The Things We Say...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the silly little cliches that we repeat to one another so easily. I do it. Most of the people around me do it. We casually utter little phrases as we pass through our days, and move along, forgetting that we ever said them. Some of them are harmless enough, I guess -- just something to be said to fill empty air. But, usually, they have a tone of sarcasm, of wit, or maybe even of self-pity or complaint. You get an extra dose of these comments as a first-time expectant mother. "Just wait 'til... (insert that person's difficult labor/birth/parenting experience here). " Apparently, I'm supposed to be spending this time waiting on the difficulties to come, dreading them, wallowing in joylessness and despair over all of the hardships to come. Okay, I exaggerate to make my point, but you get it. Sometimes it's subtle, and sometimes it's overt. Just wait 'til you haven't had a full night's sleep in weeks or months. Just wait 'til you're baby is sick, you and your husband are arguing because you're tired, and you haven't had 'you-time' in months. Just wait 'til... Just wait 'til... Just wait 'til. It isn't just this season of life that brings these little comments. I remember hearing them a lot upon graduation from college, marriage, various points in young-adulthood, etc... So many of the "well-wishes" were tempered with cynicism and sarcasm. It can be enough to grab your soul and shake its confidence at times.

Through all of those "Just wait 'til's", there has been a voice in my head that says, "Wait on the Lord, oh my soul." (The entire book of Psalms is filled with this theme and reference.) Praise God that His voice, whispering in my ear, can be louder than the loudest complaint. You see, here is the thing. God seems to continue to pour things into my heart that tell me not to fear in this season. Praise GOD!!! I can't tell you how many times I've been led to passages recently that tell me things like "Do not worry about tomorrow." "Do not be anxious." "Trust in the Lord" But, even more than that, there have been themes emerging like that in Isaiah 8:13 "The Lord of Hosts,...let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, and he will become a sanctuary." How true. Fear and dread rightly placed leads to peace of mind and heart. John Piper explains this verse by saying, "A proper fear of the Lord keeps us under the shadow of his wings where we need not be afraid." I do not need to fear difficulty ahead. I do not need to fear sleepless nights. Many a martyr has seen a much more difficult sleepless night than I will face in motherhood, and faced it in peace -- because the Lord was their sanctuary. They had fear and dread properly placed in the wrath of God, in being separated from him. I don't say this to sound as though I don't struggle with fear. I do. Which is why I write this. Because, in that struggle, God has met me and repeatedly said that my fear and dread are not rightly placed when I am fearing things and experiences in this world -- and, that there is such a thing as rightly placed and expressed fear and dread. We tend to think they are things to be avoided. But, when these emotions or feelings that can be so debilitating to our spirit and our confidence when wrongly placed on earthly hardships are instead rightly placed in God -- our spirits are lifted, our confidence is gained, and our ability to endure difficulty and hardship with all joy and peace is strengthened.

Isn't it so refreshing to our souls when we meet with someone who expresses that confidence in the Lord? Lord, make me a woman who meets earthly fear and dread with "The Lord is my sanctuary." And, may I be a woman who expresses confidence in the Lord to those around me as they enter into new and uncertain seasons of life.