Chisel Away, Dear Lord

As some of you know I just returned from a nice anniversary trip to The Biltmore Estate and left there in awe of the beauty.  A little history on the Biltmore house.... At 178,926 sq ft and with 250 rooms, it is the largest privately owned house in America built by George Washington Vanderbilt II in the 1800s. It took 1000 men SIX years to build it... whew! The picture doesn't do it ANY justice!I highly recommend a trip there if you haven't been.

I am not good with trying to put into words how God speaks to me but I am going to try so bear with me. The Lord had me go to The Biltmore for a reason... well, two reasons. One being, a MUCH NEEDED romantic anniversary trip with Bill and two, for God to reassure me that I'm a work in "imperfect" progress. I love when He whispers words of reassurance in my ear, don't you?
Just prior to day one of our visit, I had read Chapter 3 on being held prisoners by our labels. Yes, I'm a prisoner... no bars needed here just little negative labels! What I loved in Chapter 3 is that Lysa shared that we can break free if we allow God to chisel! On page 36 Lysa writes, " It is beautiful when the Master chisels. God doesn't allow the unglued moments of our lives to happen so that we'll label ourselves and STAY stuck. He allows the unglued moments to make us aware of the chiseling that needs to be done." So isn't it appropriate that the first thing I noticed when walking up to the doors at Biltmore was this.....

 

Right there I stopped and prayed, "Oh God, chisel me! Start chipping away at what doesn't look like JJ. I don't want to be stuck in bondage by my labels anymore... I want to be ALL that YOU created me to be! Chisel away dear Lord!"  I heard Him whisper, "I'm chiseling and it will be beautiful." Ladies, God see's the end result and yes it is BEAUTIFUL! He is the skilled artisan that can look beyond what we see or label ourselves as and see something beautiful. All we have to do is allow Him to do His chiseling... it may hurt, it may be hard and it may take longer than the SIX years it took to build Biltmore but in the end it is for His good work that we've been called to do and it will be BEAUTIFUL!

See you tomorrow night 6:00 Fallins. Please RSVP to me.