Bless the Lord

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I worship Your holy name

The sun comes up; it's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

You're rich in love and You're slow to anger
Your name is great and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing
10,000 reasons for my heart to find

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
10,000 years and then forever more

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I love this song.  I love it because it is such a good reminder that the character of the Lord is good.  His name IS great and His heart IS kind.  On the days that I am overwhelmed, when bad things happen, when life doesn't make sense... our refuge is the Lord and HE is good.  

And then I read that He is rich in love and slow to anger and I want that.  I want to be more like Jesus because I am quick to be frustrated, not slow to anger.  And I want to know how to lead these girls in PDE and my own children to know more of Jesus' character, not my frustration.  So I hold on to the truth that the same Jesus who has this character of goodness, patience, forgiveness, mercy, and grace also lives in me.  

Last night our devotion with the kids was on being blessed by God and it said this... "When God promises to bless you, He is saying, 'I'm going to make you into eerything I ever meant for you to be.'  It means God is taking every day and every single thing that happens in it - good or bad - to make you stronger, to mend whatever is broken inside, to change you into the person you were always meant to be." - Sally Lloyd-Jones  

After we finished reading my kids prayed that God would help them to be more like Him, more like Jesus and I find that that is the cry of my own heart as well.  Make me more like Jesus, please Lord.  More days pass that I am a mom and responsible for little hearts, more days pass that I head up a ministry and I am responsible for little hearts and adolescent hearts, and every day I realize that I cannot do this job by myself and I was never meant to.  So I fall back on the character of the Lord that I know is good and true and beg HIM to work, to change hearts, to start with me, and to draw us to Himself.