Saturday, June 30, 2007

Joy in the Morning


Psalm 30:4-5
"Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise His holy name. For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning."

It's morning....time to let the dogs out. I'm still groggy and my body is still moving slow. Oh, but those dogs, from the young ones to the old ones....morning is an exciting time for them! Its a new day! They aren't thinking about yesterday when they got in trouble for digging holes or for tearing apart their bed. They aren't wondering if I am still mad at them. They aren't thinking about that scuffle they had with one of their siblings over the much coveted hedge hog stuffie. They aren't wondering if their brother is still mad at them or whether they should still be mad at their brother. And, they sure aren't wasting any energy thinking about whether or not it's going to rain today and mess up their "plans"! No, its morning and its a NEW day!!

OK...so I know dogs don't "think" like we do...but sometimes I think we as humans can think too much!! We spend so much of our time today thinking about what happened yesterday. We think about how we disappointed someone close to us, or how they disappointed us. We think about that argument we had with our parent, our spouse, our friend, or our boss. Are they still mad at me? Am I, or should I, still be mad at them? I WAS right, you know. Is God still mad at me for when I blew it yesterday and acted "ugly", or for that fill-in-the-blank thing I did 10 years ago?

The Psalm here says God's anger lasts for a moment. Wow. He's GOD and even HE only lets his anger last a moment with us. If God can "forgive and forget" in a moment, why do we carry for days or weeks or years that "grudge" and that unforgiving heart toward that person who "wronged" us? Or, worse, toward God because things didn't go the way we thought they should and HE didn't seem to care (or so we thought).

God does not dwell on the past, and He doesn't live in the past. He lives today, with the forward looking attitude toward us of "His favor lasts a lifetime". He gives us a NEW day, each day, to live in His favor. We may weep for the night, but as my little cockers know full well, "joy comes with the morning".....if we choose to let it, and live in it.

In Christ and covered in dog hair,

Debbie Owczarzak

1 comment:

Lisa said...

Thank God for new days, and thank you (and your dogs) for the reminder that each day is filled with a million opportunities. We just need to notice them.