Listen and Obey

Tonight was my small group and I spent the evening reviewing this week. It has been difficult, full of fighting for faith and righteousness. Here is the great part though...there was a fight. I realized that God has been working in me and I have been fighting, in His strength, and not giving in to the temptation to give up. One of the ladies I meet with asked, "how does that work? cuz I'd like to know so I can do it too?" I had to stop and think about that because I certainly don't have it down and I don't think I understand it BUT here are some examples of what it looks like in my life:

-reading the Word even when it is just a book and I am not looking forward to it, because I know it is right, and asking God to change my attitude
-praying when I feel the anxiety, anger, and rebellion welling up, ready to rage at whoever is in my way
-listening to the Holy Spirit after I pray, you know, the strange idea that popped into my head about something different to do at school, after a difficult situation with one of the kids and I prayed about it and then had this idea and it worked...me? no, the Holy Spirit!
-listening to the Holy Spirit when I don't pray, like when I cut off my daughter from talking because I was tired and wasn't interested  so I left to go to bed but then felt guilty because she will stop wanting to talk to me if I reject her like this, so I went back and crawled in bed with her, asked for forgiveness and listened to her talk until she was done (all of 5 minutes). So worth it but definetly from the Holy Spirit.
-allowing God to reorder my day. One of the girls had a fever today and just wanted to be held, so we sat on the couch and I held her. It was great, she slept soundly and I got to read, something I don't usually get to do and no one noticed that the floor didn't get swept and I didn't regret sitting with her instead of sweeping.

It is God in me working His grace and the more I let Him, the more He does. It is still a fight to listen and obey and there are just as many reasons to rebel and freak out and give up but like I said before, it's a fight!