a work in progress

How many of you ladies out there enjoy getting a pedicure?  I know I surely do!  Actually, I would say that is one of my favorite ways to pamper myself.  I love soaking my feet in hot water.  I love having all of that ugly tough skin scrapped off my heels. I even love having my legs rubbed down with lotion.  But I especially enjoy walking away from the nail parlor knowing that I now have soft, smooth feet and that my toenails are painted to perfection.
But it doesn’t last.  I am a country girl and I love to be barefoot.  In fact, I would never wear shoes if it wasn’t expected of me, especially in the summer time.  And if I must wear shoes, I am perfectly content with a pair of flip flops. After all, they do make some really pretty ones these days.  So as you can see, I don’t make a point to take care of my feet and in just a few short days, they look just like they did before I pampered myself with a pedicure.  The toenails start growing out and losing their polish, the heels start getting hard and cracking again, and the bottoms begin to look as if I never take a bath.  And before you know it you can’t even tell I had a pedicure.  So what do I do?  I either cover my feet with shoes and socks, or I go back for another pedicure.  It’s a never ending cycle.
And did I mention that every time I get a pedicure, I promise myself that I am going to take better care of my feet and never let them look so bad again.
I think that this same principle is true with many Christians.  We go to church on Sunday. We hear a great message.  We feel really close to God.  And then life happens. We return to our jobs on Monday and forget all about taking care of our relationship with God.  We neglect reading our bible, spending time talking with God, spending time listening to God, fellowshipping with other Christians, and often we even are too busy to worship God by attending church.  So guess what happens, we revert back to our old selves.  Just as our feet become ugly when we neglect them, our lives become ugly when we neglect God.
The Bible plainly tells us that there are things we need to do in order to draw closer to God.  For instance, In Matthew, Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”  We are told in Romans that ‘faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  II Timothy 2:1 says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  And in Hebrews 10:25 it tells us that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
So just as I can’t depend on an occasional single pedicure to help me have the feet I want to have, we can’t depend on a single church service to give us the relationship we need to have with the Lord. We must nourish this relationship.  We must do the things that God has told us to do.  We must work hard to become the person that God wants us to be.  And the job will never be finished.  It will always be a work in progress.
This is Nana Nancy, Let Jesus be YOUR Guide as you enjoy YOUR ride!
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