Serve?

So guess who started training to serve at Ruby Tuesday? Yup, you guessed it. Its been interesting - both of my training days have not gone as planned, but thats another story for another day.

Serve.
I always thought of the word as a "Christianese" word, but now working in a restaurant kind of puts a new spin on it. That is what I will now be paid to do - serve others. Interesting thought. Even more interesting is that a lot of the people I work with may be servers in title, but the attitude says otherwise. (Sorry if anyone from work is reading this, I'm just being honest). Which got me thinking - I guess this is why we pray for "servant's hearts." To do the action along with having the attitude behind it.

What I'm really hoping is not going to happen is that serving at Ruby Tuesday will not just become something that I'm paid to do 5+ nights per week...that it would be attitude that I take on daily. Not just with customers, but with co-workers, family (that one is probably hardest...), roommates, friends. Not begrudging anything to anyone, but being willing to not look only to my own interests but also to the interests of others....having the same mind as that of the Lord, who made himself a servant....

Anyways, just thoughts.

Ask of God...

Saw this on a blog called Arguing with Angels (Arguing With angels ) and really liked it. A guy at my church writes the blog and also made the graphic, so none of this is mine, for the record. But, it is still really good :)

Love it. And Amen.

Be Exalted Above...

Worship. I've been learning a lot about it.

Have you ever walked into church feeling burdened down by everything thats happened the past week, not so sure tha you can really praise the Lord that day? You start singing the songs, and are especially drawn to the ones that talk about how you are feeling....and then you're not so into singing "How Great is Our God" because its just all about praising the Lord, with no regard to how you're doing?

Story of my life.
But recently, the Lord has been showing me and challenging me with this idea that if I am not willing to lay aside my problems aside to FOCUS on Hiim, then in a way, I am worshipping my problems. By putting them on the same level as the glory and greatness of my Lord, I am giving my problems and circumstances a pedastal that they do not deserve.

I just finished reading through the Psalms in about 3 days (and yes, that was a lot!), and a lot of the Psalms that stood out to me where the Psalmist would stop and praise the Lord in the middle of a bunch of his complaints. Wow.

Obviously the point of worship of the Lord is to magnify Him and bless His name...but how often do we come to worship to do that? Maybe if we had a good week, not so much if our week was not the best. The point is that His name is worth glorifying each week. Each day. Hour. Minute. Second. You get the picture.

I know I've written about this before, but there is nothing in our lives so great that it deserves more precedence than the Lord. Can I get an amen?

Jesus be exalted above my worries
Be exalted above my fears
Be exalted above my problems
Be exalted above my feelings
Be exalted above my circumstances
Be exalted in my life...