When Life Rains on Your Parade Make Mud Pies!

James 1:12 AMP
12Blessed (happy, [a]to be envied) is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation, for when he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive [the victor's] crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.

The other day I was stuck in a big puddle of self pity and it seemed like life and worry was raining down hard on me. It was a day when I was working with the kids and it was raining out. I was so tired of the rain I brought the kids outside. The rain wasn't that bad anyway. The kids were enjoying making mud in the sandbox.

Anyone who knows me knows I have something called Seasonal Affective Disorder. When it rains it is very hard for me to not get sad or discouraged. Most of the time I get so depressed I do not like to get out of bed. However, children always seem to cheer me up and I'm always out the door for work. You could say that children bring sunshine to my rainy days. To think looking out a window in your life thinking those are some dark clouds when is the sun going to come out. Children have a way of having fun despite the dark clouds that linger above. They are ready for anything and always ready to make the best of any situation. A few of the kids were like we can't be outside it's raining. I was like it was a few raindrops and it wasn't down pouring... I spoke too soon because just then it began to rain harder. I asked the kids if they wanted to go inside and none of them did instead we spent a good hour in that rain making sand castles and mud pies.

So often we look at things in with an adult perspective... when will the sun come out? We forget that we can praise God in any storm we face... even if it isn't picture perfect weather. I love the song Bring the Rain by MercyMe. I have been waiting and waiting for a job and to be honest it hasn't been easy... I've been graduated since December just waiting to hear someone will keep me full time. I tried being a head teacher but that didn't quite work out and so I decided I'd start of smaller and a little more humble as a teacher in a Head Start program. Even I had doubt they would hire me and that day I posted Bring the Rain on my profile I was thinking of posting that song Praise You in This Storm. However, I wanted God to know I was okay with the rain also if that was what He wanted.

Trials teach us things they grow us in strength and perseverance. They also teach us to wait patiently on God. I wanted God to see that I can be happy in any situation and that when the rain comes I'm going to make MUD PIES!

Romans 8:17

17And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.

Who's Got Your Tongue?

James 1:19
19 Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry.

You know those moments when you are caught in the emotion of being hurt or offended and your mouth just goes BLUUUUUUUUUUURP? Then afterwards you are like what did I just do? I didn't mean to say that! Oh if only we could take back every idle word that came from our mouths. I'm not actually writing this as a warning. I'm trying to let you know that we get offended because we are human. Most of us who read this are women. Women are very emotional creatures and that is just how God created us. He created us to be like Him in that regard.

However, God knows when it is wise to say something to someone. Usually when God tells people something it is to benefit them and it's for their growth. God is an emotional God but thankfully He doesn't react from His emotions out of impulse.

As an English major in college I had to read several puritanical pieces of literature. The one that stuck out to me most was the poem "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". As a Christian it just didn't make sense. Why would the loving Father who created us to be His companions want to destroy us? Then what would the purpose of Jesus dying on the cross be? It just didn't make sense that God was so caught in His emotions that He would destroy humans just because of sin that He already is stronger than. I don't believe that for a second. I believe what John 3:16 says, God loves us so He sent His Son to die for us. I know you feel I'm getting off the subject of speaking idle words I guess what I'm trying to prove is God doesn't speak idle words. When we speak God's word over situations that upset us or frustrate the heck out of us... or even just offend us we are winning over the plot of the enemy because God's words are not idle.

Whoever heard or read anything that Satan has said that was not idle? Satan is the king of idle words... and whenever we give into those bluuurps we are acting from fear, frustration, hurt, envy, anger. All these things are not of God. What is of God should keep us reassured of His peace and keep us calm knowing we have already won the fight. Galatians 5 will tell you exactly what kinds of things we should be putting on to keep us from bluuuuuurping the words we don't mean. It's not easy of course it's not easy because it means we have to struggle with our flesh. The tongue is the most powerful muscle in our bodies. The bible is right though, out of the mouth comes the abundance of the heart. When we speak from the hurt in our hearts we hurt people. When we speak from peace and healing God can do amazing things.

I don't know about you but I'm ready for a change. I'm ready for God to have the control of my tongue and my heart and for it to be filled with powerful wonderful blessings instead of the idle words that Satan wants to use to destroy. We are not sinners in the hands of an angry God we are sinners in the hands of a merciful Savior who can change even the coldest darkest heart into a heart of pure joy and peace. He also can change the sharpest deadliest tongue into a vessel of light and truth.

James 3
James 3
1NOT MANY [of you] should become teachers ([a]self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation].

2For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature.

3If we set bits in the horses' mouths to make them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies about.

4Likewise, look at the ships: though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines.

5Even so the tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze!

6And the tongue is a fire. [The tongue is a] world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of man's nature), being itself ignited by hell (Gehenna).

7For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature).

8But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison.

9With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God's likeness!

10Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.

11Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?

12Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.

13Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the [unobtrusive] humility [which is the proper attribute] of true wisdom.

14But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth.

15This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demoniacal).

16For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices.

17But the wisdom from above is first of all pure (undefiled); then it is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). [It is willing to] yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is wholehearted and straightforward, impartial and unfeigned (free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity).

18And the harvest of righteousness (of conformity to God's will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for and make peace [in themselves and in others, that peace which means concord, agreement, and harmony between individuals, with undisturbedness, in a peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts].