Settling, Good, Better & Best

December has been an incredible month and one of the best Christmases ever, aside from those Christmases that was the first Christmas with each of my children.  Last year, I did not get to spend Christmas Day or New Year's Day with either of my children, or at least very much of it.  This year, I got all of Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, the week leading up to it and some after.  It was truly wonderful for me.

On the topic of settiling in our lives for not even what's good for us, or for Good, Better, or Best, what do you choose?  We'd all like to think we are going for what is BEST in our lives, but our lives will often tell us whether that is true or not.

Have we allowed God to give us the very best in our lives?

Personally, I have not, especially in the area of finances and men.  Not that I am old, but I have more than a few years under my belt, a string of broken relationships, and not much to show for it financially -- though, a lot of hard work and efforts have been put into both of these.

In a group that I belong to, our teacher periodically brings up are we willing to just settle for Good or Better, or do we want God's BEST for our lives?  She is mainly talking about men, but it really applies to everything in our lives. 

Why do we settle for less than Good, or just Good or Better?  Is it because we don't think we deserve to have the BEST?  or we really don't realize there is BEST out there and that God does want to give us that BEST.  Maybe to take to BEST is too much work?  Maybe it means surrendering, being humbled or us choosing to humble ourselves?  Surrendering means to submit.  Submit to whom?  In this case, it's God.

When we settle for less than God's BEST for our lives, we are forfeiting some truly awesome blessings.

A quick story of God providing the very best for me that my digital camera that I had had for years and used it to bless many people with died, after limping along for over a year.  Prayer and the laying of hands no longer would resurrect my beloved historian.  Instead, I placed before the Lord the dilemma to equip me with another camera, a newer camera.  With the Lord, it is never a dilmenna.

The Lord provided all the money very quickly, but because my own children needed warm clothes, I put aside my own desires and needs to provide for my kids.  That's a no brainer for me and for most parents.  After nearly 2 dozen bids on particular camera and losing every single bid, even one I lost in the last 4 seconds (got sniped) and lost by a couple dollars, it took quite awhile for me to realize that that wasn't the camera God wanted for me.  It was a BETTER camera - fairly new (last year's model), used. 

In fact, I was willing to settle for the same exact camera if someone was willing to sell their's for under $25.  That was GOOD.  I was unwilling to settle for less than GOOD, however, because I knew the Lord wanted me to have a camera.  Though the camera is a huge part of my life and I use it to share with my church, family, friends, school, etc., it was not an idol. 

But, God's plan for me was to get the BEST camera, which was this year's model and NEW.  That was more money than my original plan to pay for BETTER.  So, I prayed and God supplied all the rest of the money PLUS some more. 

We have to watch for signs from the Lord.  As the Lord pushed Paul up towards Macedonia from Asia Minor to preach the Gospel, it wasn't bad that Paul wanted to share the Gospel with those in Asia Minor, but He wanted Paul in Macedonia, finally preaching to the Philippians.  This is where the book of Philippians came from when Paul was in jail in Philippi.  Many of Caesar's household, the jailers, got saved through this, but the book of Philippians has some incredible insights for the foundation of Christian living.  This has helped Christians for generations now.  In fact, nearly 2 milliniums.

Often what we want is not necessarily bad, but it's not God's BEST.  I think God uses different people to help show us what He wants us to do, and we are to watch out for those things in our lives so He can direct us to the right places, people, circumstances.  God's timing is always best.

I was truly and still am so excited and thankful for my new camera that He so generously provided through a number of people, and one in particular.  It was a whole series of miracles coming together.  What seemed like frustration was me actually in the wrong area & direction, just a bit skewed.  Often we are just slightly off, but that slightly being off in the long-run turns into some huge deviation.

There were quite a few things to note about the camera thing:
1.  Focus was on God to provide the money however He chose to
2.  Surrendering to God's timing (I wanted the camera by Thankgiving, but I didn't get it until 2 weeks later).
3.  Surrendering to not getting a camera and knowing God will give it when He wants - timing, again.
4.  Being grateful for each step of the process.
5.  Taking action to know His will.  I would not have known He did not want a particular camera until I began bidding.
6.  Being content with what I had -- that was just my 1.6 MP cell camera phone and using that to still glorify God.
7.  Not grumbling or complaining, but looking at the bright side.

Now, one may say this is just regarding a camera, but couldn't it be with regards to men, the stock market, trading?  God doesn't give us a destiny and thn say, "Psyche!!!  Just kidding!"  He fully equips us, gives us directions to take along the journey.

Unlike men whom I've been romantically involved with, this has never turned out well.  Gonna need God to really hold my hand here.  As for finances, I totally need God here, too.  Though, there are some things I did do well.  However, apart from Him, I can do nothing. 

God provided so many miracles for my camera.  The financial & men things are way bigger.  Way more miracles needed.