Respect.

I've heard pastor Gardner ask the question, "What are you doing for your personal growth (in your spiritual life)?" several times (or a question along those lines.)

And I think it's an excellent question that more people should be asking more often. It gets very easy, for me, to stop working, and think that I've done enough work, if not more than enough work for a while, which I haven't; and I don't think I'll ever get to a point where I can honestly say that I have.

But something that I need to work on, big time, is learning to respect my elders and authority. And I mean no disrespect by this statement, but I never had a constant, stable, man of God to guide me and train me when I was growing up, or not until Cornerstone Baptist switched to its most recent pastor. But by that point, I'd gotten used to doing my own thing. I'm not complaining, nor am I looking for sympathy, but I've never really been in a position where I had to deal with male authority before.

Sure, I had coaches for sports, and I had, and have, male bosses, but that's not a big deal. I like to run. A track coaches tells me to run a mile and I love it. A boss tells me to stock shelves, and I do it because I love getting a paycheck.

But, for whatever reason, it's so much harder for me to respect a man of God like I should. And that's what I need to work on now: respecting my authority better, both male and female.

It's easy to do what someone tells you. But respecting authority is just more than carrying out orders. And I'll do what someone tells me, but I won't talk to an authority figure the way I should. And I won't say thank you like I should. And I won't talk to authority on the phone like I should. So, I really need to start working on respecting my authority, but I also need to figure out why I'm so disrespectful to authority.

And I don't just mean why I have sin. I'm talking about what it is that I do that makes me seem disrespectful to my authority. In the last 4 days, I've been disrespectful to, at least, 3 men of God, even though I didn't mean to be. But I was.

And so I pray that the Lord would show me what it is that I need to do to start respecting my authority more, that I would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and that God would work in my life so I can start respecting my authority more.

--Pray for Spain. Pray that the Lord would raise up missionaries and native Spaniards to take the gospel to the millions of lost souls in Spain.--