How lovely is your dwelling place

There's a special place that I go to every morning.  It's a place that I like to call my sanctuary.  Whether I'm coming back from a morning jog, waking up on a lazy Saturday or  sometimes a rainy, gloomy morning I go to my porch with my Bible, my devotional and my favorite cup of coffee.  It's where I can go for quietness even when my loves are sleeping.  The birds are already up and singing their songs and the day has been untouched by most who are still sleeping.  I open my Bible and let God's Words pour into my heart.  It's a special time that I GET to spend with Him.  Sometimes I get special little gifts like butterflies landing on my table, a birdsong that for a second I thought was a song that I knew and even bunnies coming right up onto my porch that I can almost reach out touch but I don't because I don't want to ruin the moment.  I'll just watch and whisper Thank you. 

This morning I was reading in Psalms and went to my favorite Psalm.  It starts out as "How lovely is your dwelling place," I stop and think how lovely it is to be here in this moment to feel His presence.  I then read on..."Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, a place near your altar". Then I think of my children who are peacefully sleeping right above me.  They are safe and loved.  They too live a life recognizing His daily grace.  They love to tell me their "Jesus Moments" as this is what we call them.  I love to hear them too.  It just feeds my soul knowing they love Jesus and share it with others.  Then I got to thinking how sometimes I get so frustrated with them.  When they don't live up to my "perfect" standards.  They leave messes.  I'll come home from work and walk onto my sanctuary and I can feel the ugly come out of me.  It's that thing I try to throw off everyday.  I can feel the steam come out when I see their untidiness.  Toys left on the porch...left right on the walkway where someone can trip right over it.  My chairs moved all around, magazines and markers just left on my beautiful table that I left for me to enjoy my Jesus time tomorrow.

Then I stop and think to myself, my dwelling place, that place that I love to live my life...they too are my life and they love to be out there too.  I work a full time job that is fortunately only 10 houses away from my home.  My oldest is almost 13 and she watches her brother for the day while they are home for Summer vacation.  So here I am in my "dwelling place" that place I go to feel God's peace only 12 hours prior and I'm burning up in anger because of their "mess".  Why.  Why do I do this to myself.  Why do I see it as a mess?  Why not see it as a little gift.  I get to see the toys my little boy played with today and wonder what his little mind explored today.

  

Why not look at the "mess" my pre-teen left on the table as a gift.  There is going to be a day that this is all gone.  She will have her own dwelling place where she can have her children grow in love.  Why not look at all this and whisper Thank You.

I read on further.... "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage."   I spend my day in pilgrimage.  I want to spend my day going to God.  Leaving behind my "mess" and going straight to God.  This Psalm reminds me that I can do that.  Through Christ, I can look at my mess and my children's mess as a daily gift. I throw off that ugliness that causes steam and instead feel that joy that bubbles until I have no choice but to smile and thank Him for that moment.

Psalm 84

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.   Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar.   O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.  Blessed are those who dwell in your house;  they are ever praising you.     Selah.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.  As they pass through the Valley of Baca,  they make it a place of springs;   the autumn rains also cover it with pools.   They go from strength to strength,  till each appears before God in Zion.

 Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob.  Selah
Look upon our shield,  O God; look with favor on your anointed one.

Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God  than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

 O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.