Birthday Girl

SCRIPTURE:  Grant to Solomon my son a whole heart that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, performing all. 1 Chronicles 29:19a ESV

THOUGHT: This Scripture is from King David’s prayer over his son as he becomes king. I have a daughter who turns 25 today, and although this wasn’t the Scripture I set out to write on this morning, it caught my attention and heart. Give her a whole heart, oh Father, that she may keep your commandments, see your work clearly, and follow the ways you’ve laid out for human flourishing.

Here was a family where so much went wrong, a big, blended family with people who loved God and people who didn’t, and a side helping of all the dysfunction you could imagine. Adultery, betrayal, rape, untimely death, fear, murder and attempted regicide. Truly, it’s amazing that Scripture records all of it; the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. It makes me trust Scripture more and it also teaches me that none of us are beyond a forgiving God, and all of us need the same.

Maybe you grew up in a family like that – I did, and I managed to make things even worse in my own adulthood, which became part of my children’s story. I take heart from the prayer and story of David, because, despite everything that went wrong, David loved God and God loved David and heard his prayers.

So, I pray for my birthday girl a whole heart, a heart of shalom (wholeness), and I trust God to hear and answer in his own time and way.

PRAYER: Oh God, I pray shalom for every heart reading this today, and a special birthday helping for a certain young woman making her way out into this world that is so hard, but also so full of your glory.