What Bookends Hold Your Day in Place?
Have you ever thought about the bookends that hold your day in place? The two bookends of my day seem to be grogginess when I roll out of bed in the morning. And enough exhaustion at night to induce sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. (The latter fascinates my husband who has trouble sleeping.)Yet, the Psalmist calls us to a higher purpose when we awake and when we go to sleep: “To proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night” (Psalm 92:2).
God's Bookends for you
The truths I’m to proclaim are God’s love and his faithfulness. Love helps to focus my mind as I face a new day, and faithfulness helps to calm my mind as I fall asleep.I know that by announcing God’s love and faithfulness I am making a stand in the spirit realm. But I also know that I am reminding myself of the kind of God I serve.I checked out several translations of this verse and found these words for proclaiming: show forth, declare, and announce. Those are things I do with my mind, my mouth, and my actions.In her book, Prodigals and Those Who Love Them, Ruth Bell Graham tells the story of living this verse as a college student.
While attending Wheaton College, one of my roommates, Kimberly Long (Wyckoff), and I would sing 'His Lovingkindness' while we walked the six blocks to campus in the morning. In the evenings when we walked home, we sang heartily, 'Great Is Thy Faithfulness.' The idea came to us from Psalm 92:2.
God's Bookends for your family
Here are some ideas for incorporating this verse into your family life:
- Teach your kids to “think it, speak it, smile it.” Smiling adds a positive note to the heart and face as the words are spoken. (“God loves me”—as they climb out of bed in the morning. “God is faithful”—as they climb into bed at night.)
- When you kiss your spouse in the morning and before bed, add “God loves you” or “God is faithful” after your kiss.
- Small children love to sing a morning song and a bedtime song. Sing one they know or have them make up their own about God’s love and his faithfulness and sing it together.
- When you greet your kids in the morning, add “God loves you” to your greeting or after you ask them about how they slept. Do something similar at night with God’s faithfulness.
Care to add your ideas to our list? How can you use God’s love and faithfulness as bookends in your life?
In Him together, Susan Gaddis