"Hello, Starbucks!" Carynne bounded out of the car and threw her arms up into the air to punctuate her excitement. My heart smiled with hers as we walked hand in hand to our afternoon mother/daughter date.
Somehow I doubt it was an overpriced vanilla milkshake that garnered her excitement. It wasn't even the sparkly sticker mosaic tucked in my bag. It was stolen moments alone in my presence.
With four kids, I look for every opportunity to spend alone time with one of my girls. Trips to Target, grocery shopping and sitting side by side sipping extravagant drinks are all opportunities to engage the heart. Ordinary, whipped cream mustache moments deposit love into their hearts.
I ran in a four mile race Friday night and for dessert did a 15 mile marathon training run Saturday morning. Monday morning my body is still crawling to keep up with my legs' pace. But still my heart thrilled. It was another morning I could greet God; another opportunity to steal away into His presence.
I threw up the arms of my heart and inside exclaimed, "Hello, God!"
I knew today would be filled with ordinary, stress by surprise moments. I need His deposits to greet those moments with His response instead of my reaction. Already today I've navigated a difficult phone call, evaluated a n0-right-answer decision and glanced at a calendar with too many hours colored in.
Saying hello God each morning doesn't mean good-bye to stress but it does redirect stress from my shoulders to His heart. It means facing my day hand-in-hand. So, "Hello, God! Goodbye, Lonely!"
Do you need to say hello to God today? What could you say goodbye to if you did?
