More Than a Mood

See that face? That day my little girl was in a MOOD! She did NOT want to have her picture made. She did NOT want to listen and she did NOT want to smile. Wow. She was NOT fun to live with either!!

Today while reading my Bible study (Beth Moore’s Esther study ROCKS the house girlfriends!) the Lord really spoke to me about my mood vs. my intent! A while back I really felt the Lord telling me to live my life in an INTENTIONAL way not allowing the waves that crash around me to throw me off course. He spoke clearly about how I could not allow circumstances to get my eyes off of Him!

Guess what? I think I got away from that intentional living. For a while I think He helped me keep my focus, but the loving Father that He is will not allow Him to force me to do anything. It has to be a focus that I work at and one that I have to pray about daily.

Life can be overwhelming! Unexpected changes, disappointments and unanswered prayer just surround us sometimes and it can really be hard to keep our focus on the One who is in control. If we are not intentional about following Christ we WILL follow our hearts… and as women… our hearts can get emotional, hurt, angry and confused.  And THAT puts us in a MOOD!

When we realized that Caroline was not developing and growing at normal rates it was truly overwhelming. It was like her little 4 year old life just flashed before our eyes and we were making decisions that would effect her for a long time! Without knowing what God could truly do in her and through her we started trying to guess.  I would worry and cry, feeling sorry for her and for myself! We started second guessing everything! We even second guessed ourselves about starting a college fund for her since she may not be able to go!! We started looking at schools with special needs classes and tried to figure out what type of therapy she would need right away, yet all the while I doubted if therapy would even help! 

Some of those decisions were wise, but some were not!! We truly got our eyes off of her Creator and onto the situation at hand. Our hearts were hurting and some decisions were made out of hurt instead of INTENTIONAL trust that the Lord could and would work in this situation. Thank goodness, one day my husband came home from work and said,”We are not making another decision until we seek the Lord and until we know, without a doubt, that He is directing our steps.” He became intentional and WOW! God has shown us that He is able to do far more than we could ever imagine!

Colossians 3:2 says, “SET your mind on things above.”

That is an intentional statement. To set your mind on something you have to decide beforehand that you are going to stay focused on that that thing. No matter what comes your way… you will stay focused.

Moods and emotions change every day. Sometimes I am NOT in the mood to do therapy with Caroline. Sometimes she’s not in the mood to practice math or spelling longer than most kids but the thing that we have to be set on is that every therapy session and every study time helps her develop!

Sometimes I am not in the MOOD to call someone who I know is hurting or struggling. (That sounds so ugly but I am being honest.) “Their struggles can be overbearing and I don’t have answers!” is what I hear in my head. But God calls us to carry one another’s burdens and that needs to be my focus!!

Sometimes I am not in the MOOD to make new friends! I am just fine with the ones I have… thank you very much! But God calls me to love my neighbor as myself and THAT needs to be my focus!

I am so thankful that God does not give up on me. I sometimes think that I am growing so much and other times… well, I have SOOO far to go! To quote Beth Moore, '”We can’t just depend on a good mood to get us through. After all, no one can have great hair, the right outfit and a raise every day. We need a mindset.” And I pray that the Lord will help me to get my mind set on Him!!