“In This Corner” Devotional #14

            My husband, Daniel, loves boxing.  He’ll watch it any chance he can.  He’ll even watch old matches from back in the day.  At one point he was even considering boxing professionally.  He trained for it and loved it!  Out of my love for him I have sat down and watched several of these matches with him plenty of times.  I’m not a fan of boxing but I can get into it too.  Especially the big matches when the championship belts are on the line.  I can really get into the ones that last all the way through the end of the match and both boxers are evenly matched up and everyone sitting in the audience surrounding the ring is sitting on the edge of their seats waiting with anticipation for the judges to decide who they believed would be the winner and give the results to the announcer.  I love the announcers too!  They really get into the introductions of these boxers.  Right before every match with their deep baritone voices they say, “In this corner…” 

            There are days that I wake up on the wrong side of the bed.  You know, tired, grumpy, wishing I could sleep just a little bit more.  I drag my feet more on those days and it takes me a really long time to get into the day.  It takes more than one cup of coffee to do the trick.  It’s on these days that the grumpy Mildred is not at her best.  She’s a bit moody and frankly just not in the mood to deal with anybody else’s mood.  This Mildred is different from the usual happy-go-lucky, cheery, always smiling Mildred which is the nice one that gets along with everyone and is pretty patient and joyful.  Grant it this moody, grumpy, cranky, smart-aleck, defensive, argumentative woman doesn’t come out often.  It’s on these days that I know my family would love to have the boxer announcer there with them giving them the stats on who exactly is going to greet them in the morning.  He’d say something like, “Now in this corner we have Moody-Toody Mildred.”

            We all have our good days and our bad days.  Sometimes we’re the ones that create these bad days.  Let’s be honest.  Sometimes we’re the ones that can get into a really good stink and stink up the day for everyone else around us, especially our own families.  It’s usually the closest people to us, the ones we love dearly that receive this less than graceful behavior.  Why is that?  Why is it that we do that?  Why are we so ready to “let them have it,” but we rarely, if ever, behave this way with anyone else?

            The definition of attitude is that it’s a state of mind, opinion or a feeling with regard to something.  Sometimes these feelings are down right nasty!  So then, what about our less than graceful attitudes?  According to Philippians 2:5 our attitude “should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 2:14 says, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe…”  1 Peter 4:7b says to “be clear minded and self-controlled…”   

Ephesians 6:10-12 says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  On those days or those moments when we feel like we’re about to lose it, it would be good to also remember Ephesians 4:26-27 which says, “‘In your anger do not sin;’…and do not give the devil a foothold.”            “Do not sin.”  Does this mean that being upset is a sin?  Not necessarily.  It’s what we decide to do when we’re upset that will determine if we’re going to sin or not. 

Being tired and a bit grumpy is one thing.  Using that as the excuse to misbehave and therefore sin is another.  What is the better alternative is to pray and depend on God’s strength and power to get us through the day without sinning against our Lord.  That way the boxing announcer doesn’t need to come out and prep the family for who is going to join them that day.   

     My dear friend, thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and read this devotional.  I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments below about this devotional or any of the others that I have written so far.  Also, would you be so kind as to pass this blog on to your friends and family?  I appreciate you and am constantly praying for you.    

*If you would like to read this same devotional in Spanish or know of someone that would please visit my Spanish blog at www.ministerioreflejandolaverdad.blogspot.com