Thankful Thursday: The Holy Spirit's Moving

It's Thankful Thursday, and I'm so grateful today for the Holy Spirit and the Word of God! I'm so thankful that the Lord speaks to me through His Word, and prods me in my spirit to know it's Him. He is teaching me and even makes the words seem to jump off the page at times!

Proverbs 15:10--"Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way, and he that hateth reproof shall die."

Proverbs 15:31-32--"The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.  He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul:  but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.  The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom:  and before honor is humility."

Proverbs 12:1--"Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge; but he that hateth reproof is brutish." (brutish basically means "stupid.")

Yesterday and the day before, as I read these words of Scripture, there was a VERY CLEAR MESSAGE!  Listen when your husband corrects you!  If you don't, you're a fool, not Godly, not wise, and will come to ruin--you'll be destroyed.

Pretty straightforward.  Good thing the Lord gave me a "heads-up" so to speak.  This morning, I had a chance to put my learning into action.
First thing this morning, my husband told me he wanted me to put everything I can into getting physically ready to walk all day every day when we go to Washington, DC.  It's a "walking city"!  He told me I have a month, and he wanted me to give it my all.  He was like a coach at halftime!  Now, I don't know about you other gals, but I've noticed that guys really respond to being yelled at during halftime, but we gals, we're made a little differently:)  But, I had been told by the Holy Spirit to listen to my husband! So, I took this as straight from the Lord!!  He even told me to walk on hard surfaces like we'll probably be experiencing in museums, etc.

It was pretty intense, but I knew he was right, and I knew it was what I needed.  Fortunately, I'd been prepared by the Holy Spirit.  Good thing.  Or I might have been offended, or defended myself.  But, it wasn't the first time the thought had been brought to my mind.  I had been thinking that I needed to start a walking regimen a few weeks ago.  Basically, within 24 hours of starting at that time, I had turned one ankle and had a flare-up of my arthritis on the other side that hurt so bad, I was almost in tears.  That was pretty discouraging.  I didn't know how I was going to walk around DC with my arthritis being so bad.  It had never acted up like that before.  So, these last two weeks I've been really praying.  After that flare-up, I haven't gone for long walks, but I've been on my feet a lot, just due to the busyness and responsibilities I've had.  In the last week I co-hosted two big shower/receptions with 65 and 90 people each. We also babysat my great-nieces, who are 3 and 1, for the weekend.  And my feet have been doing a lot better, for which I'm so thankful!  But, I was also thankful for the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit, reminding me to listen to instruction, and prompting me to respond to my husband as I would to the Lord.

Today, I was the most grateful! My daughter and I had driven into Maple Grove, and I was waiting for her to pick me up, but instead of just standing or sitting there, I headed out walking!  I didn't know exactly where I was going to go, but I saw a big hard-pavement parking lot, actually parking lots(!) in front of me, and I thought they perfectly fit the bill of "hard surfaces" to walk on! So, I picked up my large gift bag that my friend had just given me in one hand, and in my other hand I took my large bag filled with books and CDs that I'd brought with me to show her, both weighing several pounds, and I set off walking!  Expecting to see my daughter pull up at any moment, I just kept on walking briskly, finally ending up at Barnes and Noble in the strip mall, enjoying this gorgeous day, and enjoyed getting my heart rate up, and working up a sweat even, due to the afternoon sun beating down.  I wasn't dressed for the experience, or even wearing proper walking shoes, but nonetheless, it felt really good, and turned out to be about a half hour or so walk!

Now, walking might be nothing to you, but walking for even a few blocks lately had caused me a great deal of pain.  As I said, I've developed arthritis in my feet, and when I had a flare-up a couple of weeks ago, I thought, "Oh, no."  I could hardly stand the pain, so I took extra-strength Tylenol (rapid release) which I reserve for migraine headaches which on rare occasions hit me.  The pain hit me on a Sunday morning, so off we went to church.  I thought I was going to cry, it was so bad.  I had to take another dose of Tylenol later that day, just to make it through.  I was limping all day.  Even sitting, my foot hurt terribly.  Walking was excruciating.  So, today, I just want to give glory to God and praise the Lord!! My arthritis didn't hurt at all!!  And I was able to walk a long ways (on hard pavement:) and I just looked up to heaven, and said, "I'm obeying You, Lord!" And I knew it was the best thing for me to do.  And He helped me to do it.  I'm praying that He will continue to enable me to walk and get back into shape, and be able to enjoy my family and our time walking around all the fun places that we'll be going to, and not to hold them back at all.

It's so good to hear from the Lord, and know you've heard from Him.  As wives, we can know that the Lord will speak and lead through our husbands, but sometimes we don't want to believe it.  I'm grateful that we have such a loving Lord Who has given us His Holy Spirit and the Word of God. To participate and read other thankful posts, visit Iris, at Grace Alone--Thanks, Iris, for hosting!