A Little Encouragement

Psalm 19:14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Do you need encouragement today? If so, keep on reading. If not, well then...I guess keep on reading. Have you ever been angry? Had someone do something (or say something) to you and you want to lash back out at them? How many of US have? I say us here, because we've all been guilty of it. Whether you're sitting in traffic and have someone cut you off, or you're a frazzled parent who loses it over a spilled cup. We've all done it.

As I was sitting here this morning, itching to write, I prayed over what I would talk about, and out of nowhere came that verse from above. Thank You, Jesus, for instilling Your word deep in my heart. And I got to thinking...hmmm, maybe I need a lesson in this today.

Graham woke up at 7:25 this morning and immediately came downstairs saying, "Mom, I am so sorry, I am SO sorry." Just when I was thinking he was losing it and sleepwalking (and talking), he explained. "Mom, I forgot to tell you that I have environmental club at 7:45 this morning." Now, I must say, my reaction surprised me. I didn't get upset. I had the wherewithal to fix the boys' lunches ahead of time last night. So when I woke up, all I had to do was make the sandwich and stick it in their bag. Because I'd taken 10 minutes out of my evening last night and PLANNED AHEAD, I had oodles and oodles of spare time this morning.

Why can't we plan ahead to respond in love? We can. We definitely should. If we take a moment and ask the Lord for His guidance today, and ask Him to give us the wherewithal to love out (instead of lash out), how much better would our day be?

So back to the above verse: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You, Lord. The meditation of my heart would be anything negative I was thinking about someone or something. And trust me, I can do some negative thinking. If I just ask for Him to dwell within me today, to be at the center of my thoughts, actions and being, my words and my meditations WILL be pleasing to Him.

So, like I had patience and love with Graham this morning, Jesus responds to us in that same kind, gentle way. This behavior pleases Him. It is exactly what He did by dying on the cross for us~He, even in death, said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

Will you join me in planning ahead today? Will you join me in making the choice right now, to let the Lord come out in me, through the way I speak? I hope so~I can't wait to see (and hear from you, hopefully!) how much better our today is from doing this one small, seemingly insignificant thing. I treasure you all in my heart and am praying for you today.