Devotion: God is Gracious and Merciful

God is Gracious and Merciful

By Marsha Iddings

2 Chronicles 30:9 For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.

"... the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way."(Numbers 21:4) Is your way discouraging? The children of Israel became discouraged because of the way. The journey they were on was difficult and they were discouraged. In Deuteronomy 1:28 Moses is recounting their way through the wilderness and he reminds them of things they said. "The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there."

Discouragement is the sister to burnout. Many of you who read my devotionals homeschool your children. As the beautiful fall season turns to the rainy gloomy days of winter, there is a feeling of being overwhelmed that commonly hits about this time. It's a melancholy that makes us feel like we can't keep up with the pace and we want to throw in the towel and quit. This is not a unique problem to homeschool moms, although, it sometimes hits us harder then it does others simply because we wear so many hats and we are spread so thin. We begin to feel like the Israelites did. Our problems are greater and taller than we can handle. We run into road blocks in what we want to accomplish and it seems there is no way around them and we can't climb over them. Our problems seem like big giants looming over us and we feel as if we've been taken captive by them. This is the beginning of burnout. I know, because I have been there this week.

But God is always gracious and merciful when we turn to Him. He waits for us to come to Him to find strength and encouragement to continue. Just when I needed it most, two homeschool newsletters showed up in my email. Each one had a message of encouragement. One spoke about discouragement and the other about burnout. Are you discouraged, burning out? Get alone with God. Ask Him to show you what you need to do to turn it around. Evaluate your daily routine. What causes the stress? Does something need to be changed to ease it? Schedule time just for yourself each week, if not each day. What are your expectations for yourself, your home and family? Are your expectations too high? Perhaps you need to lower them. I read one time that if we got rid of our expectations, we would never be disappointed. Perhaps this is a bit unrealistic, but it has an element of truth to it. God encouraged me with these newsletters this week.

The most important piece of information I read was to stop and take time out alone in prayer with God. Our verse above says to turn again unto the Lord and you will find compassion, grace and mercy for your time of need.

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