Retail

Working in retail is a great experience. You get to interact with lots of different people, and sometimes you can even get to know the regulars. :) Today I had this cute old couple come to my checkout lane. The store wasn't very busy then, so I was able to talk to them for quite a while. They were both pretty talkative and the husband kept interrupting his wife to crack jokes...she didn't seem to mind. When the wife had to sign her name on the pin pad, the sun was in her eyes and she mentioned how it would be so much easier to sign if the sun wasn't right there. When her husband heard this, he walked in front of her to block the sun. He asked, "Is that better?" and his wife replied, "Yes, thank you. I knew I brought you along for a good reason." Then the man turned to me and said, "Well, hey. I got a nice razor out of the deal so I'm happy." They went on to tell me about how they didn't really shop that much because their daughter did most of their shopping for them. But today they had a 15% off coupon so they thought they might as well come in. Then the wife said to her husband, "And since I saved all that money today, I'm going to take you out to lunch." The husband then looked at me with a surprised yet pleased look, "I didn't know lunch was included in the deal!" Yes. It was very cute. That's how I hope it will be like with my husband and me someday. Grow old together. Joke together. Go on dates together. And always care for each other. :)

Well, the most crazy day in retail is coming up this week. Black Friday. I start work at 3am. Kohl's opens at 4am. But I get off at 11am (and that's still 8 hours!). I'm sure it will be one of the most interesting days of my life... I might even let you know how it goes. ;) But seriously. Pray that I won't get sick this week, because I feel like I'm coming down with a cold right now..and being sick isn't an option.

God bless you!

Christi Joy

Devotions in Ezekiel

So a couple days ago I read chapters four through eight in the book of Ezekiel. The continuous theme was that God was going to punish the nation of Israel for their idolatry and then they would know that He was God. It says over and over, "Then you will know that I am the LORD." And the reason God was punishing the Israelites was because He was jealous: 

"Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD–that I have spoken in my jealousy–when I spend my fury upon them." ~Ezekiel 5:13

God is jealous for his people's affections–as He should be. It is a righteous jealousy. Just like a husband should be jealous for his wife's affections. God also says that the few who survive His punishment will repent:

"then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations. And they shall know that I am the LORD." ~Ezekiel 6:9-10

God also shows how money will not save His people in that day:

"Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity." ~Ezekiel 7:19

Having a lot of money is not necessarily a good thing. In fact, many times it is the source of a lot of our problems. These chapters in Ezekiel show that God takes our idolatry seriously. It may seem like we are getting away with it for awhile, but his judgment will come. And I, for one, really do not want to face God's judgment...