Contradictions

You, know, it's funny the things we say when we are young and know everything.
This is a "chocolate" set that was given to my parents 31 years ago for their wedding. I have no idea of if she ever used it, I only saw it once, when we were packing to move while I was in college and I said "Oh that is soooo cool - leave it to me in your will!" To which my mother said - go ahead and take it now!

When I was young my mother had these dishes she called the "Crystal Beach" dishes. They were also "Breakfast dishes" and very beautiful. They were kept in a glass-windowed cupboard, and rarely used. I always wanted to use those dishes for breakfast, lunch, brunch, whatever! But no, they were special.
So I vowed I would never have special dishes. I would use my good dishes every day.

Last week as I looked at my kitchen shelf with this "chocolate" set nicely placed on it I laughed. In the year since placing them on the shelf, I'd only brought them down to dust. So in realization that I'd done the very evil I vowed never to do - shutting those mugs up for "something special" I took down the pot, filled it with coffee and felt like a proper Englishwoman enjoying my hot beverage with a cup and saucer.

I wonder how much of our lives are lived like that. We have our "special" clothes for Sunday. Do we also have "special" attitudes for Sunday? Oh, it's Sunday, better put on my "worship" attitude. Then back on the shelf it goes, looking great but doing nothing until next week. I fear that we in America live our lives so fragmented, myself included. We so easily fall into the system of dividing our lives into pieces, each placed on the shelf for it's "special" moment. Ok, now it's time to worship, now it's time to study, now it's time to read to E, now it's time to talk with so-and-so. What if every moment of our lives we lived our faith - living and real. What if we obeyed the command of Deuteronomy 6? Oh that our "spiritual" times would never be separated from everyday life. Each moment is a moment to worship the King of Glory.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9
"These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them dilligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."