A Proverbs 31 woman IS NOT----Dramatic

Welcome to my after bible study sessions where I sit down and share my after Bible study inspirations which I probably will only get around to doing once out of the six week bible study that I am enjoying at my church this Fall. We are looking at what a Proverbs 31 woman IS and I'm going to get all wild and crazy and look at what she IS NOT. A Proverbs 31 woman IS NOT...

DRAMATIC

She's Undramatic...disdramatic...antidramatic.....

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what this means for me right now as a mother and wife. Especially after my husband went to sea duty and I've had plenty of ammunition to be woeful about my lot in life. Especially after I went past the two kid mark and have plenty excuses to whine about my life.  Especially after I started delving into history books with the start of my children's education and seeing what other generations have gone through and that nothing is new under the sun. Even more especially as I constantly encourage my four children to choose to do everything without complaining. I would say this is God's returning melody for me over the past six years. After all these reminders over all those years, God sealed the deal with a huge revelation a couple of weeks ago through my Pastor's sermon. I don't think he'll mind if one of his sheep plagiarize him.  My pastor basically refuted one of the most common Christian statements: "God will never give you more than you can handle." Incorrect. Foul ball. Incomplete pirouette turn. When I say that I sound like an idiot. And a parrot. A Christian parrot but a parrot nonetheless.

God does give you more than you can handle! That's kind of the point. He gives you more than you can handle because He wants to handle it! Handling is the Lord's job! We do the obeying. He does the handling. He's the Abba and I am the child on His knee. He calls me and I come running to His arms and He handles it. I really need to stop being dramatic. I tell myself these three things all the time.

Quit Being Dramatic
Seriously, what good does it do but make everybody cranky around me. I'm not talking about sarcasm. I say the world will never have enough sarcasm. I'm talking about walking into a room or cyberspace  and taking over the surrounding area with my woeful overwhelming life.  LISTEN. You are a child of the King. Make Jesus shine in the spotlight and your Mama Drama play itself out backstage. I marvel at these calm, brave, amazing women that end their conversations like King David. "This is rough. People want to kill me. But God is so Good!" (paraphrased by Rachel Cook) I can give you ten names right now of women that have gone through very dark difficult times but have had the David attitude. I can give you one hundred situations in my life that I acted like it was the end of the world but it really really really was not. I was just being dramatic. I want to be around these David-like women.  They are so cool!  I kinda want to run from the drama queens..... which means me sometimes.

Quit with the whining
Seriously......quit with the whining. How are you going to shine like stars? (Phil 2:14-15)

Get some perspective
Susanna Wesley had 19 children and only 8 survived her. Pioneer women left all they knew to take care of their families in a land filled with wild animals, no doctors, and natives that didn't think to highly of them. The first generation of Christians had to watch their children be fed to lions. How does your house full of dirty dishes, piles of laundry and cranky children look now? I feel ashamed. Completely ashamed.

A Proverbs 31 woman IS NOT DRAMTIC.  Drama is self seeking not Christ seeking. I feel ashamed of my dramatics and so thankful for His grace.  There are a lot of things that need to be handled in this life. Trying to handle it yourself and then being dramatic when it gets overwhelming is just dumb. Seek His face and fix your face. Seek His Word and stop your words.  Letting Him handle it is giving Him the glory.  Being dramatic is giving yourself ugly distorted glory.  I don't want no ugly glory.  It's ugly. And not really glorious.

Much grace to you and many returning amens.