September 20, 2006⏤tests/tough times/temptations

Hello,
Thanks for visiting,

After I get all of the mutating missionary  blogs from the past re-posted here, I will continue writing fresh ones.  Enjoy the review...

Robyn Rochelle Cox
RR&BC, LLC©2016
Loving God in the Moment

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

tests/tough times/temptations

So, tomorrow I have a test. I have spent most of my time this last 3 weeks pounding German nouns and their genders, verben and their conjugations, interesting phrases like 'tut mir leid' and 'schau mal' and even 'Schade' into my brain.

I do not know how my testing abilities will fare. I am not a great test taker. But, this I know. I am beginning to understand SOME of the sentence structure. I make no promises at being a German speaker in 12 weeks, but I do know that God is doing a great work in my brain.

Two nights ago, I was down at the Chinese Restaurant with a Pepsi Lite, table strewn with paper, books, German/English Worterbuech and my journal. This last Monday, I found out an old friend of mine had committed suicide. We had been friends in another 'life' - you know... BD - Before Divorce.

It was on the heels of this news that I heard from several other friends and family members of different things going on at home -- these bits and pieces of news ranged from extremely disconcerting to absolutely joyful. My brain felt like the rattlers I remember on the land my parents own in East Texas. I was set to go off! So much to think about.

Suddenly, the words I read from the earlier morning devotional rang in my ear:

"Temptation is a suggested short cut to the realization of the highest at which I aim - not towards what I understand as evil but towards what I understand as good. Temptation is something that completely baffles me for a while, I do not know whether the thing is right or wrong. Temptation yielded to is lust deified, and is a proof that it was timidity that prevented the sin before.
Temptation is not something we may escape, it is essential to the full-orbed man. Beware lest you think you are tempted as no one else is tempted; what you go through is the common inheritance of the race, not something no one ever went through before. God does not save us from temptations; He succours us in the midst of them. (Heb 2:18) Oswald Chambers

My temptation? I have oh so many of them. But at that moment, my temptation was to concern myself with things that were not mine to concern myself with. From the absolutely joyous news, to the frustrating - God had me sitting at a table in Germany, beckoning me to keep my mind on this language learning. I had a choice: allowing the temptation to surround me and drag me down a side-street in my mind... a side street with hissing rattlers! Or, buck up and write the conjugation for sprechen/mochten/mussen/weissen/betretten... one more time!

Sounds like a simple decision. But, truth be told - it is the simple decision that testifies to the greater ones. Please pray for my simple decisions. Let me know how I can pray for yours.

ich muss / du musst / er,sie,es,man muss / wir mussen / ihr musst / sie, Sie mussen (umlaut not available :-)

mutating missionary
Tschuess!
Posted by Robyn Rochelle E. at Wednesday, September 20, 2006