The Spot on the Ceiling (Trina Agee Cornell)

Tonight,  we again have a wonderful entry from my dear friend, Trina Agee Cornell!

This past summer, my mom made he,r annual visit to St. Louis to celebrate my birthday.  Bob goes to camp the week of July 4th, so Mom usually plans her trip around that time. It is a blessing to have some one-on-one time with her - whenever I get the chance.

When she comes to St. Louis, Mom and I tend to go into work mode - she likes to find little things around my house to either revamp, refurbish, or just change all-together.  We have filled holes in walls, primed rooms for painting, hung wallpaper, moved pieces of furniture - you name it.  Bob has no clue about anything we do until he gets home - it's always a "fun" surprise for him!

This past year, Mom noticed something that I had not.  As she walked from my front door to the kitchen through the hallway, she happened to look up and notice something - a brown, silver dollar-sized spot on the ceiling!  I had walked through that hallway dozens of times - and never noticed it!  We stood on a chair to check it out - it wasn't wet, but still curious.  It was then that I decided to take action - a plumber needed to be called.  We were having trouble with some of our toilets anyway, and this added to the list.  

The plumber came out and was able to fix everything - except the spot.  He couldn't figure out where it was coming from - it was not near any of our upstairs bathrooms, so the source of it was unknown.  He told me to keep an eye on it and let them know if anything changed.  When Bob arrived home from camp, I let him know that the plumber had come to check things out - and I showed him the spot on the ceiling.  His response completely shocked me - "Oh yeah - I saw that spot three months ago!"  WHAT!? You knew about this and did nothing?  Oh goodness!

Isn't that what we do to ourselves?  We see the outward signs of being unhealthy – by the words we say and the actions we take.  We see all these signs – but we don’t treat the root cause – our hearts.  We don't get to the real issue, like a plumber would with water damage.  There are only two of us who truly know our hearts – ourselves and the Lord.  He knows our motivations – He knows what drives us to do what we do.  We must choose wisely when it comes to what we feed our minds – we must allow the Lord to guide our thoughts and actions before Satan gets a hold of them.  Proverbs 4:23 reminds us – “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”  Protect your heart – get to the root of the problem, and let the Lord help you.  

God bless, Steve Luke 18:1 www.hawleybooks.com E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com