Parenting in Scripture–The Day He Has Made

This post is from Moms Take Ten episode 174, Parenting in Scripture–The Day He Has Made, which you can listen to wherever you listen to podcasts or at https://sites.libsyn.com/403493/parenting-in-scripture-the-day-he-has-made

I love my bed. It is probably my favorite part of the whole house. I love the feel of the mattress, the weight of the blanket, the pillow cushioning my head. A happy sigh can be heard almost every time I climb into bed at night. Mornings, however, are a different story. For as much as I love my bed, I rarely sleep well and I usually wake up already tired. My first thoughts are usually along the lines of, “No!” “Already?!” “I don’t want to.” 

But when I’m in a harder season of parenting, those thoughts become, “I can’t do this Lord.” “I don’t want to see them yet.” “Please, send someone else to take care of my kids.”

I was noticing those thoughts the other week. Consistently, every morning, they were the first that ran through my mind and they set a tone for the morning, for the day, that was so negative. Those thoughts made it harder for me to greet my children happily. To help them get ready for school patiently. To navigate their emotions and reactions with grace. I realized after yet another morning waking up that way that something needed to change. So, I stopped myself mid-sentence and said, “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I breathed that truth in and climbed out of bed differently. Almost every morning since, that is how I have begun my day. And while the words that I say are the same, the meaning behind those words changes.

Sometimes they are a statement of praise, of who God is and that he is worthy of my rejoicing.

Sometimes they are a statement of gratitude, that there is breath in my lungs and I have been gifted another day.

Sometimes they are a statement of purpose, that God has created that day with good things for me to do and be a part of.

Sometimes they are a statement of faith, that even in the hard that is to come, good will come too because God is in it.

After a couple weeks of doing this, I’ve seen a change in how I start my day and how the day progresses. Not because the words are magical, but because of the way they anchor me to God and his truth. It got me wondering, where in the Bible is that verse?! I mean, I was pretty sure it was a verse in Scripture, not just part of a song I learned as a little kid, but I had no clue what book or chapter it was written in. So the other day I looked it up. Psalm 118, verse 24. “This is the day the Lord has made; let’s rejoice and be glad in it.” Then I read the rest of the psalm. I was struck by the many different reasons in it for why we should and could rejoice in a day that the Lord has made.

Verse 1 begins, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever.” Then verses 2, 3 and 4 repeat “his faithful love endures forever” just in case you missed it the first time. And my goodness, don’t we miss that truth so many times? His faithful love for you, for me, endures forever.

What does that look like? Verse 5 tells us that he answers when we call and frees us. Verse 6 says that because he is for us we have no need to fear, nothing can harm us. Verse 7 says he is our helper and will bring us to victory. Verses 8 and 9 describe refuge in the Lord as better than refuge anywhere else we might be tempted to look. Verses 10-21 speak of how in Christ we are more than conquerors and he carries us to salvation. And this conquering is not just over our enemies and attacks we face but even over our own failings. I love verse 14: The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

Then, in verse 22, we come to a verse of prophecy about Jesus, who embodies God’s faithful love for us. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord; it is wondrous in our sight. This is the day the Lord has made; let’s rejoice and be glad in it.” The psalmist concludes by doing just what he said to do, rejoicing in God, giving him thanks because he is good, because his faithful love endures forever.

Reason after reason after reason for rejoicing in the Lord. And that chapter doesn’t even cover all of them. You’d have to read the entirety of Scripture to get closer.

Yet sometimes, in those early moments of the morning, when the weight of the day descends upon your consciousness and it feels too heavy, or in the rush of school pickup and sports drop off and homework helping and dinner prepping when the needs seem unending, or in the final thoughts of the day as the would of’s, should of’s, shouldn’t of’s start to speak up, sometimes rejoicing is the furthest thing from our mind. We forget that the day we are entering or living in or wrapping up is a day that the Lord made. 

So we need to remind ourselves, frequently.

While rejoicing can happen freely, spontaneously, a bursting forth or a running over that can’t be contained, it is more often, for me at least, a conscious decision. Choosing to rejoice is an act of faith, a way of preaching the gospel to myself, choosing truth over lies. Like in the morning when all I want to do is retreat from the needs and wants facing me that day. It is a choice to pause and remember that the Lord has prepared this day for me and he will be with me in it. That he still is so his promises still stand. 

When your day feels hard, how do you stir your heart to rejoice? What verse or phrase or truth do you say to yourself that draws your gaze back to God and your heart towards his peace? Speak it to yourself right now. Remind your heart that the Lord has made this day, knowing all that it would entail, and we can rejoice and be glad in it because of who he is and how much he loves us.