By Gina Caswell Kelly
I was just thinking that I have been writing this column for about 28 years now! Wow! I can’t believe it. That comes out to about 1,456 columns. I try to keep it to 500 words. Sometimes more, sometimes less. And that comes out to 728,000 words in 28 years. That is pretty amazing to me. What started out as me asking the editor of the newspaper if he would run some prepackaged parenting columns when I was working for the school, turned into something else entirely. I remember asking Lynn about running the columns that were available from one of my parenting education sources and he said no. But, he said, “I will run something if you write it.” He had no clue whether I could write or not. But he took a chance on me. So here we are, 728,000 words later.
What started out as a column with parenting advice, has turned into what I hope is a column that encourages you in your walk with Christ. It is funny how God continues to mold us throughout our lives. He took what I thought was one thing, and turned it into something else entirely. We have to be pliable for Him to be able to mold us into more of what He has planned for us.
We should be like Playdough. We should always be pliable and ready to be shaped into whatever God needs us to be in that moment. Have you ever tried to use Playdough that has been left with the lid off? Not at all usable. We, as Christians need to always be sure that we are absolutely available and usable in God’s kingdom. He can certainly do all things without us, but He wants us to want to be used by Him.
Do you want to be used by God? Do you want to play a role in bringing others to know Him? Do you want to be like a good can of Playdough that is ready to be molded into what God needs us to be in the moment? Surely you can answer yes to all these. So how do we make sure that we are pliable for God’s work?
We stay in His Word. We read His Bible every day and let the Holy Spirit speak to us. We spend time talking with Him and listening for His direction for our day. We lay our burdens down at His feet and allow Him to guide us through the trials of life. We spend time gathering at His house with other Christians. We try hard to not let the world sneak in and influence us. We keep our spiritual armor on and fight the attacks of the devil in this world.
We have to desire to be used by Him. We have to seek after good and not evil. Oh what a difference we could make in this world if we would all seek to be used by God no matter where we are.
Be moldable and ready to be used by God. It will make a difference!
