Proverbs 16

Father God, Thank you for the many blessings you have given me. I come to you with a sense of peace. I focus all that I am on you. I pray for guidance. Guidance for my day and my life. In Your Name I Pray, Amen

There are too many verses in this chapter that spoke to me. I mean too many for me to put them all here. So I will list them and then have my say.

Proverbs 16:3,7,9,18,21,24,32

I have learned that I must look to God to show me the way that he wants me to go. If we let God direct our path then we will have peace and wisdom.

We must speak with kindness and compassion, not with ager or judgment. Harsh words only wound and harm people (especially my kids) and nice words will help heal their souls and their bodies and help them to learn instead of be angry like mommy. I need to be slow to anger. Be patient. They say be careful what you wish for. I used to pray for patience, now I have four kids, a dog and a gecko (yes like on the commercial). See I thought that God would just bless me with patience. Nope. He simply keeps adding to my plate until I figured out that patience was inside of me all along. He just wants me to use it. Whenever something happens that makes me angry I have to take a deep breath and realize that whatever it is normally is a result of something I didn't do. Are the kids extra cranky this morning? Did I try to wake them up at the same time I should have so that they don't have to rush to get out the door? Are they whining at me at dinner time? Did I wait too late to make dinner? Or did I not give them an adequate afternoon snack?

So the next time you lose your temper, remember, stop, breath, and think. What did I do to contribute to this situation or my anger level? What could have I changed before or during the event to keep my temper in check? These are questions I'm going to be using quite often.