"He will quiet you with His love"

Today I read a verse I would never have come across on my own, but read in my Proverbs 31 Ministries devotion. It is Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

The devotion actually focused on the last phrase of the verse, saying that God delights in us so much that he breaks out in song to serenade us. That is a lovely thought, especially going into Valentine's weekend when many women would love to be so loved that their special someone serenades them.

But, the part of this verse that spoke to me today was "he will quiet you with his love." I have been consumed this week with the amount of stress, yelling and discipline I've been doing, and how "crazy" my children are making me. Today I want to focus on God's love for me - that it will quiet me (as in no yelling!) Ironically (or perhaps divinely?), I have gotten a sore throat, which is making it much harder to yell.

I am also seeing the correlation between how my children are making me feel and how I must make God feel when I am not listening to Him or obeying Him! I still love my boys more than they know. God still loves me. But I'm sure I frustrate Him, just as I get frustrated with my boys for their lack of obedience.

When we are trying to refocus and calm down, I try to hold and hug my boys to get them to calm down and speak softly to them. I think this is also what God wants to do with us. We should climb in His lap (go to a special, quiet place), and let Him hug us and speak to us softly through His Word. We must be quiet to hear Him! And we feel more loved and at peace again once we've done this.

Thank you, God, for speaking to me! I am amazed at what I can hear and learn when I allow you to speak to me! Now, I am going to try to go be quiet today, even if my children are not!