{"id":15209,"date":"2013-10-14T01:00:53","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T06:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=15209"},"modified":"2013-10-13T14:18:39","modified_gmt":"2013-10-13T19:18:39","slug":"silent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/10\/14\/silent\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Are Silent&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13840\" alt=\"SeekingHimLogo\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg 560w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My children at school know I don&#8217;t tolerate tantrums or crying as a form of communication, so most of them don&#8217;t do either.\u00a0 However, I have one little boy whom, depending on his mood, will throw the biggest tantrum and it&#8217;s always in regards to little stuff.<\/p>\n<p>If I ask him to sit at the table and he doesn&#8217;t want to, he cries and jumps up and down, and then throws himself on the floor and kicks the air.<\/p>\n<p>During his tantrum, I give him a blank stare and allow him to throw said tantrum for about two minutes. And then I go into action. I laugh, and then, I sit in his chair.\u00a0 He does not like that. He&#8217;ll stand up and say, &#8220;No,no. <i>My<\/i> chair.&#8221; And I tell him, &#8220;Well, if you aren&#8217;t going to sit in it, I will.\u00a0 Are you ready to sit down?&#8221;\u00a0 And he always says, &#8220;Yes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I pray to You, O Lord, my rock.<br \/>\nDo not turn a deaf ear to me.<br \/>\nFor if You are silent, I might as well give up and die.<br \/>\nPsalm 28:1<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>When I first read this verse, I laughed. To me, it seemed like the psalmist was throwing a tantrum and that &#8220;giving up and dieing&#8221; was a bit extreme.\u00a0 I could imagine myself sprawled out on my bed, talking to God about some &#8220;very pressing matter&#8221; and feeling like my world was going to end if I didn&#8217;t get an answer&#8230;NOW!<\/p>\n<p>Life can get tough. I&#8217;ve definitely had my fair share of moments that have caused me to stop and contemplate giving up.\u00a0 Sometimes we need those moments because they help us refocus.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to You for help,<br \/>\nas I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary.<br \/>\nPsalm 28:2<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>We know God is good.\u00a0 We know our circumstances are not always good.\u00a0 We also know that our less than favorable circumstances, even the ones that make us feel like <i>giving up and dieing<\/i>, do not impose on our God&#8217;s character.\u00a0 Instead our God is willing to use these moments to reflect His goodness.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The Lord is powerful; He gives victory to His chosen one.<br \/>\nPsalm 28:8 (NCV)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * * *<\/p>\n<p>Thank you, Lord, that in our circumstances Your goodness shines through.\u00a0 You are awesome! Forgive me for those moments when I decide to throw a tantrum instead of resting in Your word.<\/p>\n<p>Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; My children at school know I don&#8217;t tolerate tantrums or crying as a form of communication, so most of them don&#8217;t do either.\u00a0 However, I have one little boy whom, depending on his mood, will throw the biggest tantrum and it&#8217;s always in regards to little stuff. If I ask him to sit at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3146,3173,425,4096,4097,4098,4099,3174],"class_list":["post-15209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-ahmee-bronaugh","tag-daily-devotional","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god-hears","tag-psalm-281","tag-psalm-282","tag-psalm-288","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s39pHp-silent","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15211,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15209\/revisions\/15211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}