Dragging...

I sometimes feel a dragging in my spirit...like things aren't going well or I'm not sure how they should be going but it's not feeling great. This can be partly due to relationships, physical realities, or any number of combined factors. A really big problem starter is a lack of time reading the Bible and praying--talk about lack of focus. I can see these feelings/perspectives influence my social skills, parenting, and my marriage. I read a great quote from a book about marriage called What Did You Expect?? by Paul David Tripp. He writes, "You both bring something into your marriage that is destructive to what a marriage needs and must do. That thing is called sin." Tripp says that sin is "essentially antisocial. We don't really have time to love our spouse...because we are too busy loving ourselves." We change our spouses into "vehicles to help us get what we want or obstacles in the way of what we want." But encouragement and hope exist: God's grace "is meant to bring you to the end of yourself so that you will finally begin to place your identity, your meaning and purpose, and your inner sense of well-being in him." (partially quoted from World, June 5, 2010, p. 31)

Good conviction for my dragging spirit!