If

Last night I decided it was high time to do a thorough cleaning of my room. I received a fabulous TV for Christmas to perch on my dresser to keep me company while I sew (my roommate will be so thrilled that I'm officially moving Hems & Hers HQ off the kitchen table). As such, I needed to reorganize and reshuffle my furniture, thusly leading to my clean sweep.

During my cleaning I rediscovered a tiny little book I received several years ago in my Yuletide stocking titled "If: What Do I Know of Calvary Love" by Amy Carmichael. This itsy bitsy tome is beyond powerful, and I loved flipping through last night to re-read the snippets and see which ones I'd highlighted during my first reading and thinking back to how they applied to my life then. Funny that entirely different passages spoke to me last night. If you get a chance, please pick up a copy... it is the accountability, encouragement and wisdom I'm constantly needing.

"If when an answer I did not expect comes to a prayer which I believed I truly meant, I shrink back from it; if the burden my Lord asks me to bear be not the burden of my heart's choice, and I fret inwardly and do not welcome His will, then I know nothing of Calvary love."

"If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, 'You do not understand,' or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other's highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love."

"If I hold on to choices of any kind, just because they are my choice; if I give any room to my private likes and dislikes, then I know nothing of Calvary love."

"If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider 'not spiritual work' I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love."