When Michael and I got married, we had one simple rule: never go to bed angry. It was easy at first. We’d sit up and talk, we’d work things out, and then we’d go to bed happy.
Once kids came along, life wasn’t so easy. We were both tired out. The longer we stayed up trying to work out our issues, the more tired we were. I was determined to stick to the rule even if that rule kept us up until 5. And it did, more times than it should have.
Finally, one day I was reading through Psalms, when I came upon chapter 4 verse 4, “Stand in awe, and sin not:” it said, “commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.”
After all this time, this hard and fast rule began to make sense. It had nothing to do with my time zone, and everything to do with my heart. Not Michael’s–my own. To commune with my heart is to examine myself. To ask myself the important questions, am I following the will of God? Am I choosing love? Am I willing to forgive as He forgives me?
And so, while the Bible says, “Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath,” (Eph. 4:26) it’s not telling us to stay angry all night. Paul’s teaching us to let go of our anger, turn away from our wrath, and choose love.
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Tilling the Soil
As you go to bed each night this week, take a few minutes to examine your heart before falling asleep.
Planting Hope
Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. (Psalm 4:4, KJV)
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Darlene Schacht and her husband Michael live in Manitoba Canada where the summers are beautiful and the winters are cold. Together they’ve come to learn that relationships aren’t always easy, but that marriage, the way God intended it to be, is a treasure worth fighting for.
She began her publishing journey about twelve years ago when she pioneered one of the first online magazines for Christian women, known at the time as “Christian Women Online Magazine.” After three years, Darlene left CWO to blog as a solo author at Time-Warp Wife Ministries.
It was also during this transition that she worked alongside actress Candace Cameron Bure to write the NYT Best-Selling book, Reshaping it All: Motivation for Spiritual and Physical Fitness. Reshaping it All was the winner of both the 2011 USA Best Book Awards and the 2012 Christian Reading Retailers Choice Awards.
Author of more than 15 books, Darlene continues to write and to minister to her readers through her blog at TimeWarpWife.com.
Connect with Darlene:
Facebook: @timewarpwife
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Twitter: @timewarpwife
You are loved by an almighty God,
Darlene Schacht
The Time-Warp Wife