Desires

Well....if you follow my blog you had a chance to see how we spent last week.  We stayed in a gorgeous ocean front home with a baby pool, big pool, hot tubs, fountains, 7 bedrooms, custom showers with 5 jets, pool table.....etc.

IT WAS NICE and IT WAS FREE for us!  Randy's parents very generously provided us with this all expense paid DREAM getaway.  If Randy and I were paying we would be camping out in our tent next door :).

So.....It was truly wonderful!  It was totally generous!  It was tremendously appreciated.  AHHHH.....and then the week ended.   We came home.  Picked up our dog.  Dumped out our suitcases.  Picked up the mail and Monday came WAY TOO FAST!

Vacation was over and it was back to real life....and while I certainly would not mind living a lavish life all the time I did get to thinking about my Desires.  What do I Desire?  To be rich....to have stuff.....to be "happy"....for life to be easy?

This has been tumbling around in my brain all week and then this morning I had a few quiet moments and I read a prayer from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Desires
O THOU THAT HEAREST PRAYER,
Teach me to pray.
I confess that in religious exercises
            the language of my lips and the feelings of my heart
                  have not always agreed,
     that I have frequently taken carelessly upon my tongue
            a name never pronounced above
                   without reverence and humility,
     that I have often desired things which would have injured me,
     that I have depreciated some of my chief mercies,
     that I have erred both on the side of my hopes
            and also of my fears,
     that I am unfit to choose for myself,
            for it is not in me to direct my steps.

Let thy Spirit help my infirmities,
     for I know not what to pray for as I ought.
Let him produce in me wise desires by which I may ask right things,
     then I shall know thou hearest me.
May I never be importunate for temporal blessings
     but always refer them to thy fatherly goodness,
     for thou knowest what I need before I ask;
May I never think I prosper unless my soul prospers,
     or that I am rich unless rich toward thee,
     or that I am wise unless wise unto salvation.
May I seek first thy kingdom and its righteousness.
May I value things in relation to eternity.
May my spiritual welfare be my chief solicitude.
May I be poor, afflicted, despised and have thy blessing,
      rather than be successful in enterprise,
            or have more than my heart can wish,
            or be admired by my fellow-men,
                  if thereby these things make me forget thee.
May I regard the world as dreams, lies, vanities, vexation of spirit,
       and desire to depart from it.
And may I seek my happiness in thy favour, image, presence, service.

AMEN

So let me first say: NOTHING IS WRONG with being rich and having stuff.
Next-This is about what the Lord is teaching my heart....I am NOT preaching!
Also....I know nothing is wrong with enjoying the finer things of life....enjoy I do......However I must be ever mindful of my heart and it's deceit and it's desires.
Finally-about this prayer: I want this.  At least I want to want this!

Happy Thursday!
Kim