FREE Glue for me and you

Last year about this same time Cade's teacher sent home a note asking for glue stick donations. For whatever reason at the time I felt compelled to go out and buy 60 of them. I mean, I wiped the shelves clean, I was very determined to supply this need she was asking for. How often do we rush to meet a need for someone but we do it with the pretense of hoping to get a thank you or some sort of recognition? Fast forward an entire year and we are in a new grade, new school, new teacher and I get the very same note three days ago requesting glue sticks. I thought, "perhaps this is my calling since I do not go in and volunteer for stuffing friday folders and am not ever able to chaperone fieldtrips, etc..." I'll STICK to getting the glue. har har. So there I am standing in the school supply aisle staring at a massive pile of 3 sticks for a dollar thinking this is an amazing deal and I begin loading them into my basket. It wasn't until I got down ON MY KNEES and saw at the very bottom of the bin there were packs of 4 for a dollar. Funnily enough I actually sat there for a good 5 minutes hesitating whether to get the 4 pack as they were a more generic brand and the labels weren't as appealing as the three pack colorful ones. At that moment, I wasn't concerned about the product or whether it would be as efficient, indeed I was worried about the appearance of my purchase. Ironically I was in the dollar store not the fancy school supply store with the name brand ones to begin with, so I literally was having a moment of pride making a decision of which generic brand the teacher would think more highly of me for getting instead of considering the quantity and realization that she wasn't looking for a pretty label or a fancy name, her overall goal was to supply her students with the tools necessary to complete their projects, thus causing them to advance their learning in her class with the hands on cutting and glueing activities. I began to think of my own life as a "project" per say that God was/is working on and each day I spend more time with Him I can feel his scissors cutting the unneccessary edges off. I honestly believe that at times I have picked up the scissors myself and not only cut uneven jaggedy edges, but have chopped things in half and then been left to feel like there could never be enough glue sticks to piece it all back together. I was in walmart last night and just happened to be in the school supply aisle and I knew I had not gone there to get glue but Cade has asked many times at home if I would replace our home supply of it as we have been out of the liquid bottle kind for months now. I have put it off so many times and just walked past it. There again I found myself standing there for over 5 minutes contemplating if I should get the bigger bottle that was an extra 57 cents more or the regular sized one? I picked up the big one, put it in the cart, then looked back and noticed a 6 pack of glue sticks for 2 dollars! I started to throw those in the cart too and quickly changed my mind about the bigger bottle and got the cheaper one instead. Erica, why are you going on and on about glue and what kind you bought/didn't buy??? It's as if at the moment when I was deciding whether to get it or not I once again was pridefully thinking about myself. Not with the appearance of the label but in my cart I had also picked up 2 tops off the clearance rack and somehow I justified to myself that I needed that 7 dollar jacket and 4 dollar shirt more then I needed the bigger bottle of glue. When, in actuality the clothing is an appearance thing and will probably end up at the bottom of a drawer or back of a closet, whereas art projects the kids could do with extra glue would be much more memorable in the long run. In I Samuel 16:7 it says that "man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart." Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
I was given the privilege/blessing to attend a Beth Moore event today and wouldn't ya know it, GLUE came up in her message (not sure if anyone else heard it, but God was definitely speaking it to me). Why is it that we can daily go about our business with torn pieces hanging off of us as we are 24/7 standing in the BIGGEST school supply aisle and yet we still hesitate to reach out to God the Ultimate Sealer and Mender of our rips and tears? We get distracted by the pretty colors and the clearance racks of uneccessary items that we load into our cart and we miss out on receiving a fuller blessing in the process. God is a neverending supply of glue that in Proverbs 18:24 says he STICKETH closer then a brother. If we are not ON OUR KNEES searching below the surface and using his adhesive then we will soon discover that the HUGE WONDERFUL PACK OF 4 we are trying to last us on our own will soon dry out or be gone and we are left standing there unfinished projects that are clinging to selfishness, pride and the inability to allow Him to complete a work that He has to do in each of us. Just as Cade's teacher sees the end result of the art she has planned for her class and admitted her need for glue so God Himself sees the work of art that we are and can continue to become if we stop hesitating to squeeze from his abundant tube of stickiness!~ It's not only overly abundant and neverending it's FREE.
I had intended on purchasing 10 packs of glue for his class but because I let pride set in and appearance take over I ended up only getting 6 packs and bought a nice gift bag, teacher note pad and well done sticker pad to throw in with the GENERIC UGLY LABELED glue sticks in hopes that she would overlook that they weren't the fancy ones when I could have supplied her with 4 more packs of glue thus enabling her to accomplish the goal she had set out to do. Gift bags, ribbon and pretty labels are nice and thoughtful but just as she did not require them God also does not. He just wants us to be humbled before Him with or without a pretty label and lay aside the tissue paper and extra frillies that are hindering us from fully becoming His Masterpiece. What is it that is taking up space in your bag that you could remove and replace with something more substantial? How much longer will we walk around with slices hanging off of us refusing to let him glue us back together? Each of us are only given certain amounts of time on earth and if we waste it or do not make the best out of what we have been given for strength and help then we may never find ourselves hanging on God's refrigerator and hearing Him say to us, "Well done thou good and faithful servant."
Lord, I praise you for designing us each uniquely and seeing a future plan for us all. I pray that we would look to you for all of our needs and that we will each allow you to continue working on us so that the plan you have for us can indeed be played out in our lives and glory can be brought to your name through our willingness to Stick close to you and remove the items that we are using to fill a gap. Take our pride and selfishness and replace it with a daily contentment and joy in you Father God. May we always be reminded that you are not only an adhesive for us but a writing utensil to place our thoughts down, paper to write it onto, an eraser and whiteout for when we make mistakes and a measureless ruler of love that we can use on a daily basis as we continue to learn from you, the greatest Teacher/Ruler of all times. May our ears be open to hear when you are speaking even in things we may deem insignificant, Lord I fully believe you can teach us so much through the smallest things and we often overlook seeing or hearing something you are asking us to do or showing us to see because we let ourselves get in the way...remove the obstacles even if we ourself are one and replace them and our fleshly thoughts and desires with you, you, you... May we not keep this knowledge of your abundant supply of goodness and help to ourselves but rather would we share it with others so that they too can become God's Masterpieces. I ask these things in your name, Amen.