name calling

Saturday, October 10, 2009 (6:43 a.m.)

Holy God,

Perfect Father. ♫ Jesus, name above all names Beautiful Savior, Glorious Lord. Emmanuel, God is with us. Blessed Redeemer, Living Word. ♫

Now those are names to call, Lord! Quite unlike the ones I’ve recently thought and actually called my husband of the past thirty-two years.

Again Lord, I’ve been making mistakes! Behaving much like an elementary school aged child. Not knowing how to deal with such intense frustration. Unable to get across or understand points being made. But right in the midst of the near insanity of it all, I recognized You. Your way ~ Your best for us.

Forgive me Lord. For over three and a half decades I have repeatedly accepted/tolerated verbal intimidations as the norm. I see You cleaning things up around here. You are providing the Truth and the Light we need to overcome too many years of unhealthy patterns. Lord, thank You!

I am not proud of myself for being unable to approach potentially harmful attitudes with Your Word firmly in place. But oh how I thank You for calling me back again and again to Your Word. You are truly breaking old patterns here Lord. And I am absolutely grateful for that!

Thank You, Lord! Thank You for my decision to once again jump fully clothed (jeans, mid sleeved shirt) into our pool the other day. Thank You for not allowing it to change my attitude as I’d so desperately hoped it would. Thank You Lord that You alone are the root base for attitude adjustment!

Age-old patterns of our past didn’t work this time. Thank You for growing us to a higher plain. Thank You for not only making it crystal clear that change around here was vitally necessary, but for providing all the components we need to begin making those changes. Thank You Lord.

Thank You that in entering ‘name calling’ in the Bible Search, two verses immediately spoke hope into my heart. Blessed Lord, thank You for privilege such as this. To be able to easily find and turn to Isaiah 40:26 and be comforted and awe-inspired is such a blessing.

Reading Dr. Luke’s words (Acts 22:16) about Paul’s life changing transformation on the road to Damascus is again encouraging to me. “And now, why delay? Get up and be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on the name of the Lord.”

Dearest One, how I pray that You will continue growing Yourself in our hearts. Be it so that the very next time I am tempted toward name calling that I will instead call upon Your name.

I love You so much Dear Lord. And I truly thank You for the redemptive work You are doing in each of us around here. Thank You Lord. I love You. Amen.

(470 words ~ 8:28 a.m.)