"Pause Before Reacting"

The devotion below is one that I received by email today from Proverbs 31 Woman. I receive a daily devotional via email from them and you can also sign up with them to get the same for free! It's a wonderful ministry and you'd be surprised the times that it seems like the day is just not going well and you open your email account to check those countless emails and BOOM!!!!! Just what you needed is right there in the emailed devotional... I can't begin to tell you how many times that has happened to me! Just like today! So I had to share it! Please read it... it will bring tears to your eyes! It did mine! Love, Kim

Pause Before Reacting
19 Feb 2009
By: Lysa TerKeurst
"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1 (NIV)

A few years ago, Art and I hit a rough place financially. Some investments we'd made went bad and we lost nearly our entire life savings. I was knee deep in 3 small children at the time and hadn't a clue that financial danger was looming on the horizon.That is until Art came home one day and the look on his face spoke of utter defeat. How could we have lost so much? He'd been wise with our finances. He'd done his research. He was a faithful saver. I stood stunned in our foyer that day, as Art told me the news.There were many different directions my reaction could have gone in the minutes that followed. I was upset. When Art first talked of mak ing these particular investments, I shared with him that I didn't have a good feeling about it. But, in the end, I let him make the final decision.So many times in my marriage, I've chosen the wrong words - words that were tainted with bitterness, words that were emotionally toxic. But I'm so thankful the Lord had been working on preparing my heart for this moment and instead of reacting immediately with what would have been a disastrous response, I paused. I allowed the Holy Spirit a few seconds to interrupt my natural flesh feelings.Then, because of God's Spirit working in me, I was able to wrap my arms around my husband and speak life-giving words into his weary heart. "I love you Art. I loved you yesterday when we had everything. I love you today when we have nothing. I love you for who you are, not what you have."A few years later, Art and I were on Dr. Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program. On the show Art was asked, "I know you and Lysa had a r ough start to your marriage. But what happened that made you know you'd stick by her forever, no matter what?"Without hesitation, Art recounted my reaction over the lost investments.I cried.Had I been left to my own flesh reaction that day, it could have set us on the road to marital disaster. But, because of God's response being stored up in me, this situation wound up bringing us closer together than we'd ever been.I realized how crucial it is to always be aware of God's preparation in our lives. Because He stands in our yesterday, today and tomorrow, He sees all. And He knows the perfect way to prepare our hearts for every situation.When we embrace His preparations, even a girl with firecrackers in her blood like me can have reactions that honor God and breathe life into relationships.

Dear Lord, remind me to pause before I react. Sometimes the stresses of life pull at my emotions, which cause me to have reactions that tear a t my relationships. Please forgive me for poor reactions in my past. Thank You for second chances. Thank You for the way You prepare my heart for everything You see that I'll be facing today, tomorrow and in all my tomorrows to come. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Related Resources:Come hear Lysa speak in Dallas, Texas at the National Christian Book Expo. For more information, click here.Visit Lysa TerKeurst's blogCapture His Heart by Lysa TerKeurstThe Bathtub is Overflowing but I Feel Drained by Lysa TerKeurstApplication

Steps:Part of embracing His preparations are to pray prayers that make God my focus rather than my circumstances--- Here are a few I've been inspired to pray:God, despite my circumstances, I will find reasons to praise You. God, even when I feel disappointed by what life brings, I will trust You to bring good out of bad. God, no matter what, I will hold on to You and Your truths. God, my deepest desire is for more of You in me. And if that is the desire of my heart, I will never be disillusioned.

Reflections:When hard situations arise, do I tend to react out of my emotions or out of a well-prepared heart of love? How might pausing help me to react better?

Power Verses:Proverbs 15:4, "The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit." (NIV)John 15:4, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." (NIV)
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Prayers for friends...

It seems like the world is going absolutely crazy right now... There are so many people sick and hurt right now.

Our friends at church, their stepbrother was in a horrific car accident and now in a coma in the hospital. And even though it's horrible what happened and tough to see, we're all praying that this is a life changing event for him in that he sees how his life has been in the past and is willing to change.

And then yesterday I got an email from a friend of ours who now lives in TN. She is 19 week pregnant with their 3rd child, a little boy that they decided to name Wyatt. She had a normally scheduled ultrasound on Monday and they were told that Wyatt's torso and body seemed to be the right size for 18-19 wks, but his limbs were only measuring to approx. 12 weeks, and that there also seems to be some problems with the spinal cord and bladder as well. They were going back this morning for another ultrasound and a second opinion to try and figure out what is going on. I still have not heard from her today, so I'm not sure what the outcome was yet. They say that it could be dwarfism, but are not positive at this point. Danielle is scared out of her mind right now and she and her husband could use your prayers. Her husband is a Marine in the Reserves and is gone quite a bit. To top it all off, today of all days to have another ultrasound, was their 1st child's birthday... Happy 3rd birthday Ansley! I have been praying all day that God's will be done in this, but you also can't help but have a selfish prayer in this case that his will actually be a good outcome. All of this reminds me so much of my sister Carrie when she was pregnant with Aaron, that it kind of scares me, and Danielle mentioned the same thing, that it seemed to be so much alike...

We'll just keep on praying...

His will be done!

It's V-Day!!!

So on a lighter note from my last post...

What's everyone doing for Valentines Day?

I have to tell you that Mackenzie was so cute this year. She decided at Scrapbook Crop Night that she wanted to hand-make all of her valentines for her classmates this year. She is so into scrapbooking and thanks to Mommy, Daddy, Grammy and Aunt Carrie, she was totally outfitted to start scrapbooking on her own (actually, she almost has more stuff that I do! And let me just say her bag is definitely bigger than mine! :-)

So anyway, she goes through and cuts them all attaches these foam glitter hears to them in the center and starts writing away. About the last two that she's doing I notice that she has been writing "form: Mackenzie" not from!!!! She was so devastated and wanted to start over at first, then she looks up at me and says with her little diva attitude "Oh well! They're all the same age as me and can't write very good yet either so they'll know what I mean!!"

The only thing was, she got very mad at me that I wouldn't let her write the names of her classmates on them. My first thought was, I'm not sure of all their names and even though she may know them I have no idea of the spelling!!! So I promised her we would do that part later. Well, I emailed her teacher for a class list, and got told that we weren't allowed to put the kids names on them!!! Go figure!!! The teacher wants it easier for her to just dump them in they're little mail boxes and not have to look at each one for a name! I have to admit I was kind of surprised and Kenzie is not very happy about it either! Oh well, did anyone else's teacher do the same thing? Kenzie loves everything to be personalized, so I won't be surprised if she gets these kids names on here in between time and hands them out herself!!

Anyway, just had to share!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day!

See you at church on Sunday!

It's been a long time a'comin'

Isn't that from some old folk tale or something? It's very familiar to me and that is all I can think that describes my last few weeks.

I've had to deal with many things in my life these past few weeks and am praying for the strength to renew and grow my personal relationship with the Lord, to be a godly example to my kids and the kids that I teach and come in contact with at church, to grow my relationship and become closer to my husband and kids, my family and so much more.

These weeks have been hard, and the journey I'm sure will still have it's rough patches, but I am excited about the outcome.

I know that we all have our own things that we deal with and I just want everyone to know that I am praying for you all likewise... and I'm asking for prayer support from my friends as well. It's the only thing that will get me through and I've learned that.

If anyone has any Bible studies that they'd like to suggest, I'm game. I've been wanting to have a good Bible study that I and others can go through together. Even if we cannot meet but once a month with everything that we have going on in our lives, ball, church, personal things, work, etc... we can at least catch up via the web! LOL! Maybe create a forum, or just do it through the blog and meet somewhere for coffee or something just once a month. I don't know how to work out the logistics of it all right now, but I may not know about you guys, but I need it! It helps to have some one to be accountable to, and to have someone to talk to as well.

I'm so excited to start the Secret Sisters in our Sunday School group, not only is exciting, but it is a great way to form relationships with someone that you may not have known too much about! It's wonderful that we have so many new faces in the class, but I'll admit, there are some that I don't know too much about, and I think that this gives us a huge opportunity to do so... plus it will be so fun in the end to "let the cat out of the bag" so to speak!

All in all, there's so much to do and so little time, but I know now that I have to make time and am striving to do that!

Please let me know if anyone else is interested in a "web" and once a month coffee Bible Study!!!