Monday Praises Link-Up: A Loving, Listening God

Many thanks to http://www.WalkingHumblyWithGod.com for hosting our Monday Praises Link-Up.  If you are interested in sharing your Monday Praises, click on the pink button on the right to go to her page and join in!

I will admit to you that I have had a hard time with this Monday’s Praises!  Not because I don’t have plenty to thank God for: I have a wonderful husband, healthy children, a great family and friends, a church family that I love, and everything I need and more.  I just wanted to really PRAISE God today, not for things I have or what He has done for me, but for who He is.

I have started writing and deleted some things, then decided to stop thinking about it and pray about it for awhile.

I was just upstairs with Maddie, taking some pictures of her in the new tutus that we are putting up for sale today (check out http://www.facebook.com/mommyinbonlee to see our new Halloween stuff :)) and noticed that when we were finished, she was just sitting in her window looking sad.

I said, “Maddie, are you feeling sad?”

“Yes,” she said.

I asked her, “Why are you sad?”

“I don’t know,” she responded.

I spotted a teachable moment. “Well, what do you think is something we can do if we are feeling sad?”

She answered as only Maddie can, “Put on a tutu.”

Hahaha! I thought this was hilarious.  I told her that yes, maybe putting on a tutu would make her feel a little better, but that when we are sad we need to talk to God about it, and the conversation went on from there.

I immediately recognized what God was telling me: I need to praise God for his loving, listening ear.

He loves us so much, much more than we can understand in our human forms.  I want to praise Him for that.  He loves us and is waiting to hear from us.  He wants to hear from us when we are happy and sad and depressed and lonely.  He wants to heal our hurts and sing with us when things are going well.

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15

Charlie said something funny to me last night as I was putting him to bed.  We said our prayers and I told him that he could ask God for anything or tell God anything.  Charlie said, “And he might not answer our prayers right away.”

“That’s right, ” I said.

Charlie said, “Sometimes when we ask Him for something, God might have to work on it for a little while, and when it is ready He will drop it down from the sky to us!”

From the mouths of babes…

God, I praise you today for your all-knowing, all-hearing, loving kindness.  You are a God who knows what we need when we need it.  You are a God who enjoys the company of your creations.  Thank you for that today.

The Madster in her tutu.