The magabookers just left after a week with us here in the Yoop. It was a blessing to host them and in many ways, it was very refreshing to see young people working so hard for Jesus. They were a grateful bunch as well. Imanuel and I were able to pray together for the colporteurs from day to day. Before they left every day, he would exclaim, “God bless you!” as they walked out to the car. They were definitely a great influence on him! Now he wants to go sell books! (Must get that from Daddy’s genes.) I really hope my kids decide to colporteur when they grow up…

On a different note, this past week was a week of re-inspiration. It started over a year ago. Over a year ago, my sister and I rearranged our living room and we bought two large picture frames. We never ended up printing pictures and filling them, but my sister insisted that we at least hang them up so it would remind us to fill them. Well, the blank picture frames were up the entire time and from time to time, I would feel the need to print some pictures, but I never acted upon it.
So, this week, I decided enough was enough. I got on the computer and got Israel to do the same and we went through all of our pictures and saved a bunch that we liked onto a CD. I took it to Walmart and I had them printed on the picture kiosk. We were so excited by the pictures, that we decided to buy 2 more picture frames and filled them too. After that, we were inspired to do our scrapbook page for our Florida vacation that we took this past February. (After we came back from Cancun, our first family vacation back when Imanuel turned 1, we bought a couple scrapbooking sets and a bunch of materials for them. We dedicated one to family vacations.) So, Israel and I spent one evening working on our vacation scrapbook, which was very fun and exciting. This sparked both of us to work on two different projects over the next couple of days. Israel spent hours (over a few days) working on a wedding album (-finally after 4 years!!) And I was finally inspired to catch up on the baby books! I filled in all of the information, put in some pictures, and I just went through a bunch of pictures and saved the ones that I still needed to fill in the books. Today I’m going to take them to Walmart to print. It was SUCH a productive week in the area of family bonding/reflecting/archiving. And we did all of this just because one day, my sister decided that we should hang the frames up, even though they were empty! If we never hung them up, they would still be collecting dust in the closet, along with our empty photo albums, baby books, and scrapbooks!

And as I think about it, I realize that this is human nature. What is our problem?! How come we can’t get ourselves to do things that we know will benefit us in some way unless we get inspired? We often realize our needs, responsibilities, and even wants! But it’s so hard to get a move on it!
But, if we give ourselves reminders to inspire us (- if we put ourselves in positions/places where God can speak), we can finally overcome ourselves and what seemed like a laboring task, would be a delight! Sometimes it just takes one little thing that we decide to do that would give us the momentum to accomplish many things. Just one solid commitment. Just one firm decision. And in the spiritual sense, that one little thing can often be inspired by those moments spent with Christ. In giving of ourselves to Him, we’ll be surprised by what we feel inspired to do!

Back to the colporteur work. I can imagine some of the people who bought GCs or DAs or COLs etc…and as they look at the book, they feel obligated to read it since they paid their donation. But as time goes on and remains untouched. However, one day, as the Holy Spirit inspires them, they will look over at their bookshelf and see that dusty book that they bought from a cold, wet colporteur who was working their way through school. They’ll pick it up, read it, and the rest is history.

I hope to be inspired every day to cheerfully do the things God would want me to do, and to continue making small decisions that go a long way! How productive we could be!