October 24, 2011 He designed you to Sing for Joy!!

Psalm 90:14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives.

II Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.

I'm a morning person, have been all my life - even when I was a teenager. My younger sister could sleep till noon, but by 6:30 am the mourning doves called me. Today I was talking with a student about how to remind herself to whom she belonged, and I said something about rolling out of bed and starting the day by thanking God you could roll out of bed. Then I encouraged her to thank God for His love for her - His unfailing love. Perhaps that might have something to do with the fact that I am a morning person, that I can think that clearly in the morning, and I do know that God didn't make us all morning people.

Still, I didn't always wake up that way. I have been trying cultivate a thankful spirit from the get-go because I do believe it pleases God. I think about how I love it when I do something for someone, and they communicate their appreciation - not so much because I want to be thanked, but because I want to know I got it right; what I did mattered to them.

If I think that way, maybe it is because God does to. He wants us to realize and to tell Him that we recognize what He did for us - He knows the exercise of giving thanks and expressing appreciation is healthy for us, and a good way to start the day.

Then I think about starting the day in the Word - putting on the armor of God, preparing for whatever God or the evil one has in store for me. I was encouraging a student today to talk to God, but to also listen to His response in His Word. As Paul wrote to Timothy, it is God's way of preparing us in every way for the blessings and the challenges.

What an astonishing pair of thoughts: God wants us to sing for joy and be prepared for everything that comes our way! What love! What a beautiful way to live, and it is possible. I wonder how much beauty I have missed by charging into my day without sitting expectantly for a few moments at the beginning of the day, listening for His voice, either in my head or in His Word.