A Woman after God's own Heart

For my third choice I decided to read the book A Woman after God's own Heart by Elizabeth George. I read another book by her entitled Loving God with all of your mind which I thoroughly enjoyed and wrote a review about it that can be found under the book section. This book is Elizabeth's call for women to follow God with all of their heart and to seek to let Him have full control of their life. It was a blessing in so many ways and reminded me of several things that are needful in my life. I thought I would share just a few with you all.
1. A whole-hearted love for God looks to Him through His word and prayer....ready to act on His expressed desires. As I spend time in God's Word as well as in prayer it provides me with the opportunity for God to speak directly to me. This quiet time is essential in my pursuit of God. I cannot know what God's will for my life is if I don't spend time with Him each day. As I create the habit of seeking Him daily I will know what He desires for my life and can pursue it.
​2. A woman after God's heart will cultivate a servant's spirit no matter if she is single or married. Wherever you are in life you can still serve. We are all called to serve others in love, Galatians 4:13. Our society tends to breed selfishness, calling us to look out for ourselves but that is not to be the description of true followers of Christ. A woman seeking God with all of her heart looks for opportunities to serve wherever, whenever and in whatever way she is able.
3. Don't give away to others what you have not first given away at home first. Our loved ones should always be our first earthly priority, after all they are given to us by God. As I just mentioned, we are called to serve but that includes our family. How often we go to great lengths to help others in need yet neglect the needs of our family. Elizabeth shared how she would make meals for someone in need at their church and how she had spent so much time preparing their meal that her family would get leftovers. She soon realized she needed to make two meals, one for the family in need and one for her own. This caused me to really think. So many times I give my best to others that there is nothing left for my mom, my precious loved one and that wasn't right. I should be willing to go the extra mile for her as much, if not more than I would for everyone else. God gave me someone to love and I wouldn't be doing a very good job is she simply got leftovers( and that was not in reference to just food!).
4. Deal with today. This was a great thought! Did you know that a good day turns into a good week which then turns into a good year and ultimately a good life? Yes, I know that not every day is great, believe me I have had my share of missing items and locking myself out of the house(worst feeling ever!). What I am saying is that we should focus on today. We can get so caught up in planning the future, which we should, but we can lose sight of today. Our tomorrows are made up of todays and our todays came from our choices yesterday. So maybe instead of fretting about tomorrow we should focus on our relationships today, our relationship with Christ, our family and friends. I think it will make our life a little less stressful. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself"....Matthew 6:34.
​5. Train yourself to think sweet and kind words to others. For most people being kind doesn't come naturally, I know it doesn't for me! It takes real effort and work to exercise kindness on a regular basis. Just like a toned body doesn't come without some hard training and denial, kind words toward others takes training and denial of self. James reminds us that our tongue has to be bridled and I know I need work in this area. It is so easy to be critical and talk ill of others but a woman after God's own heart seeks to be a blessing with her words and build others up instead of tearing them down. I want to be a Proverbs 31 woman who has the law of kindness in her mouth. 
I hope these have been a blessing to you. I know that they may not have been easy to read but being a follower of Christ is not easy. It takes work to be different, to be a light in this dark world and spread a little salt around. I really do want to be a woman that is know for following after the heart of God.