Lately I've been writing about storms with some guidance on how to get through them. This morning I decided to read a few examples from the Bible to see what others learned about God while also in a storm. [See: Matthew 14:23-31, Mark 4:35-41. Psalm 107:23-32, Luke 8:22-25]
Fast Forward...
The kids started waking and I eventually make it to the kitchen to start breakfast. I am frustrated because we have such big plans for the day and the kids won't stop bickering about chores. It feels like we're never going to get the house clean. I ask myself if maybe we waited too long to eat and now we're all just too hungry to focus.
So, I pray for a change of heart and call everyone into the living room to read a devotion & to regroup. I don't want the day to continue with this tone. The devotion happens to be about patience. -How instead of being impulsive and reacting with our emotions we need to stop and take a moment and ask for help. In our discussion, we use our real life examples from only moments before and the current example of what we've switched to.
We bow our heads to pray and my youngest son begs to be the one to say it. I agree with a tired smirk and hope I am being filled with patience in this moment. I wonder if at all [in all of his two year old wisdom] he comprehends what he is doing. I am speechless when out of his broken sentences, I hear Jackson talking about God... being on the water... in a boat...
You may not think that there is a significance to his timing but I never told him what I was reading. Take a look for yourself in those verses noted above. And while my son has recently started asking to say grace; he always repeats the same two or three lines from a blessing that he remembers.
And just last weekend I was at a retreat where there was an at length discussion about praying God's word. Could somehow this be a similar prayer in spirit through my son [to me]?
I can't help but feel a sudden nearness and being used when we both break from our routines to find him.
Today also happens to be Valentines Day. There is another love that often goes over looked. Take a moment and allow your heart to connect to him so that he might also purify what we give to our earthly loves.
The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. - Zephaniah 3:17
Photo credit - http://heartwisdomccc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/boat-on-water.jpg
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