Draw Nearer - Rats

Dear Little Bear Cubs,
It has been too long since I have written to you...not for a lack of things to talk about :) So I wanted to write to you about something that has been weighing on my mind lately...for many reasons.

Charity. I need more of it. Really.

C. S. Lewis said, "When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard.... yet surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is. Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth. If there are rats in the cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats; it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light. Apparently the rats of resentment and vindictiveness are always there in the cellar of my soul."

Little bear cubs...I don't know why it is - but it seems that these yucky parts come a little more naturally to all of us. I suppose that's why it is referred to as "the natural man".

So many times it's easy to resist the love of God...wondering how he could love us when we sin knowingly and sometimes deliberately. It is easy to believe in His love for all of his children...yet keep Him at arms length...feeling undeserving of his mercy and grace...and not believing we are worthy of the sacrifice.

Neal A. Maxwell said that "Christ's relentless 'redemptiveness' exceeds our recurring wrongs."
It is pure charity.

In the words of a favorite hymn, Christ pleads with us...

"At the throne I intercede; For thee ever do I plead.
I have loved thee as they friend, with a love that cannot end.
Be obedient, I implore. Prayerful, watchful, evermore,
And be constant unto me, that thy Savior I may be."

I want to draw nearer little bear cubs. Fewer "rats" and a lot more charity. i want to more fully let Him in...I want to be the best mama I can be...and the best wife I can be to your Daddy....allowing the Lord to exterminate all of the nasty little rats that creep in from time to time. Be patient with me. I'm a work in progress :)

I love you little bear cubs...more than I could ever express in words.

The Mama Bear