Seek Ye First

It seems like I am forever seeking after something. Sometimes it’s a new recipe, a new hair style, a new way to get healthy or a new way to be a better person. Always on the lookout for the new and improved so I can become a new and improved person. All that seeking wears me out sometimes.

Love, love, love Pinterest, all those pictures for yummy food, great hair and healthy people. How could I not become better if I did all these things? I show my hair stylist the pictures of hair I want and then it looks totally different on me. Somehow my recipes just don’t look the same as they do in those pictures, must be the lighting. Those exercises look so easy until I try them. I really thought I could get my leg to do that? Really, the girl in the picture is 20 something and I am 60 something. Somebody help me!

Yup, I’m tired just looking at all the ways I can keep up with somebody else. So maybe I ought to think about this seeking thing I’m doing.

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary tells me what seek means:

• to search for (someone or something) : to try to find (someone or something)
• to ask for (help, advice, etc.)
• to try to get or achieve (something)

I’ve been trying to decide what color to paint the living room walls. Now that should not be a major decision but it has become one. I have purchased seven different colors in the last three weeks. I paint a huge spot on three of the walls to see how the light shines on it at different times of the day. Each time my husband and I look at each other and say too blue. Who knew there were 20 different shades of gray? Blue grays, red grays, beige grays and black grays and everything in between. I finally just decided on the best of all of them Light French Gray. (still looks blue to me)

Normally when I become obsessive about something I try and find out what God has to say about it. So I looked up the word seek in the Bible. Wow, it is listed 309 times in the NKJV.

People did a lot of searching back in Bible days. They had to search for basic needs like water, food and shelter. We take those for granted most of the time now. If we are searching something now we just Google it.

There was another form of searching they were doing back then that we do today. Searching for the truth in God’s word. Every time I hear the word seek I remember the verse in Matthew

6:33 – But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.


If I spent time searching the scriptures as much as I search Pinterest or Facebook then maybe I would have a better understanding of all things. It may not help me decide on my paint color, but I’m sure I would receive more peace about my decisions.

May God Bless

Seek!

We are almost through the first month of this New Year. Have you recouped from the holidays yet? Wow, I know I am just now getting back into the swing of things and starting to think ahead toward the next 12 months.

Today I want to talk to you about how you seek things out in your life. What does “seek” really mean?

Seek – to aim at, to strive after, to crave.

Well let me tell you the first week after the holidays I had a dull aching headache every day. I couldn’t figure out what it was or what might be causing it. Finally one evening about 9 o’clock I had a craving for some cookies, Christmas cookies to be exact. I had become accustomed to just nibbling all throughout the holidays. Cookies, cakes, just a small piece of pie here and there, you know how it goes. Well all the goodies where gone and I hadn’t eaten any sweets for about a week. Then it dawned on me – I was going through sugar withdrawals all week that was where my dull aching headache was coming from. At that moment I was seeking sugar…craving it. The light bulb went off in my head; this is what seeking is all about.

A real desire for something. You want it now, you want it bad.

Contemplating my new found light bulb moment it brought me to my everyday life and the things I seek after. What do I seek after and how much time do I spend on certain aspects of my life. 

God – Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Philippians 4:13

Yes, I seek after God’s kingdom. I study my bible, I go to Bible classes, and I go to services. Is God in my life every day, yes I do a pretty good job of that but of course there is always room for improvement? So I will seek God out more often on my own with quite and study time and more prayer time.

Health – This one needs a lot of work. Not just the typical losing weight, but really being healthy. I need to be healthy for me so I can accomplish the other goals I want to work on. Making some small goals that I can do every day that will help me feel better physically and emotionally will lead me to the goal of being a better me.

Family – My family is very important to me. With the busy schedules that we all face these days I find that we have to work harder on setting times aside just to be with our loved ones. Work, school, extracurricular activities take up a lot of time and so we have to schedule around these events and make time for each other. 

Hobbies – Everyone should have a hobby they enjoy. Something they can do, something they can turn to and turn off the world. Something enjoyable. Mine is writing and sewing. I really enjoy doing both of those activities. So this year I am setting smaller weekly/daily goals to do those things. The rewards are wonderful. Writing an article that I get feedback on, sewing a cute little dress for one of my granddaughters. These things make me happy.


God put us on this earth, each with special talents. I encourage you to seek out your talent and use it. You may have to try several different things before you find the one that really brings you pleasure. Having a talent doesn’t mean you know how to do it right away. You may have to study about it, learn it, and then develop it.

Then you know what is really wonderful? Use that talent or hobby to do God’s work. Now we’re talking real fulfillment and pleasure.

What will you start seeking this year? Share it with me in the comments below.

May God bless.