Grace and peace to you my friends,
It's been quite a while since I last wrote to you. Mostly I've not been having very good mornings physically, however, on this particular morning God's grace and goodness has gone beyond sufficient to my immediate needs so I felt I might encourage you as I praise Him for His goodness to me this morning.
Abraham, my youngest at 21months, has had me up since before two O'clock. He had gotten very restless and to keep him from repeatedly waking his mother I brought him upstairs and put him back to sleep then laid him down on the couch. It took waking back up and crying for mom a few times before he gave up and stayed asleep where he is still peacefully snoozing to this moment. Many nights when he wakes me like he did tonight I get grumpy and unjustly vent my frustration on the little guy but to night there was none of that. I actually felt pleased to take him out and it made me happy to know that now both mom and little boy would get rest.
By the time he finally fell asleep for good it was around three and I had already decided that I would just stay awake. So I made some coffee, ate a little, then decided I would sit down with my Bible. I so enjoy those rare times when you sit down with God's Word and just can't keep your heart from bursting forth in joyful praise simply to be there in it. This was one of those moments, God is so good and was about to remind me just how worthy He is to be praised. I read a few chapters in Psalms and here are a couple of the verses that my heart sang to as I read them.
"Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!" Psalm 47:1 ESV
"Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised..." Psalm 48:1a ESV
So here I am sitting at the table, the time is some where slightly past the four O'clock mark, coffee is fresh, I'm enjoying my time in the Word as some old praise tunes using these verses are dancing in and out of my head. I'm rightly enjoying this time when, splat! Suddenly I'm hearing one of the most feared noises a parent can awaken to in the night. Some one is ferociously spilling last nights dinner all over the floor in the living room. After carefully setting down the hot coffee and throwing off the warm blanket out comes the cape and the red S. I'll spare you any of the details to this part of the story. Suffice it to say Super dad comforted a sad child and spent a fair (not sure I like that word here) amount of time cleaning up the living room floor. All that done, back to the table and my coffee I went and again tried to get back into God's Word.
By this time now it's around five O'clock. I found my self unable to get back into the groove I previously had. Instead, I was preoccupied with the thought of how good God had just been to me. Despite the ill sleepless children and the far too early start to the day God helped me to keep my attitude and mind rightly set on His gracious hand and the goodness of His providence that had safely guided me through the night. As things settled down again my heart went back to singing, "Great is the Lord and worthy of glory". At that point realizing the complete uniqueness of the night I'd had thus far, sharing it with you guys seemed like the logical thing to do so here we are.
Friends I can't even begin to describe what I did or how I managed to keep it going except to say the grace of God and His Spirit's influence won the night, not me. I can not take credit for some thing the mighty hand of God has brought about. He alone deserves the praise for giving me the strength to be a good father during a stressful night because there have been many more where under my own power I've failed miserably. This was an interesting evening or shall I say morning as it's now about six AM. There was more but if I tried to put it all down I'd be typing for days.
I don't have days like this every day but that doesn't mean the grace of God and His goodness aren't there on all the rest. You realize, of course, that we don't deserve to ever see the light of day yet the Lord blesses each of us, good or bad, with fresh air and a Sun rise every morning. There is so much to praise God and be thankful for my dear friends. Look around you, whatever your circumstances are they're there on purpose because God is working in and through you to display His grace and goodness. So praise His mighty name because He is great and worthy.
"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever." Psalm 23:6 ESV
I feel as though I've been fumbling at the mouth here but hopefully I've communicated enough thoughts to make much of God's amazing grace and goodness in this situation tonight.
For the Joy of Your Faith and the Greatness of our God,
Teagan
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