Day 253, October 23

"Where the heart is willing, it will find a thousand ways, but where it is unwilling, it will find a thousand excuses."--Bornean Proverb

These words snagged my attention, perhaps because they so accurately describe me.  When my heart is willing to do something, I find that my body and mind usually tag along and I do it.  When my heart is unwilling, nothing will budge me. 

Take, for example, garage sales.  My heart is almost always willing to go to garage sales.  I get up early, dress, and will tromp through snow and ice to attend a promising sounding sale.  When it comes to exercising, my heart (and, alas, body and mind) find every excuse in the book to avoid it.

Another example is my writing.  I like the feeling have having written.  That is entirely different from writing.  Writing is just hard work.  One day, I noticed a rip in the seam of a pair of drapes.  Painstakingly, I undid each drapery hook from the rod and took the drapes downstairs to my sewing machine where I sewed up the seam.  One might think I'd be feeling proud of myself.  No so, because I knew why I had taken the trouble to sew (I HATE to sew) the seam:  it kept me from writing.  It gave me a wonderful excuse to not write.  The problem was, sooner or later, I had to do the writing, had to finish the story I'd set in motion.

Of more importance are those times when my heart is unwilling to do the things the Lord has instructed.  You know the ones I mean:  serving with a real smile, forgiving those who have wronged me, being generous in thoughts and words as well as means.

So, for today, I am grateful for those times when my heart is willing to do what the Lord commands.