God's Valentine

      Regular readers have already heard about the Verse-A-Day Calendar I received from one of my daughters and her family at Christmas.  Yesterday was another example of how God's word is always timely and perfect for a day, no matter when we read it.
       Recent readers know I've been recovering from influenza (the kind in the lungs).  On its way out, it decided to stop in my sinuses.
       So, I was worn pretty thin to face the world on less than a full night's sleep. In a service world, we must let things roll over us; I usually can with ease, but in my broken-down state, I was not relying enough on the Lord's grace when I should have been.  Someone has been demeaning me routinely. I can usually take it in silence. I let down my guard and actually went back two minutes later and requested the person not to do so. In the context where I was, this is considered unacceptable behavior.
      Today, I read what I should have read yesterday: The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. Proverbs 19:11  Here was a perfect direction from the Lord, ready to help me handle this problem before I reacted to it--and I missed it by missing my daily reading before I walked out the door!  The person was not right to belittle me. God doesn't expect us to call a blatantly wrong thing the right thing--but we can overlook it by his grace when we are prepared in his strength.
      This is only a tiny illustration of God's continuous love letter to us. His Word speaks moment by moment in the exquisite breath of freshness our lungs so desperately cry out for. He fills them up for our battles, great and small, and keeps pumping oxygen in longer after we ever began to know we needed it.  God's Spirit breathes life into our inspiration, and respiration, giving strength to do the perspiration.
     Feeling the ache in your heart for a true Valentine this time of year? You have an eternal One. Don't forget all he has done.
For God so loved the world, that he gave...