The Desire Accomplished

 I've been glued to the NFL scouting combine this weekend. It may sound silly, but I'm fascinated by the skills these young men have, the college football players who are looking to start a professional sports career in the NFL.

Before you get worried that this will be a boring football analysis - it's not. But while watching the combine Sunday afternoon, I saw a tattoo on one young man's arm. All it said was Proverbs 13:19, with no words. Whenever I see someone with a Scriptural tattoo, I immediately look it up to see what was so important that they inked it on themselves.

The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil. Proverbs 13:19

I've read this chapter of Proverbs dozens of times (Read the corresponding Proverb for whatever day of the month it is.) and I honestly don't remember ever reading this verse. I absolutely adore it.

When you break down the first half, I understand why an athlete would choose this as a life verse.

1. The desire is for what God wants. It's not about my goals or my expectations. It's all about focusing on God's plan for my life. (My day, my week, my year.)

2. The accomplishment is supplied by God. I'm not going to achieve anything in this world under my own power. Success and accomplishments come directly from the Lord for His glory and His honor.

3. The sweetness is God's true sweetness. Sin may give pleasures for a season, but the sweetness of the Lord is all the milk and honey you can stand, overflowing into your cup. It satiates, fills and satisfies like nothing else can because it's perfect and created just for you.

4. The soul is blessed, not the flesh. This the difference between the eternal and the temporal. There's nothing better than laying up treasures in Heaven, knowing that everything you do on earth will be waiting for you down the road. That outweighs a little happiness or pleasure here.

The opposite of this beautiful picture is the second half of the verse. How sad that there are people "happy" in their sin. This seems so mediocre and so lazy. They see getting right with the Lord as "abomination" when that's exactly how God sees their sin.

This verse has special meaning for me now. I'm not an athlete, but I love the thought of God blessing me with the desires of my heart when I'm living for Him. How sweet that is to my soul!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Holland Creme - That Amazing White Stuff In Donuts

Image
I remember going to the grocery store every Saturday morning when I was growing up, and my favorite place in the entire store was the donut case. All the glazed, powdered and filled baked goods drew me like a magnet. My favorites, far and away, were the ones filled with that beautiful white, fluffy creme. At the time I didn't know it was called Holland Creme - I just knew it was the most amazing concoction ever. Ever. Here is my version of this sweet treat. You can make your own fried donuts and fill them, or like I did here, you can cut a crevice into store-bought donuts with a knife and fill them with creme in a piping bag. Either way, you're going to love it. Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup shortening 1 cup butter 1 Tbsp vanilla 7 cups powdered sugar 1. Make a simple syrup by combining sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat until boiling, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool complet...
Read more

Recovering An Old Card Table And Making It Usable Again

Image
This card table recover project has been on my to-do list for months. I've been using it as my workspace in the craft room for quite some time, and it sees a lot of abuse. Here it is now, with a neutral cover on it so I can take better pictures for my tutorials. There were dents and dings in the old blue covering from metal tools. And yes, I've used my embossing heat tool on it several times, leaving pretty good scars. The padding underneath the blue cover also made it difficult to keep paper crafts flat when adhering them together, so it was time for something new. That's where a simple vinyl tablecloth comes in handy. The process to recover the table is pretty simple, but I learned a couple of lessons the hard way. I share them with you now. First, don't do this on any surface but a carpet. I tried it on the deck int he sunshine to get better pictures, but all it did was tear up the cover. Second, get a second pair of hands to help you kee...
Read more

Crafts For Teen Girls To Make

Image
In our teen girls Bible study, we're studying our way through the Proverbs 31 woman and it's been such a blessing to me, as I hope it's been to them. Every month we spend an afternoon or an evening together studying Scripture, making something amazing in the kitchen and creating something that corresponds to the verse we're in. Choosing the crafts each time can be a challenge for several reasons. It needs to be something they can completely finish (or do most of) because once they leave they're probably not going to work on it themselves - that's just the nature of teenagers. Remember? It also needs to be a project that keeps they're attention, is age-appropriate and is cool enough that they'll want to keep it or give it to someone special. But hey, no pressure on the Bible study leader, right? Here are just a few of the projects we've done together in the year we've been meeting. * This month's craft will be the adorable cross stit...
Read more