I Could Sure Use a Tune-Up

Ever felt that way? If our car isn't getting good gas mileage or something just isn't working properly, we'll take it in for a tune-up. If a musician’s instrument isn’t tuned correctly, it won’t sound right. If we’re out of tune or “alignment” in our life, we'll start making uncalled-for blunders, forget appointments and we will start to feel off-kilter in just about every area of our lives.

The last couple of days I was single-handedly hosting my own garage sale, dealing with crowd control, being on point to calculate item prices, and hustling to get the leftovers boxed up for charity. Time for body and soul "tune-up"! A tune-up is taking a closer look at what is going on. We can settle for "it's just my age" or "I never was good at that anyway" or "where did THAT come from? This blog is from my own need to fine-tune. Case in point: my daughter told me something confidential. Carelessly, in a casual conversation with a loved one, I shared that confidence. Didn't even think about it being confidential. The next thing I hear is my daughter telling me the loved one asked her about it. Oh me. I need to be fine-tuned.

I was at a women's meeting last week when I knew this blog would be written. I talked about fine-tuning when one gal spoke about her friend who continued to lose their temper and even curse around her. Of course, her peace is affected. It was in that instant that I thought: "She needs to evaluate that friendship and even needs to realize her peace needs to be fine-tuned from those things that cause her to lose her peace. I know me and if I'm not in peace -- then it's time for a tune-up!

There’s an old saying, and I’ll admit it’s a little cheesy, where the guy says to the girl: "I think we could make beautiful music together.” If we could strip away the cheese factor, can we ask ourselves this question? "Are we making beautiful music in our life? In our relationships? In our thoughts and actions? If not, maybe we need to seriously think about getting a tune-up!

I'm purposing to clean-up and tune-up my act! Here's what I'm doing! Hopefully you'll learn from my mistakes and my adjustments:
~ Fine tune negative thinking. It's time to zero in on all the good in our life and turn that negativity into gratitude. Tweak me, Lord! If we pay more attention to the hustle of life instead of our relationship with God, our health, our family, our friends, and helping others, then we should pray "Tune me up, Lord, so the things that matter most will get my top-priority attention."

~ I know when my body and the foods I eat need to be fine-tuned. I feel it. I know it when I've had sugar-overload and not paid attention to eating right. Purposing to be fit and healthy
Even Jesus needed to withdraw to a quiet place for fine-tuning in prayer. He is our greatest example for spending time in solitude for the purpose of fine-tuning. It's what we need for the long haul. Shouldn't we be treating our life as a fine-tuned piano and beautiful gift that God made us to be?

"Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23-24

Bring on the Spotlights -- It's Lent!

I think I get my frugal and prudent spending habits and mindset from parents who were products of the Great Depression when every penny counted. My Mom would sing out “Shut off the lights! Turn up the air conditioner!” And, in the winter, “Turn down the heat and put on a sweater!” So here I am, in the 21st Century and I see her in me. I keep my heat at 63 degrees at night and push it up only a few degrees in the day time and I wear a sweater. I am so conscious of the electric bill that I often shut lights off so much that I have to cautiously maneuver my way through the house to get to the next room.

I promise. I’m going somewhere with my history and economics lesson. Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It’s the start of the 40-days moving toward Resurrection Sunday. Hallelujah! It’s a time of an interior check-up. A time of turning on the lights, brighter than ever inside the rooms of our hearts, to search out areas that need a good cleaning. Lent is a beautiful time because it helps us to amp up becoming the very best version-of-ourselves. But it doesn’t happen by accident. It happens through an exciting collaboration between us and God.
Psalm 139:23-24 says: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Here’s the deal: Inside our hearts, over time, some less-than-ideal habits show up in our lives. Habits like crankiness, unforgiveness, complaining, worry, unbelief, fault-finding, and other areas that need to be exterminated and cleaned out. The Bible illuminates (lights up) those areas. Brace yourself, I’m lighting up this scripture and, yikes, it packs a punch: “From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mark 7:21-23)

Lord, have mercy! And, bring on the high beams! I don’t like those “evils” because they all represent darkness and I sure don’t want them in my heart or my life. Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Placing the Bible (the lamp) at the center of our lives is like walking through the house turning on lights. “Ahh, that’s better. Yes, that’s brighter." I love how The Message Bible paraphrases that scripture: “By your words, I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.” Exactly so. The light of His Word keeps us from stumbling and helps us find our way.
This Lenten season can be the most freeing, cleaning-up-and-out all those dark places in our hearts. Lord, bring in your cleaning crew with their spotlights and clean out all the crevices, corners and hiding places and make my life fresh and new so I will be more like you!

"Change my heart oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart oh God. May I be like You."