This year we decided instead of going someplace different we would stay at home and work around the house trying to do some of the projects that we never seem to have time for.  We wanted to get some landscaping done which we did, so that got checked off the list.  We had a tree cut down in our yard that we needed to split which we did, so that got checked off the list.  Our neighbor had been given a large tree that had been cut into pieces and since he does not burn a lot of wood he asked if we would like it.  We accepted his gift and spent another day splitting and hauling that wood.  We want to build a deck behind our garage and that is where all the wood was sitting so we decided to build a three sided 8×16 building so we could stack it all nice and neat.  That building got built and we spent another day hauling all of the wood from one spot to another, but it is done so another thing checked off the list.  We wanted to get the pool opened which happened but it still needs cleaned and stones put around the outside, so that is a half of a check.  We didn’t get the garden put in like we were hoping, so no check there.  We also did not get the deck started, no check.

By the end of the week we were so sore and tired that we could hardly move.  We used muscles during our vacation that we don’t normally use and they were not real happy with us.  They let us know of their displeasure at night when we went to bed and in the morning when we tried to get out of bed.  On Tuesday morning we came back into the church and I thought “We worked really hard during this vacation.”  Just as I was thinking that thought Colossians 3:23-24 came to mind; “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” 

I read that and I thought “I am really sore and tired because I worked really hard last week but who did I work for?”  I worked for myself the preceding week doing things for our home and that is okay.  There is nothing wrong with that but the question that I had to ask myself is “how hard do I work for Christ?”  Do I work for the Lord as hard as I work for myself?  The landscaping looks good, the shed that was build and the wood stacked in it looks wonderful and the pool and deck will be used by many as they visit our home during the summer months, so those are good things and I’m glad that we had an opportunity to do them.  I was just checked in my spirit by that verse reminding me that as hard as I worked that week for myself I need to serve and work even harder for the Lord.

My muscles are starting to heal from the manual labor now it is time to flex the spiritual muscles for God, check.