Use It or Lose It

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement

 

Use it or lose it.

 

Our 3 year old great grandchild, Nora, becomes so excited when we are able to travel to her city to visit her. When she sees us, she calls our names and claps her hands. She jumps up and down, and throws her arms up in the air.  Our hearts leap with delight at her physical display of love.

 

Much as we enjoy Nora’s enthusiasm for us, I think God enjoys any enthusiasm we display for Him. Use it or lose it. We’ve all heard that expression, most often used in relationship to the need to exercise some muscle group. I propose we consider using the muscles of our bodies to praise the Lord. Our verbal enthusiasm for God comes more naturally than throwing our whole being into worshiping Him. If we can clap and raise our arms in excitement about a ball game, we can surely clap our hands and raise our arms in enthusiasm for our Lord. If we can dance a little jig with our feet in excitement to see a loved one, we can move our feet in praise to God.  God created our bodies and Psalm 139:14 says, ‘I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made’. It makes sense to use our body to worship the one who gave us the gift of our being. Raising our arms, dancing a jig, clapping our hands are easy when we are young. As we age, these acts of worship may take a bit more effort. When our  hearts are full because of God’s love is a great opportunity to use our limbs to praise the Lord. What a grand way to expend our energy–expressing our love for God. Perhaps using these muscles groups will even offer the secondary benefit of keeping us limber.