As week two of living intentionally comes to a close, I’m amazed the impact this journey is having on me. Thank you for sharing with me personally how it’s been impacting you too. My heart is humbled, grateful, and joyful.
As I was driving to my writer’s studio today, I began to think about the last two weeks and all the things God is revealing about what He wants us to be intentional about. Some things we’re to refrain from while other things we’re to embrace.
With both my hands on the steering wheel, I noticed my rings and smiled. Then it hit me what happens when we aren’t living intentionally.
True Story Ahead
The Journey of the Jewel Begins
On Day 1 of this 40 Days of Intentional Living, I did something really stupid. I didn’t read a label. I put my wedding ring and anniversary ring into jewelry cleaner and let them soak while I cooked and cleaned in the kitchen. I’ve done this before, so I didn’t think anything about it until I removed my rings from the cleaning solution.
My rings looked atrocious! My beautiful rings looked ruined!
My heart sunk with grief!
After my initial shriek, I calmed down enough to actually look at my brand new bottle of jewelry cleaner. And that’s when I read “for Sterling Silver Jewelry.” I have gold jewelry!
It gets worse. On the back label it read, “Do not soak jewelry for more than 10 seconds.”
My two rings soaked for at least an hour, maybe longer.
My heart dropped to my toes as I stood there looking at my precious rings.
Repair or Replace
Have you ever seen tarnished jewelry?
There’s a dullness of color and loss of brightness. Tarnished jewelry is ugly.
I was dismayed to say the least, but my husband said, “Well, if the jeweler can’t repair your rings, we’ll just ask him to replace the bands.”
What? No way! I didn’t want replacements. I wanted my originals restored. These rings were intentionally chosen for me by my husband. He actually had a jeweler design my engagement and wedding ring specifically for me.
Plus, he proposed to me with both rings! Seriously, even the anniversary ring, he got down on his knees and asked me if I would marry him all over again. I didn’t have to, of course, I was already married to him, but how romantic!
There was no way I wanted these rings replaced.
So, I prayed the jeweler would be able to repair my rings to their shiny gold.
Seeking the Jeweler
Imagine after wearing my wedding ring for 30 years and my anniversary ring for probably 15 years, how nervous I was entering Arthur’s Jewelers.
I showed my rings to one of the experts there and explained what happened. She graciously took the rings and examined them to see how extensive the damage was.
She came back and let me know they could polish both rings to look like new again.
I was so relieved.
But then she told me something else. Something worse was going on with my rings than that they were tarnished. She told me all the prongs holding the large diamond on my wedding ring were worn down. In fact, the prongs were non-existent. There was nothing holding or securing that diamond.
All the wear and tear I put my wedding ring through for 30 years destroyed those prongs.
She said my anniversary ring was also just about to break because the prongs were worn out so much.
My heart fell to my toes again! In those seconds I realized how close I had come to not just losing my gold bands, but my diamonds too!
I did one of the stupidest things by putting my gold rings into the wrong cleaning solution, but I had been doing something worse for years.
I wasn’t intentional about taking care of my rings. I wasn’t having the jeweler check and polish my rings on a regular basis throughout the years. I wasn’t making sure I was keeping my diamonds safe. I was just living my life, going with the flow, not paying attention at all to these beautiful gold rings with priceless gems in them. I must have thought they didn’t need tending to.
Oh how wrong I was.
Transformation by the Jeweler
The jeweler transformed my rings, making them look brand new! I know my picture above doesn’t do them justice because they seriously look brand new!
I wish I had taken a before picture of my rings to prove it.
You know, like my rings, we all have been carefully crafted specifically by “The Jeweler” God Himself.
“I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:14, ESV).
We are each a masterpiece He created for good works that He purposed us each to do for Him.
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10, NLT).
The thing is we need to be intentional to care for His masterpiece.
If we take that same attitude about our lives as I did about my rings, we’ll become worn out, exposing God’s precious masterpiece to unsafe things. We’ll become dull, lacking in luster, not shiny at all, damaged, and maybe even lose our hearts, like I almost lost my diamonds.
How do we care for God’s wonderful workmanship?
We need to refrain from worrying, criticizing, grumbling, and fear. They’re like tarnish to our souls. Instead we need to embrace hope, joy, gentleness, and peace so that we can shine like the sun and glitter like diamonds in this world.
We need to seek truth daily in His Word so that we don’t wear out the prongs that hold God’s precious gems, our hearts, securely in place.
We need to polish up by praying so that we continue to shine brightly.
But if you’re not shining brightly right now and you feel tarnished, don’t ever think that you’re beyond repair by The Master Jeweler. No matter how tarnished or worn out we are, He can repair us and make us look brand new!
Like I wanted my rings restored, so God wants to restore us.
He’s in the business of transformation. I say, let’s be intentional and visit The Jeweler every day to see how He wants to polish us and make us shine for Him every single day.
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