I woke up the other morning in a foul mood.
Foul. I had never truly understood the expression "woke up on the
wrong side of the bed" until that day, but I surely understand it
now. (It didn't help, of course, that I had awoken for the third morning
in a row to the dogs whining, rather than my alarm chiming. Although at
least this time, they let me sleep past 4AM.)
In the course of the hour I had to get
ready for work, I yelled at my Yorkie for barking, I yelled at my husband for
not getting out of bed to help deal with the dogs, and I yelled at the hound
for getting on the couch. (The cats were only saved by the fact that I
didn't even go over to their side of the house.)
I stewed the whole drive to work that
morning, not even sure what I was so angry about. Undoubtedly, the devil
was having a field-day in my mind, though, because I was finding reasons to be
angry at everyone. They were just popping up in my brain, back-to-back, left-and-right.
She did this, he said that last night, they were so rude at that party back in
January, he didn't even say "thank you," the stupid person driving in
front of me is going two miles UNDER the freaking speed limit. UGH!
EVERYONE SUCKS!
And while I was getting angrier and
angrier at everyone else, I was also growing increasingly frustrated with
myself... because I didn't want to be angry, and I knew that I was being
completely unreasonable. I was hoping this was just hormones. (It's
always nicer when you can blame it on that.) I was also keenly aware of
how much I sucked - just that morning alone. Who was I to point a
judgmental finger at anyone? Nonetheless, I stayed angry.
And then I started meditating on
Scripture. Not even a passage that spoke directly to the situation - just
Psalm 1. By the end of the chapter, my perspective had changed. I
was thinking clearly, again. God spoke, and nothing was the same as it
was before.
Isn't that the way it's always been, from the
beginning? God spoke... and darkness became light. God spoke... and
what was bare was furnished. God spoke... and timelessness was redefined
by days.
I forget the value of God speaking,
sometimes. His words change everything.
