Does Your Public Life Match Your Private Devotions?

I had an 8:00 class in college.

On that day, I would crack open the bathroom door to shed a tiny bit of light into the dorm room, so I could get dressed without waking my roommate. Because I’m OCD about certain things, I’ve always arranged my socks by color in the drawer, so I thought I was doing okay in dressing myself in minimal lighting.

Until I got into the full light of class and looked down, to see that I was wearing two completely different colored socks, neither of which went with my outfit.

That’s how I feel about loving God and loving people. When I sit at home with my Bible open, I often feel like I’ve got my act together. I really do love God, and I really do love people.

Then, I leave my house and interact with people -only to realize I’m not looking as good as I thought I did when I got dressed in the dark.

Seems there is still a lot of selfishness and impatience and lack of diplomacy lurking around in my heart.

I found a great truth once, in a devotional prayer booklet written for one of the Olympic weeks. I cut out the words and pasted them in my journal. It said our public life shows us what we need to deal with in our private time with God, and our private time with God shows us what we need to work on in our public life.

 

I’m sorry for the times when I look down in public and realize my love for people doesn’t match what I had hoped it would be, but thank God he is there waiting in the quiet of my time with him, to give instructions before I go back out again.

How do you see your quiet time with God slowly improving your relationships?