My Prayer

"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple." Ps. 27:4

All David wanted
was to be in the Lord's presence,
to see Him,
and to commune with Him.

That's all he wanted.

What do I want?

Life sometimes gets in the way
and you forget what you really want.

And it's not sinful things necessarily...
Maybe it's even important things.
But do I want it more than I want
to be in His presence...

Everytime we go see our kids:
Alex and Liz and Nic or
Adam and Heather, Elyse and Blake,
when I walk in the door...
I want to see the babies.
Love the kids...
and love to see them...
But, pretty much gotta see those babies
within the first 5 mins.

Last week when we went to Adam and Heather's
Blake was playing with his toys.
So I ran over, picked him up
and covered him with smooches...
which I'm sure he didn't entirely enjoy!

"Where's Elly" I ask.
"She's upstairs taking a nap."
I knew we were getting ready to go to dinner
and that I wouldn't be able to see her.
Knowing I felt bad
Heather said it would be OK
to go up and say hi to her
since she wasn't actually asleep yet.

So I ran upstairs,
peeked in her room,
and she looked up..."Hiiiii Grama".

I sat down on the floor
and we talked for about 10 minutes.
Sweet communion...even with a 2 year old.
She told me what she had been doing...
I told her what I was doing...
She put her hand on my face
and said, "I love you, Grama".
Brought tears to my eyes.
All I wanted to do was sit
and talk with her and enjoy her.
Didn't matter what other
distractions or sorrows or trials
I had going on in my life...
At that moment nothing mattered
but sitting and talking with her.

Then I went to church on Sunday
and Russell talked about that verse in Psalms.
He asked if we love to sit and just be
with our Lord the way that we ought.
I thought immediately of sitting
and talking with Elly
and what joy and happiness it brought
to my heart.

Do I feel the same way about
the one who gave everything
to pardon my soul...
because He loved me so much?
Do the trials and sorrows I bear
disappear in His presence.
Do I sit and cry when I hear Him say
I love you, my child.
Does nothing matter in the light
of His presence?

That's how I want it to be...

But I have to work at it...
not just giving him the few minutes
I have in the morning.
I have to spend quality time with Him.
Time talking to Him...praising Him...
singing to Him.
He needs to be on my heart all day.
David said he praised the Lord all the day.

David's prayer is my prayer...

Others will fail me...
Circumstances will change...
Relationships may cease...

But Christ will always be there for me.
To talk to me,
to encourage me,
to put His hands on my face
and tell me he loves me!

As long as I have that...

I need nothing more.