Getting Your Life Back – A Personal Confession

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever. (Psalm 30:11-12 (NASB) 

I awakened one day spiritually to realize that my world was crumbling right before my eyes. Until that moment of discovery, I had testified to people and given thanks to God almost daily of how good things were. And they were actually good.

Twelve years ago, I had triple by-pass heart surgery. Last fall I had five stents inserted in two different arteries requiring two surgeries only two weeks apart. The anesthesia twice in such a short time was a bit of a challenge at my age to overcome, but God came through for me. During all growing older adjustment, I have been advised not to climb ladders and to stay off elevated structures of all kinds. This was new and very hard to accept because I’ve always been able to physically do just about anything I wanted. But I did comply to the instructions

All of this has resulted in an increased load on my wife Bev. She really puts a huge amount of work into Christmas decorations. Because of this, our house is really gorgeous during the holidays. But it is a lot of work and I did not help as I should have done.

In a discussion about it, tears were shed and unfortunate and untimely words were spoken by both of us. Both of us were emotionally devastated following the “discussion.” We took a “time out” for a couple of days and said little to each other.

During the “time out,” I began to remember the good things and to feel pressure in my soul that I had not done my part to help Bev. As I prayed, I was solidly convicted to send her an email, to be followed by a verbal discussion, apologizing without any expectation of how she might respond. Well, she responded graciously and with forgiveness and mercy. All is well now to the glory of God. I have the best wife in the world. She always has been and always will be.

When I got out of the driver’s seat and off the throne of my life, the Holy Spirit took over with conviction, repentance and humility. He turned my mourning into dancing, removed my sackcloth and filled my heart with praise and thanksgiving for my wife and family.

Try it the next time you find yourself in a “discussion” about something that needs to be handled.