Really God?

 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her." Luke 1:38

It was an Mfum-Mensah Christmas this year, and if you've ever experienced my family at its finest, you know that when you throw all of us together normal family conversations don't happen. Today during the family devotion, we were all challenged by dad to think of what we would have done, had an angel appeared to us and told us we would be having the son of God.

Naturally, I reflected.

I'd like to say that I would have accepted the words of the angel when he told me I would be giving birth to a son. I'd like to think that like Mary I would say "may your word to me be fulfilled... but honestly who am I kidding? I know that if I were in Mary's situation, I wouldn't be willing to let God interrupt my seemingly successful life. Mary was at the prime of her life; youthful and engaged to Joseph (probably a hunk of a man), if I were in that situation and some guy approached me claiming to be an angel and told me I was going to have a baby (while I'm still a virgin) I would kindly offer to drive him to the mental institution. 

Looking at my life today, I realize that if God was giving me this blessing, of bringing  his beloved son into the world I wouldn't slow down enough to acknowledge and accept that blessing.

Christmas time is a time to slow down, and reflect on the Gift of our father, who loved us so much that he allowed his son to be born into this sinful world to save our life. From our family discussion/debate, I learned something valuable today. I learned the importance of listening and allowing God's plan to be fulfilled in us. I'm sure Mary's plan of life did not include having a child before getting married, or bringing into the world the son of God, or experiencing the excruciating pain of child birth, but in allowing God to work through her, she received the greatest blessing of all, she became the mother of God.

Asking for Forgiveness

Well tis the season for honesty so let me be honest.

 I'm not the most humble person out there. I know, shocking right? In the spirit of full disclosure, I think I can honestly say that I'm very lacking in the humility department. I make a lot of mistakes, and my mistakes tend to hurt people, and I'm generally very good at figuring out when I've hurt someone...but I don't do very well in publicly acknowledging my fault and asking for forgiveness. My pride has a uncanny way of getting between  me and the people I love. Mind you, its not as if I'm walking around acting like I'm better than everyone, its just that sometimes I say certain things and later find out that I was wrong, and I have soooo much difficulty just admitting that I'm wrong.
Seriously, this has been a problem with me from childhood. I can vividly remember at least 6 occasions where either my mom or dad has told me that in order to learn from my mistakes I need to come to terms with the fact that I was wrong.
I'd like to thing (and I seriously hope) that I'm not the only person who is struggling with this. So how can I deal with this issue? how do I come to the point where I can ask for forgiveness or admit that I'm sorry?
Today I was doing my devotion, and it just happen to be on pride and it had a great passage from the bible that I somehow, have managed to bypass over the years. In Proverbs 11:2 it says

" Pride goes before destruction. And a haughty spirit before stumbling."

I thank God today for opening my eyes to the consequences of my pride. I know it sounds cliche but to be reminded again of the effects of pride really has drawn my attention back to my problem and has encouraged me to assess myself next time I feel compelled to withhold the legitimacy of someones statement.

To someone special

well these songs have been playing in my head for awhile...
Mainly because sometimes I don't appreciate important people in my life, and I should. And yes I know I've been talking about this none stop lately but its something I know I don't do so well. So these songs are my generic thanks, to the blessing in my life!