ENCOURAGED IN HEART

Grump to gratitude.

You have no idea how much my heart melted to a puddle of goo this morning. And I’ll tell you why. I’ve been fighting a wicked case of the grumps. It doesn’t really have to do with my foot surgery, that I’ve gained a couple of pounds, two computer crashes (do you have any idea how difficult it is to be a writer when you can finish a piece on your computer!?!), or some personal attacks that I’ve been working through…

But it does have to do with my response to it all.

The best weapon I know to fight off the grumps is gratitude. I’ve been stretching myself into a most uncomfortable yoga position of gratitude. Since I have the flexibility of a cement block, I’m feeling it.

This morning I woke up, with a most lovely arrangement of bed head due to the obscene amount of hairspray I shellacked my hair with yesterday. As I reached to grab my velcro shoe, I felt the grumps revisit.

It torturous really, living with a grumpy person. Even more torturous when that grumpy person is yourself. It’s very difficult to get away from…well, yourself.

At breakfast, the boys and I studied about how Noah obeyed God and created a safe place, a boat, to shelter his loved ones during a wicked season. At the end of the storm, God painted a rainbow as a visual to demonstrate a promise. We’ve studied this story before and so I asked Cal, “What was God saying to Noah with the rainbow?”

“I love you.” (Cue big Momma gulp.)

After devotion time, I hopped up to open the blinds while the boys cleaned their breakfast dishes. I said, “WOW guys, look at this awesome sunrise!” (which made me feel happy and then angry because I love running outside under such a beauty of a sky and I can’t run…and like I said, I’m battling a case of the grumps).

Equally delighted at the visual buffet Jake declared,“Mommy, maybe instead of the rainbow, God’s sending the sunrise to say, ‘I love you.’” (Cue big Momma gulp, one more time.)

God paints rainbows in the most unsuspected places. I believe today it was the magnificent sun rise.

I suspect a saw a few just yesterday where I was able to speak to a room full of women, and told them that God loves them and that He thinks they’re His masterpiece. Later, I sat at a roundtable of people who were committed to loving Christ in a most extraordinary way. A way with patience. A way that cost a lot of time, energy, commitment and investment. A way that reflects the way God loves you and me.

On the drive home, I called my father, (yes, the one that’s allergic to penicillin and rap music), anxious and eager to hear his scan result. He is cancer free!

See what I mean, rainbows…they were everywhere.

After bus stop, I went on a 20 minute walk on the very same path that I love to run on. The sunrise changed my morning from grump to gratitude. While I can’t currently run, I can walk and that’s a lot to be grateful for.

I’m wondering what other rainbows I’ll see painted today?

Have you been battling a case of the grumps? Where have you seen God paint a rainbow? Will you share how it changed you from grump to gratitude?

tags: grump to gratitude, rainbows