I'm reading Hosea these last couple of days. 2 passages have stuck out to me as significant/instructional for me at the moment:

"Plant the good seeds of righteouesness and you will reap a crop of My loe; Plow the hard ground of your hearts for now is the time to seek the Lord, that He may come and shower salvation upon you." Hosea 10:12

It's not an easy thing, that tilling the ground of my own heart...it's something that I naturally lean on the Lord to do by a Spirit of conviction, or others to do for me through accountability and observation. In what ways can I assume a more active role in this process? What does that look like?

The other Scripture is this:

"Oh come back to the Lord, live by the principles of love and justice, and always be expecting much from Him, your God." Hosea 12:6

(these are drawn from The Living Bible, by the way, I decided to go old school!)

So what are the principles of love and justice? I just thought about love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor, as well as the 1 John passage, to love with actions and in truth...the justice, I think of Micah 6 - be fair and just and merciful, and walk humbly with God.

And then, 'expect much from Him, your God." What do I expect from God in the first place? Mostly just that He'd keep me happy and safe. I rarely ask for what's coming, nations, perspective and so on. Just living in the now.

This entire mindset became garishly apparent to me these last weeks as I take on my husband in Monopoly. He wins every stinkin' time, and why? Because he is not just thinking of 'now' he's thinking of 5 rolls from now. 20 min. from now. Looking at what I'm doing, where Im going, what properties I'm collecting and trying to thwart those plans, while prospering his own. Yup. Every time. He says it's 'the anointing' and he can't help himself but to win, and I actually agree with him - his spiritual giftings and callings apostolically have pre-disposed him to win at games that involve strategy, risk-taking and long term thinking - like Monopoly, but it also emphasizes my lack of those traits...

*sigh* maybe I should start praying in that direction. Not so that I can become just like Rob and win against him, but so that I can increase my general awareness of what is going on around me and up my ante/involvement in my own life. That can't be a bad thing at all.
Or we could just buy a new boardgame...