SMH

I use a few abbreviations that have been created since the world of texting.  I like the ring of LOL, laugh out loud.   I have also been known to say SMH, which stands for shaking my head, but I have never used it as a text because I am way too old for that! 

Oh Man, I do shake my head often with my family.  I shook it so hard last week that I thought it might fall off when my youngest daughter asked if Angelina Jolie was the one who sang “Jolene.”  For those of you who did not follow country music, in 1973 “Jolene” was a song written and performed that year by Dolly Parton.  Yes, SMH at her question!  I could see her connection, but had to break it to her that Angelina Jolie was not the singer of that song.      

SMH came up too this week when my oldest daughter had me turn around on the way home to go back and see the biggest hog she had ever seen. She had her brothers so excited that they were hanging out of the windows.  We creeped up on it.  I turned on the hazards and bright lights at this point because we were in the ditch.  She even said she did not know for sure if it was alive or dead, just BIG, that that dialed up the anticipation a notch.  When we got right up on it, it was a SMH moment because the massive black hog she had spotted was a massive black trash bag left on the side of FM 488. 

I had one more SMH moment, in a whole different manner, when I started on Life Principle #16 in my Bible Study by Charles Stanley last week.  It began with a verse from Ezekiel 25: 6-7 “Whatever you acquire outside of God’s will eventually turns to ashes.”  I honestly did not want to read on because they title was so convicting, but I did.  

Two pages later, the lesson ended with two of my favorite verses.  Dr. Stanley used Psalms 37:4.  It says “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.”  The other one that I love and that he closed with was Psalms 16:11 “You have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence.” 

I was SMH…How can desires of your heart, JOY, the presence of the LORD, and stuff turning into ashes all tie in?  I reread the lesson and was blown away with a depth found in my two favorite verses that I had never discovered before. 

When we delight ourselves in the LORD, we spend time with Him and we know Him.  When we are in His presence, we talk to Him and become more like Him.  As a result of a closer relationship with Him, we change what we pray for and what we ask for.  Our thoughts and desires line up more with His Kingdom work than with this temporary earth and with our own desires of the flesh. 

This earth will all fade one day and turn to ashes.  It all did make sense.  I stopped shaking my head and was thankful that I know when I delight myself in the LORD, He will give me the desires of my heart because my desires will line up with HIS.  This week make time to get in the presence of the LORD.  He will join you in your classroom, in your car, in your living room, in the deer stand, and anywhere else that you invite Him.