Be Still My Heart

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.  Exodus 14:14

There are so many reasons to sit back and laugh at myself.  This is just one.  Here is what this morning's devotional says, and I quote: "...taking things into our own hands to fix school issues and problems.  When we wield the 'weapons of our warfare' by praying for our children and their schools instead of complaining or striving, the Lord will undertake the situation in His own way. Is there a situation troubling you at your child's school that you could pray about with others?"  As if that were not enough, God throws the above verse in my lap as if to say, "So, what will you choose now?"

Yesterday I wrote about my feelings on childcare for school staff when they are required to work longer hours and have to also keep their children under toe while doing so.  I then spoke of how I was choosing then to pray.  However, shortly thereafter another situation arose that angered me, not for my grandchildren alone, but for every child involved in a certain program on the school campus.  There are a few safety issues that seem to be being disregarded, one of them involving mold the adults and children will have to breathe.  The other issues were bad enough, but this one caused me to blow a fuse, so to speak.  Since I do not have a child or grandchild in this program, I knew my voice would not be heard, so I went to a neighbor who does.  He says he will attend the next school board meeting and ask about it. Then this morning hit, I read the passage and the verse above and started laughing at myself.  I apologized to Father God and am now seeking out Mom's In Touch - a prayer organization for women who want to pray for their schools.

It is amazing to me how often something like this happens.  God deals with me regarding any subject and I get it in my head quite easily.  However, to get things into our hearts, planted firmly and well rooted so they are difficult to pull back up, we must take them from our minds and allow the soil of our hearts to be plowed and dug, the seed planted, watered and allow the Son to shine on it and allow it to grow, be pruned at times and flourish.  This takes time, energy, commitment and patience.  So why do I laugh?  Because I recognize God at work in all of this, and while there is a small of amount of shaking of the head in wonder at my own stupidity, there is mostly a great joy in knowing that my Father loves me enough to keep working on me where I need it most.  He never gives up on me and is He ever patient!! 

Thank You for Your great love Father!!  Thank You for continually planting new seeds in the soil of my heart.  Help me remain steadfast, continue to water them with Your word and remember to speak with You every morning so that Your Son can shine His light there to nourish and make these knew bits of wisdom grow so they can produce fruit to be shared.  Continue pruning back the bushes, pulling up the weeds, making me uncomfortable when necessary so that I might, when all is said and done, be a delight to You.  I pray this for each of Your children - in Jesus name!!