building a kingdom

{found via pinterest}

every day i wake up, get keane out of his crib and proceed to get us breakfast. there are a million little things i do on a daily basis, and i do most of those things to benefit me somehow. most of the day, most of the time i do things for me. even if what i'm doing is also for someone else, there's usually something in it for me too.

at the end of the day, i'm ridiculously selfish. we're all pretty selfish when we get right down to it, and we can easily get caught up in pushing our own goals through to fruition.

and that's the thing. no matter who we are, or what we do, or even what we believe about God, we work every day to build some sort of kingdom. we may work toward building our own individual kingdom, a kingdom for our family, a kingdom for our company, or any other number of kingdoms. but the point is, we serve someone. we set someone or something up on that pedestal and we live our life for it.

sometimes we live for money. sometimes it's fame. sometimes it's family. sometimes it's for someone else's agenda. sometimes it's politics. sometimes it's simply to chase happiness. and sometimes it's God.

personally conviction has set in over the last couple of weeks. how often do i really live to serve God? and who or what do i put in his place? and why do i live like that other thing matters more?

i know i cannot work simply work harder at it, and live a better life out of my own ability. and i know that living more for God will not change how much he loves me or accepts me. i know there are many things in my life that i must simply surrender to God over and over and over again [x(a million)]. but i also know that in building his kingdom i can rest in him, and his perfection and his sovereignty and his justice and his holiness. i know that his kingdom is the only one truly worth building. and though one day he will build a new heaven and a new earth, his kingdom will not pass away.

xo,

katie