clean is always Saturday and all of a sudden you hit wedding season and there are bridal showers every Saturday am for the next month. Something has to give for the house to get cleaned.
We will always have things that need to be adjusted. Always need to make improvements, by filling in a couple potholes now and then. And I think as moms and as wives we just do it; we make adjustments. We find a better way, we fix the issues.

 

Those are just surface issues. Those are just everyday things that every person deals with.

There is another level that is more important than all that. More important than scheduling and making life run smoothly; it is our HEART issues. How are we doing at adjusting, fixing and improving our hearts?

 

We need to get rid of the potholes that get in our road. The little things; the impatience we have toward our children. The fear we have of what other people might think of us. The anger we are harboring toward the person who hurt us last week. The jealousy that crops up when you see your friends new house.

 

 

These little things grow into bigger things and soon can ruin the whole road.

We HAVE to deal with the potholes.

We have to keep our road in good maintenance.

 

 

If we let anger go unchecked too long it turns into bitterness and hatred and we have to remake the whole road by forgiving and starting all over.

 

The potholes of the fear of what someone else thinks, may very quickly turn into a road all broken up. We may become a girl, all broken up not knowing who we REALY are in Christ. Not really knowing where we ourself are going. We may have to rebuild our road; rebuild our view of ourself, into what GOD’s opinion of us really is.

 

We have to keep our road in good maintenance.

 

Some of the maintenance needs to be done every day. We need to nurture our relationship with Jesus every day. We need to spend time connected with Him in the Word and in prayer with him every day. 

Sometimes we may have little potholes to fill in. A ‘I’m sorry’ to say. A kind word to share. A prayer of repentance. A forgiving word or action.

Some things need to be to be done on special occasions. When the ‘ice’ comes or the ‘snow’. In our life there may be times where we know that we are going to be around someone that has hurt us before; we may need an extra dose of ‘salt’ before being with them. We may need to spend extra time in prayer. We may need to spend extra time with the Bible. We may need to talk to someone. We may need to apply a little ‘salt’, to help protect our minds from the darts we know satan is going to bring us.

Sometimes we may need to pull up the whole road and build a new one. I’ve had to do this one. When anger took over my life and had moved into bitterness and hatred. For sure that was one big construction job. It wasn’t just a quick two man, one truck pot hole fill in; that was the real deal. Complete road tear out and redo.

 

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This life road construction is not always easy, it is not always fun. Yet we must. We need to take care of our HEARTS; For if we let the potholes of life get out of control satan will take over our life. 

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:

but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Phil 3:13-Phil 3:15 KJV

Such a comfort that God will show us the Heart issues (the potholes) that satan is trying to place in our road. Let us press on toward the goal to win the prize Christ has waiting for us!

 

Leave me a comment, what potholes do you need to take care of today?   Have you had to do a complete road re-do in your life?