If you have kids, I'm sure you've felt the frustration of having things ruined. Grape juice on the carpet, scratches on the hardwood floors, cracks in windows, overly worn patches in the grass, bleach spilled on your favorite shirt...you get the picture. Once Ashley went up our freshly painted stairway and made a tick mark on the wall for every step she climbed. Then she drug the crayon all the way down the hall to her room. Did you catch the freshly painted part...yes we are talking I wanted to pull my hair out by the roots and snatch a few strands of her hair as well!
I want to be one of those smiling June Cleaver moms who just weather mishaps and messes with a graceful, "that's okay dear." But I'm wired with firecrackers in my Italian blood ready to make a show of colorful emotions with the slightest trigger. So, I have to make the choice to let the Holy Spirit reign me in. And it is a choice. I have to get into God's word everyday and pray for God to give me His portion of grace, patience, and self-control. It is an everyday choice for me to invite God's spirit to interrupt my natural fleshly tendencies so I can have gentle answers that turn away wrath.
One of the most tender ways God reminds me of the power available to me to have Him control my wild emotions, is through perspective changers. God shows me a different way to look at and process things that beg me to get emotionally charged. With this whole things getting ruined by kids thing, God gave me such a sweet perspective that changed my outlook and diffused my anger.
We were visiting Art's parents in Florida when I took a liking to a little writing desk in my mother-in-law's house. I started hinting around that I really loved this desk and if she ever decided to get rid of it that I wanted it. But she was quick to tell me that she had no plans to get rid of this desk, to her it is priceless. Priceless? I mean it is a cute desk and all, but it certainly didn't look priceless to me.
She must have sensed my doubt at her statement so she asked me to follow her to the desk. She gently unlatched the fold down lid that forms the desk and pointed out the reason for her "priceless" statement. In a little boy's handwriting the letters, A-R-T were scratched onto the surface. She told me when my husband had done this as a small child that it had made her so frustrated and angry. But now, what she once viewed as scratches that ruined her desk were now a priceless treasure. Forever, his little boy handwriting was saved for her to see and remember and enjoy and treasure. It had been ruined... for good.
Thank you God for perspective changes that help us to see past the here and now and onto your truth which sets us free. Free from anger, free from firecracker emotions, free from short fuses and explosive tempers...free to reveal the YOU in me!
Isaiah 43:18-19, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"
I want to be one of those smiling June Cleaver moms who just weather mishaps and messes with a graceful, "that's okay dear." But I'm wired with firecrackers in my Italian blood ready to make a show of colorful emotions with the slightest trigger. So, I have to make the choice to let the Holy Spirit reign me in. And it is a choice. I have to get into God's word everyday and pray for God to give me His portion of grace, patience, and self-control. It is an everyday choice for me to invite God's spirit to interrupt my natural fleshly tendencies so I can have gentle answers that turn away wrath.
One of the most tender ways God reminds me of the power available to me to have Him control my wild emotions, is through perspective changers. God shows me a different way to look at and process things that beg me to get emotionally charged. With this whole things getting ruined by kids thing, God gave me such a sweet perspective that changed my outlook and diffused my anger.
We were visiting Art's parents in Florida when I took a liking to a little writing desk in my mother-in-law's house. I started hinting around that I really loved this desk and if she ever decided to get rid of it that I wanted it. But she was quick to tell me that she had no plans to get rid of this desk, to her it is priceless. Priceless? I mean it is a cute desk and all, but it certainly didn't look priceless to me.
She must have sensed my doubt at her statement so she asked me to follow her to the desk. She gently unlatched the fold down lid that forms the desk and pointed out the reason for her "priceless" statement. In a little boy's handwriting the letters, A-R-T were scratched onto the surface. She told me when my husband had done this as a small child that it had made her so frustrated and angry. But now, what she once viewed as scratches that ruined her desk were now a priceless treasure. Forever, his little boy handwriting was saved for her to see and remember and enjoy and treasure. It had been ruined... for good.
Thank you God for perspective changes that help us to see past the here and now and onto your truth which sets us free. Free from anger, free from firecracker emotions, free from short fuses and explosive tempers...free to reveal the YOU in me!
Isaiah 43:18-19, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"
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