Day 356

In Galatians 4 Paul writes to the Galatians to let them know that he is concerned about them and their walk with God.  He feels like he’s going through labor pains with them all over again.  The first time he went through the laboring process for them it was more like a miscarriage because Jesus wasn’t fully formed in them, and Paul doesn’t want that to happen again.  He let’s them know He will labor for them until Christ is fully formed in their lives, and then in verse 20 he writes something that totally captured my attention this morning,  I wish I were with you right now so I could change my tone. But at this distance I don’t know how else to help you.

Paul wished he could address the Galatians face to face so that he had the option to change his tone.  He knew they wouldn’t be able to pick up on his emotions correctly just by reading the words he had written.  Instead of concerned, they might of thought he was angry.  They might have mistaken his love for them as disappointment in them.  He may have wanted to convey a since of urgency and seriousness, but it’s not easy to pick up on how serious someone is without hearing their voice.   If he could see the people and they could see his facial expressions and hear the sweetness or the concern or the anger behind his voice, they might understand his heart better, but he didn’t know how else to help them, so he went with the letter.

We all have people in our lives that are close to us.   People that live under the same roof as us, people that work in the same office space as we do, people that we come into contact with pretty much every day of the week.  There is not a great distance between us and them and so we, unlike Paul, have the luxury of changing our tone.  We have the option to express our hearts through the tone of our voices.  We can look into the faces of the people we are closest too and decide which tone we need to use as we address them… which tone will minister to them most effectively.

This morning in my quiet time I prayed that God would help me to set the tone for my home today.  That He would use me to see to it that my family would wake up to a wonderful morning filled with His presence, because in his presence is fullness of joy.  To set a tone, you have to watch your tone.  If you want the presence of God to continue to linger after your quiet time is over you have to guard it.  You have to watch what you say and how you say it.

You can set the tone for yourself and for the people that you are in close proximity with just by being more mindful of how you speak.  The sweeter I am to my kids the sweeter they are to me.  If I make a point to speak kind words to my husband throughout the day, the vibe between the two of us is going to be a good one.  If I join in with people who are griping and complaining, the wonderful presence of God is going to become a lot harder to pick up on.

Paul wished he could change the tone of his voice, you don’t have to wish that.  You are not in a long distance relationship with the people you come into contact with everyday.  Set the tone for yourself by waking up each day and getting into God’s presence and then use your voice to set the tone or to change the tone if it needs to changed for the people that you do life with.

1. In His presence is fullness of joy.
2. I can set the tone or change the tone with my voice.
3. That one little verse really changed the way I went about my day.
4. I get to do life with my favorite people in all of the world.
5. Gus came out of his room first thing this morning fully decked in his batman costume.  He was setting a tone for sure.
6. Got some good Bible reading in last night when I woke up wide awake at 2 a.m.
7. Bills paid!
8. Have yet to pay anything for all of my pregnancy check ups and ultrasounds.
9. Josh took the kids to run errands with him this morning so I could have a few hours of alone time.
10. Enjoyed getting dinner ready and in the crock pot and listening to a great message servanthood.
11. Gus is doing great two days into his 7 day break from video games.  I am really proud of him!
12. Gus loves books.  He spent a good 45 minutes just looking through some of his favorite picture books this afternoon.
13. Pastor Robert is back in the pulpit!
14. Feeling Sunny move around during the message.
15. Great, challenging message tonight.
16. Wonderful worship.
17. Over 100 kids got saved at Wacky Week.
18. The hilarious conversation I had with Gus on the way home from church about what kind of girl he wants to marry.
19. Mikayla Corbo.  Gus’ first crush!  Too bad she’s 13 years older than him and taken, but he knows how to pick em.  She’s beautiful inside and out, so cute to me that he’s picked up on that.
20. Kids both had a great night at church and were so full of joy for the rest of the night.
21. My friends John & Dana had their little boy Frankie this morning!  Loved waking up to see his cute little face on Facebook.
22. So many of my friends on FB have newborn babies.  Seeing all the pictures of them makes me so excited about Sunny!  Newborns are so fun!
23. My first attempt at BBQ ribs was a success!
24. Tried a new cucumber salad recipe and it was a hit.
25. My healthy, growing boy who is all of a sudden too tall for his church pants.
26. Josh found a shirt he really liked yesterday and last night when he was hanging it up he realized he got the wrong size, went to take it back and was able to exchange it the size he needed.
27. Beau is in a contant state of skip, hop, or bounce.

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