lessons learned again and again and again...

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where all at once you begin to experience the battle between the flesh and the spirit?

I am a strong-willed hard headed person, a trait that can be a great asset when channeled properly, but, can lend itself to being quite the mountain to overcome when faced with particular circumstances. I often times realize a little ways into it that, "Oh, there He goes again! He's trying to knock me down a few notches!" when I'm going through one of my "God lessons".
Sometimes my husband and I will be talking about something and I'll ask why he's so inquisitive (in a non-disrespectful way) and his response is ALWAYS, "I will always be the one to push you, stretch you and grow you more and more" and every time he does I imagine that to be what the Lord is saying to me during my "lessons". Sometimes though, we as Christians don't want to be pushed and stretched. We want to sit back and just kind of coast for a bit. Coasting, now is that the act of one who is living out and fulfilling their role and duties for Christ? Certainly not!
In Matthew 26:41 it says, "...the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Does my FLESH want to be pushed, stretched and grown to be more like Christ? NO!!! But my SPIRIT longs for it...

You know, when raising children it is ALL about repetition! Sometimes you find yourself saying, "I've told them 100 times not to do this or that! Why are they still doing it?!?!" We are God's children and I'm sure He's had His hand full of times when He's said, "Jerica, you are so hard-headed! I guess we're gonna have to do it again! But slower and longer this time." We learn lessons over and over again sometimes because just like for our own children, repetition is necessary to learn those hard lessons again and again and again...

And yet, another challenge :)

I challenge you to weigh EVERY situation that you come across or up against this week and before thinking, reacting, saying, doing etc. ask yourself, "What am I feeding if I make decision A? What am I feeding if I make decision B? Do I want my flesh to grow more or my spirit? Which decision will push me, stretch me and grow me towards being more like Christ?"
I know that if you do this you will begin to see a change in how quickly making that spirit feeding decision is!