Proverbs 10-11

Momma told me to eat before I eat - to spend time in the Word before I eat physical food.

Today, I listened.

This passage was heavy and hard for me to read, but I think it's because it's hitting home. The main two things that this passage was talking about was that wisdom and controlling the tongue go hand in hand. The second thing is that the righteous will pursue righteousness, and they will be rewarded.

I think that as a team, we've been lacking in both of these things. Definitely, I personally have not had enough wisdom lately and have very often spoken before thinking things through. But, I think this problem is running deeper than just me.

We have all these opportunities that God allows us to make decisions. Some of them are small and others are huge. Some of them are simply administrative while others are dealing with people's spiritual nourishment and well-being.

I think that we've been trying too hard to rely on our own strength, reason and righteousness in making these decisions. These past few weeks, in Exec and Connect we've seen the repercussions of living like this. We've become hard-hearted to each other and have become more concerned about being right than what God wants for our fellowship.

During SLT (2008), one of the speakers told us, "I hope you have big, beautiful dreams for your chapter. Then, I hope that God crushes those dreams so that you can see the people in your chapter." I think we've reached the point of our own individual dreams being crushed, in one way or another. We can either mope about it or see how much we can impact the lives and the future of AAIV. So let's open our eyes to the people that we have been entrusted with and let's learn to pursue God's righteousness and not what we desire. Let's also see each other and remember the impact of our words when they are just hot air. Those little moments of heat have been nursed into tension and even bitterness. So let's love one another, consider each other's dreams and together figure out where God wants to take AAIV, even if we didn't see it coming.

Thankfully, I believe that God is working in this chapter and that in some ways, our troubles are a signal that Satan knows that kingdom work is being done here. So let's not let him steal our blessings from us, but let's be excited for all the great things God's going to be doing in us and through us for His name.

"Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs."

Let's love each other this week by caring for each other's feelings. Let's love God this week by caring for this chapter and all of His children that are in it. Love love love.