I’ve been working on my laptop a lot lately and this morning was no exception. I was writing, answering emails, Facebook messages and working on stuff for the Refresh My Heart women’s conference next spring. 

My grandgirls, Juliana and Amiyah, ages 3 and 4, decided to dress up in their beautiful Christmas dresses from last year. Then they came out to the living room where I was working and started to twirl. And twirl. And twirl.

Gwamma. Gwamma. Gwamma! Watch us!

I glanced up at them, Oh pretty!  I said with fake excitement as the Christmas plaid and red dresses swirled around the hardwood floors before me. They must have caught on that I wasn’t a mesmerized audience member of their twirling show. 

Gwamma. Gwamma! Watch us again!

I glanced up from my laptop again and with more enthusiasm this time, cheered on their twirls. 

Finally, they had enough of my glances and cheers that lacked authenticity. 

Amiyah, the oldest started to repeatedly point at her eyes and then at mine while she said, Gwamma, make your eyes go here. 

As a believer in Jesus Christ,  it makes me think of all the times I’ve ignored the Holy Spirit’s nudging to make your eyes go here as I chose to focus on everything but Jesus. 

The times I’ve led a mess of a life is when I have chosen to take my eyes off of my Savior and tried to do life without Him. 

Which leads to a closed Bible and wondering why I can’t hear from Him. 

Which then leads to allowing Satan to act as big as he thinks he is. 

Which then leads to me believing lies over truth.

And it all boils down to focus because something or someone will capture our gaze and if it’s not Jesus Christ, our life becomes an open invitation to a devil who wants to destroy us. 

Today, if you are in a spiritual funk, take a close look and see where your gaze leads you. Sometimes we need to refocus and hit the refresh button of our souls. 

If you feel Jesus saying make your eyes go here, listen to His nudging and give Him all of your attention. 

Today, my grandblessings wanted my full focus.                                                                                    They weren’t going for my peeking over the top of my computer and my fake cheers.                                                                                                                                                          They want and deserve my full gaze and my authentic praise.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Just like Jesus does.

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus , the author and perfecter of our faith…

painted by artist Betty Shoopman

Blessings,

To see other beautiful paintings of Betty’s visit her on her Facebook Page. I was blessed to watch her paint this at the She Speaks Conference this past summer.

If you’re interested in joining us at the women’s conference, Refresh My Heart, we’d be honored to have you join us. Space is unfortunately limited, so please click HERE for conference information. It will be a time to get away to refresh your heart in the Lord at the beautiful Lied Lodge. All welcome…Early Bird prices ends December 31, 2012. 

The Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, NE.