Still Extoling?

....yes, I'm still "extoling the Lord." I must say, it is somewhat feeble today. I am going though the motions and doing the day-to-day stuff. That's the easy part. I am hanging on to and savouring every normal moment that in the past I have taken for granted because of the stuff that has been stripped away. I made the girls pancakes this morning and had devotions with them before they headed out into the blustery cold. I will pick the sweet grapes off my vine growing next to my front door and make grape jelly. I will start the laundry this morning. I am so thankful for all of this, but in the back of my mind that big, grey empty building looms. My husband and I will both have to find jobs. That in itself is ok, but I've been applying for 2 months now! I've been short-listed a number of times, but somehow I can't seem to snag the job! WHY?!? I have prayed about it so much! Why is God holding out on this? He knows we need jobs! I know, I know....trust. Have faith. God will provide...yes Lord, but could you provide NOW?...Like, RIGHT NOW?!!!!!

Truely, I know the answer to that too. I know He is working in me. He is pruning me. OUCH. Knowing the answers and claiming the truth of those answers are two different things. The bible is full of promises meant for us to claim! I grew up knowing so many of them, but I was never taught how to claim them as my own. God was a very big man in the sky whom I wanted to please because I wanted to get to heaven! It never occured to me that he had so much for me right here on earth, while I am waiting to spend eternity in his presence. That was an " AHA" moment!...THAT is the God I want to know! I want those truths to apply to me! When Joshua asks God to make the sun and the moon stand still because the Isrealites need more daylight for battle....WOW! God hears him! He does it! I wanna know THAT God.

Ok. So here is Awesome God. As I keep learning more and more about his character, how do I make THAT God a constant in my life? How do I get to the point where I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that THAT God is with me like white on rice all the time...good times, crappy times, lousy parenting times, less than stellar wife times, and I can't get out of the pit times? So many of David's Psalms of praise give evidence of him seeking God first thing in the morning. Hmmm...so here's David. Leader. Seeking God's wisdom in leading the Isrealites. Adulterer. Murderer. Has serious mood swings...I think he should be called "mad king David!" Yet God calls him a man after his own heart! Why?! To me, David seems more than a little nuts! But that's not how God saw him. What did David do to be known as such by God? He brought everything to God. The good, the bad the ugly and the unmentionable. He knew that nothing was hidden from God. Well, that would also mean that MY stuff isn't hidden either. I may as well bring it on! God is not shocked or intimidated by my weaknessess. He invites me to bring it all to him. Every morning.

So that is what I do. With one eye open, coffee sloshing out of my cup and serious bedhead I meet with him. I praise him. Sometimes , like today, my praise does not exactly have the party mood it should. I pour out to him - yep, even the unmentionable. He fills the space that I just emptied and I can get on with my day. The days I'm too lazy to do that...well, I resemble a mad king David!

SO! Onward HO! I'll just go take care of that bedhead now!!! LOL