I took a friend out for dessert last week to celebrate her birthday. It had been forever since we last saw each other so naturally we ran through “the list of life” in order to properly catch up:
Kids.
Marriage.
Work.
Home.
Church.
Health.
Gardening.
Family.
Hair.
Wrinkles.
The best wrinkle creams. Lol.
Summer plans.
Etc.
Two hours flew.
When I looked at my phone, I laughed and said, “Can you believe we’ve been gabbing for two hours and still haven’t talked about the most important topic?” She nodded, smiled and said, “Let’s do it. Let’s go there.”
And just like that, we spent another hour talking about God – what He’s doing in our lives, what He’s teaching us, what is humbling us, what’s stirring us, what’s challenging us, what we’re reading in the Bible, and on and on.
Here’s the cool part.
The first two hours of our conversation involved a few tears and a lot of frustration, because life is hard. Raising kids is hard. Marriage is hard. Health problems are hard. Family drama is hard. Any time we brought up something new going on in life, it usually also brought a lot of questions and confusion. There aren’t handbooks and manuals that tell you how best to handle the challenges of any of the above topics.
But the moment we brought up God everything changed.
Our shoulders relaxed.
Smiles spread across our faces.
The tone of our voices expressed less stressed.
And the concerns of this world seemed to disappear.
Because that’s what the Holy Spirit does – He brings peace.
Talking about our trust in Him, and how we have hope despite, and how His peace and goodness sheds a whole new light on our difficulties, changed the entire mood and atmosphere of our date.
I couldn’t help but think:
Why didn’t we start the evening with God?
It makes Deuteronomy 11:18-21 make so much more sense:
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.”
God was telling Moses to tell the Israelites that it’s good to talk about Him… to remember all He does… to continuously meditate on His faithfulness…
When you wake up…
Right before you go to bed…
While you’re parenting…
In the midst of marital friction…
When you can’t understand your job situation…
When your family is driving you crazy…
When your health has taken a turn south…
And yes, even when you see new wrinkles appearing (ha!)…
Talk about God.
And talk about His goodness.
Always.
Because talking about your solution means you’re talking less about your problems.
