Tomorrow I plan to get back to blogging about my reading of Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes. I’ve hesitated a bit because the next chapter is about submission. Although, I think she only deals with our submission to God, not our husbands, in the next chapter. In light of that, though, I want to share a bit of the sermon I heard this morning.
We visited a church last Sunday and today (yes, still searching) where the pastor is preaching expositorily through the book of Genesis. No sermon-hunting on the internet with this pastor! He spends hours and hours studying and preparing. He told Hubby that he makes it a practice to translate from the original languages himself so that he knows exactly what it says! It is interesting to me that this pastor, as learned as he is, as passionate for God’s word as he is, has been placed in this out-of-the-way church with a small congregation to care for. After listening to 18 preachers, he is a diamond in the rough. He feeds his congregation well!
Anyway, back to my point. He said something this morning that made me think about this book I’m working through. He was explaining the detail and the order of creation. He was doing a fantastic job of expounding on the greatness of God and then he said, “To the degree that you are living outside of God’s order for His creation, your life will be chaos. The further you are from God’s order, the more chaotic your life will be.”
Well, my life is not chaotic. But, I applied what he said to my home. Our home tends toward chaos. When there is a problem, or we are late, or something is undone, it usually is because I failed somewhere. God has given a specific order to our family, and I believe He wants my home in order. The problem is that I am the primary agent He will use to bring about order in my home. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I am confident that He will do it. That is why I am so serious about cultivating a more disciplined lifestyle. My desire is to order my home for the glory of God.
Not to be legalistic–I’ve done that. Legalism is exhausting, self-centered, and no fun. Discipline and order that is God-centered and for His glory is going to be…well, I don’t know what it’s really like, but I don’t dread it. His grace will abound for the task at hand and He will get all the glory!
I’ll end this post with a verse that I repeated daily after our fourth child was born. It will be good for me to review this truth:
1 Corinthians 9:8
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Leslie Wiggins 
7 responses to “I Get the Help, He Gets the Glory”
What a great post Leslie, and so true. I’ve also done legalism – you’re right, it’s exhausting. I’m trying to tackle discipline in my life. I have a tendency to want to change everything right away. Of course, that always makes me anxious, and I fail, and then I feel like I just can’t do it. I’ve learned to tackle things one step at a time. For instance, for the past few weeks I’ve been waking at the same time every morning, showering and getting dressed right away. This has significantly cut down on the morning stress level. In terms of housework, I make sure I unload the dishwasher right away in the morning and make my bed when I get up, etc. Once once small step is tackled I move on to another one.It’s taking longer this way, but I’m slowly making progress without feeling defeated and stressed out.I’m very interested in hearing about the rest of your book!
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Very encouraging post!! Thank you for sharing this.I know finding a church home is difficult. May the Lord lead your family to a new home soon. We are huge Piper fans, too!His,Mrs. U
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thank you for commenting on my blog. i am glad i read yours this morning. i came down to my kitchen which could be characterized as “chaotic” and just thought to myself, “ugh. i do not want to do this today.” but the sweet reminder that it is to my good and God’s glory that i pursue that for which i was created was very helpful. thank you.
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Thanks for those words. I too, am being challenged in this area. I need to order that book today. My home can often be chaotic – and it is my fault. There are little steps I need to take to make our home less chaotic. It’s hard sometimes to find the best order and rythmn. But instead of giving up I need to persevere!
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Oh, you guys all left such great comments! I am so thankful we can encourage one another. I am reminded of a movie, What About Bob? in which Bob spends the entire movie saying, “I’m baby steppin’!” Have any of you seen this movie? It’s hilarious!Anyway, I’m baby steppin’!
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Just wanted to pipe up and echo Mrs. U. I’m a big fan of John Piper too!
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Great distinction between legalism and disclipline. Legalism will wear you out – but discipline can build you up. And I need to work on the discipline of keeping my house in order, too – it just gets away from me sometimes.Also, your link on my Mr. Linky thing had an extra period in it – I’m going to fix it so that others can read this post – but it’ll change the “position” a little bit. 🙂
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