How we made it through alive

Since my session on Mommy, why are you Angry? on Saturday, I have had countless opportunities to practice what I preached. As you probably noticed based on yesterday's post.

I believe that, as soon as we step out and try to teach spiritual truths to others, the enemy has a game plan. He thinks, "Sure, she says that she is free in Christ... But does she live like it? Let's test her out. Mwahahahaha." Okay, I'm not sure if he does that evil laugh, but I wouldn't put it past him.

In these situations, I tend to see God as the third base coach. He's standing right there, telling us what we need to do, encouraging and coaching, hoping and praying, cheering us on. I'm pretty sure His reply to the devil's questions goes something like this, "You better believe she's free! Go ahead, just try and tempt her. You'll see. She may stumble, but she will not fall!"

I stumbled a bit first thing in the morning. The boots issue - that brought out my "outside voice." The shelf, well that one had me hollering at everyone for a minute or two. Honestly, those are the kind of situations that would typically get my anger flaring. I hate, hate, hate running late and everything about yesterday morning screamed of "We're all gonna be late!!!" I was tempted to skip out on my women's group altogether, rather than show up late. But something inside me told me that keeping me starved for fellowship was another trick of the enemy, and I knew I needed me some girl time!

When I closed myself in the bathroom to tackle my hair and make-up in twenty minutes flat, and I began my frantic work, I felt a pause. I knew that I needed God to work quick in my heart if I wanted to turn the day around. I began praying, but my prayers felt like whining and complaining and I couldn't bear to listen to myself. Instead, as I pulled my hair into a ponytail and covered up pimples, I began reciting Scripture. (Last year I memorized 24 verses, this year about 6, and I gave those 30 verses my best shot. I could only recall about half of them, and I was definitely not at 100% accuracy. But I spoke those slightly out-of-order Bible verses with my whole heart.)

No more than fifteen minutes later, my hair and make-up were done, my teeth were clean, I had a fresh layer of deodorant on, and I was dressed. The best part, though, is that I felt victorious. I didn't feel stressed, frazzled, late, or angry anymore. In fact, the peace of God was so strong over me that when Kai refused to go into childcare and insisted sitting with me ALL morning, it didn't even annoy me! (Seriously, if you know me, you know that this is a miracle! I am never one to turn down an hour of childcare!)

So if you were with me on Saturday, and you were wondering whether the stuff I was talking about really works, it does. Does speaking Scripture really hold the power to halt our anger? Absolutely! Remember "Thing 2?" Words are powerful. Especially the Word of God. It's sharper than any double-edged sword. (Hebrews 4:12)

Yesterday is living proof.

Boo-rah!

(Yeah, okay, I'm sorry about that. I now realize that I cannot pull off some military guy victory chant. I won't try that again. Promise. ;))