Wailing Turned to Dancing

With three young children at my house, someone is usually crying, whining, or fussing about something. One evening a few weeks ago, my three year old son was throwing a fit about something. He was standing in the middle of the kitchen floor crying, jumping up and down, and screaming about something that had not gone his way.

I could not even understand what he was murmuring about. I became frustrated and aggravated and just wanted him to be quiet, but he continued his little episode. At that moment, I looked up and saw something I had purchased for my son earlier that day – a brand new pair of “Lightning McQueen” tennis shoes from his favorite movie about a race car.

I grabbed the shoes and handed them to my son and said, “Hey, look what Mama bought for you!” He immediately stopped jumping up and down and screaming in anger, took one look at the shoes, and started smiling and jumping for joy. His wailing was immediately turned into dancing.

This story reminded me so much about how we behave sometimes as God’s children. Something in our lives is not going our way, so we throw a fit. We jump up and down and scream and yell and say, “No, God, this is not how I wanted this to happen!” I am so guilty of doing this myself.

God already has the answer right before us, but sometimes we can’t see it through our pain and tears. We are too busy throwing our tantrum to stop and bring our problem to the Lord through prayer and leave it there.

Our problems and circumstances may be genuine. However, God wants us to know that He sent His only son Jesus, that we may have peace in the midst of our trials. Jesus speaking to the disciples in John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Jesus has already conquered death, hell, and the grave so that we may have life with our Father in Heaven. But even more, God wants us to have a JOY-filled life here on earth. If you are going through a difficult situation in your life right now and all you want to do is throw a good old-fashioned foot-stompin’, arm-wailin’, hair-raisin’, screamin’ fit, just pray the following prayer from Psalm 30:10-12:

“Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help. You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.”

What a simple but powerful prayer, “O Lord, be my help”! And what a blessed thought - that the Lord of Heaven and Earth will hear our cry, turn our wailing into dancing, remove our sackcloth, and clothe us with JOY!