We have been listening to the audio bibles Ann Voskamp mentioned some time back from Faith Comes by Hearing.  They are AWESOME recordings.  All dramatized and each person is represented by a different voice.  They are complete with wind and waves and music in the backgrounds. I have been totally captivated and am choosing this over the music on the ipod now. Time and again I think that I have never heard a verse put that way. This is probably because I have literally not HEARD the verse that way.  

To make it even easier they now offer both the OT and NT as an iphone app.  No iphone? You can listen on Facebook too, which is probably a heckuva lot better than most of the other things a person could be doing on FB.  Way cool. 

Yesterday I was listening to the exhortation in Philippians 2:14 to 'do all things without murmuring or disputing" sometimes translated as 'grumbling' and 'complaining.'  Basically a biblical command to be cheerful and cooperative IN ALL THINGS.  Tall order, but one that is repeated several places. I had recently printed out Wise Woman's essay She Delights Him based on the Botkins Sisters words and placed it on my fridge as a reminder of what "bringing him goodness and not harm" looks like in daily life. It seems more and more that it all begins with attitude.  Choosing to be grateful vs resentful, choosing to be joyful vs brooding, choosing to be positive vs critical. 

I printed Phil 2:14 for the fridge as well because it applies to all members of the family. How much strife could be avoided if we just followed this direction and went on with our work?  I mentioned back in lent a discussion at the dinner table when we heard about a frustration Zach had.  He just smiled and said he had given up complaining for lent. And then refused to vent about it.  It made a big impression on me and I was reminded of this yesterday. The bible makes it clear we are not to grumble – period. The commentary linked points out that protest and complaining is 

"sometimes prominently displayed in the countenance."

Oh yes, it is. Even when we button our lips and press on we often make it clear we are not happy about a thing and our faces complain when our voices do not. So this is my challenge currently. Am I bemoaning my circumstances? Snapping over petty frustrations. Or doing ALL things without complaining? I figure the best way to bless my husband AND my children right now is to be a smiling wife and mother. To be diligent is admirable as well. But the 'how' of it often impacts more than the what of it all. So smile. : )  It's all happening for a reason – to bless and not to curse. 

Several readings and snippets of conversation have come together over the past few days.  I tend to mark it down when this happens because surely it is for good reason.  Yesterday's gradual reading was from Ps 117:

"It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man. It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than trust in princes."

Husband and I talked about this around the table last night.  How much sadness follows from failure to consider this direction?   Too often we look to each other for answers only God can give.  Misplaced confidences burden the one confiding as well as the one in whom we confide. The one is following counsel given by man, not God.  The other is led to hold his own counsel in perilously high esteem. That is, in part, our fault too, since we have favored their opinions over God's. 

The counter to this error is found in Mt 6:

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things will be added onto you."

Then and only then. Yet we are so surprised when we circumvent this flow and all those "things" we are so desperate for elude us. Perhaps because what we really seek is the notice and approval of others. We need them to affirm our choices, validate our frustration, justify our decisions, take up our case before others. We stir ourselves up and seek out another to help calm the storm brewing inside. But, there is only One who calms storms – and there would be fewer storms to calm if we rested more quietly in Him, if we sought His direction before others'. 

When I opened Msgr. Landriot's words this morning they not surprisingly echoed this same counsel. He reminds us 

"Men will take no account of your sufferings, nor of the drops of blood running from your heart and falling upon the pavement of your hidden life; but God counts them, every one, and angels will gather them up. Each unseen tear thus falling from your heart is changed into a pearl of great price."

He goes on to say those pearls will adorn our brows in heaven and the crown will be 

"all the more beautiful and glorious, the weaker has been the nature of her who has thus gloriously conquered."

Where does he suggest we find the means to conquer these temptations? To remain steadfast while the waves of trial and upset rush at us?  

"I know none better than confidence in God." says he. 

Of course. There are no coincidences, of that I am certain. So I take note of this message sent from many directions over a few days. 

Is your heart heavy today? There is One waiting to hear your secrets and bear your burdens, to direct your steps. One who never fails. I am trying to step back more now and remind myself to place my confidence there. Life is not necessarily 'bad' because of others. It is often a trial because we neglect the very simple path leading straight to God.

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