when God speaks in the middle of bananas and bad moods

Yup.  You read it right.  My day started fine.  I don't know when it started to head South, but it did at some point.  I woke up, watched a little Today show, checked my email, got on facebook, caught up on other people's blogs, started laundry, cleaned the kitchen, made banana pudding...

and then I started hearing arguing from the upstairs direction.  Then tears.  From one of my children.  Then these words, "You're not gonna die.  You're not gonna die."  Spoken very unsympathetically, I might add. 

I called the perpetrators downstairs and we had a little come to Jesus meeting. 

Then I had another one with another perpetrator.

Then I had a come to Jesus meeting.  With Jesus.  In the kitchen.  In the middle of my bad mood.  In the middle of my spoken outloud prayer.  Sitting at my kitchen table.  With children going out, coming in, making their way up the stairs, sounding like a small herd of elephants. 

I pulled out my much loved, most treasured possession-my Bible-and started flipping through the book of Psalm.  And my eyes stopped on a devotional that was titled "Hope in the Middle of Despair". 

Not that I'm filled with despair, but my good morning was quickly going awry. 

So I read the devotional and saw that it went along with Psalm 42 and 43.  David was at his wits' end in this passage.  Filled with hopelessness and despair, trying to cast his eyes toward Heaven, desperate for a sign that God had not forgotten him. 

Not that I was like this today...because really, it was just a simple, unexplainable bad mood. 

But then...I had a revelation.  And it was that it was hard to be in a bad mood when my mouth was busy praising my Lord and Savior. 

EUREKA!!!!!

I felt like I had found the motherload!!!!  What a simple concept, right?  WRONG!!!

Why do we do what we DON'T want to do and don't do what we WANT to do??? 

Paul had it right in Romans' 7:15-20.  Take a look.

¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 

If this takes you a few times of reading through it to get it, don't feel bad.  I think I "got it" after try number 73.  Keep reading, by all means, keep reading it!!!

This all goes back to that simple concept...we have to take whatever moment we're living in and pray our way through it.  Whether it's a bad mood, a sickness, a difficult time, depression...GOD CAN AND WILL GET US THROUGH THOSE TIMES!

After I spent some time in prayer and in His word, these lyrics popped into my brain.  And yes, they popped right in there, because I always ask that the Lord will put a song of praise in my heart.  Because that's how I praise Him-through music.  Even though not everyone does, this is how I do it.  Anyway, here are the lyrics, you might remember it.

"As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee.  You alone are my heart's desire, and I long to worship Thee!  For You alone are my strength, my shield.  To You alone may my spirit yield.  You alone are my heart's desire and I long to worship Thee."

That tied in with the scripture from the devotion I'd just read-Psalm 42. 

I went on to think of words of praise that I could say to Him.  These are what popped into my mind:

steadfast
strongtower
strength
shield
rock
fortress
deliverer
help
guide

And I thanked Him for being all of that to me.  He delivered me from my bad mood.  I know this might sound silly to some of you, but I am a simple girl, and I take pleasure in all these "little" things that He does for me!  And if these words help even ONE person to come to know Him and love Him like I do...well, then, I will continue to write about my love for Him until the day that I die. 

Here are the last verses that I read. 


Psalm 43:3&4  "Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell.  Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight."

Hallelujah! 

I had to praise Him, y'all, I just HAD to.  It was bubbling forth.  And then I had to apologize to those above perpetrators that I mentioned.  Because even though they were wrong to do what they had done, I handled the situation badly.  I like for them to know that I am human and that I mess up lots.  And lots and lots and lots.  And then I had a talk with them about how when they felt their attitude slipping down towards the "bad" side, all they had to do was to pray their way through it.  And the Lord would guide them through those muddy waters. 

Praise Him.  Praise You, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.  I adore You.