Lord, I want to change, but let's start tomorrow!

Sunday our youth pastor, Isaac Stokes spoke on what he titled, "God's Secret Weight Room". He showed a clip from the movie Evan Almighty of Morgan Freeman who played God & Lauren Graham who played Evan's wife in a cafe. Evan's wife had prayed that their family would become closer. Morgan Freeman, as God, appears as a waiter and asks her if everything is okay. She gave him a short answer not knowing who he really was. Without mentioning her specific prayer for her family to become closer he answered...
"Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?"


This morning I decided I'm going to go through Proverbs 31:10-31 verse by verse, dissect each verse and then try to apply what it says. This passage in the NIV Bible is titled: The Wife of Noble Character. Okay, so in our years of marriage I decide I'm going to try to become what Gene has never had. I had a great prayer time with God asking Him to show me how to become a wife of noble character. I had even looked up the word "noble" in the Webster's dictionary to find: outstanding character. Feeling excited about my new goal as a wife who just wants to be in God's will, I turn off my desk lamp and get up to go get ready for work.


Well, my sweetie, who was upstairs resting because of the bad back causing him to miss work while he endures physical therapy, had decided to do a load of laundry. The night before when our son washed a load the washing machine flooded the basement bathroom. Gene thought he had fixed the problem, but was going to check by running a load. Next to the running test load, he put a pile of dirty clothes on the floor.

As I'm heading upstairs, I notice that the pile of once only dirty clothes is now a pile of dirty wet clothes. I start yelling his name "Geeeeene!!!!" Now WHY would he put those clothes on the floor knowing the chance of a flood was pretty high? Our sewage pump had gone out Saturday and we put the new one in ourselves (big mistake), so it was the sewage pump water that was soaking my favorite PJ's!!


Getting no response from him, I go marching, well okay, stomping up the stairs & into our bedroom to let him know of the mess that was waiting for him. Not so happy with my handyman, I ignore his moans of pain as he struggles his way out of bed while I begin to get ready for work.

That's when God asked me, "So,what part of that was noble Lelia?"

"Lord," I argued, "it was sewage water!"

As my head dropped, I apologized to God and asked His forgiveness for failing to apply what I had just asked Him for. Now how is that I can meet a test that quickly? I know, maybe the prayer hadn't reached God's ears yet so He didn't know that I wanted to be a wife with outstanding character! Sure, He knew by the time Gene had hobbled downstairs, but He didn't know in time to help me guard my mouth and tongue like He tells me to.

Proverbs 21:23

He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.

So I need to apologize to my man tonight when he gets home from work because I only apologized to God. Now if when I pull in the driveway this afternoon and see my hubby sitting on the corner of our roof I'll know for sure that at least one of us is listening to God's instruction He gives us in Proverbs.

Proverbs 21:9

Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

~Many Blessings~

Lelia