Please Him; You'll Please Me

May 9, 2023

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14 NLT

A couple months ago one of my friends said to me, “Do you think I complain about Tom all the time?” Tom (name changed to protect the guilty 😊) is her husband who appears to me to be a good man, but admittedly, I don’t live with him. I do know he is stepdad to her adult children, and they all love and respect him.

I deflected for a moment with a question. “Why do you ask?” She then told me that a mutual friend had asked what was going on because she complained about Tom constantly. “Do you think I really do that?” (Courageous friend.)

When I agreed that it seemed that way to me, she told me that he had a “gift” of irritating her with something small first thing in the morning and she added it to the list of things she was already annoyed about and then thought about it all day. By the time the day was over she saw his faults through a magnifying glass and reflected, “I guess I think about it so much I bring it up to the people I see.”

Of course she does. We all do. The things we think about the most have a way of slipping down from our brains and right out of our mouth. This is the core of the meaning of meditation. Meditation means to mull over something. It comes from the thought of a cow “chewing her cud” all day long until it is absorbed into her. I have meditation going on all day long and the thoughts that consume me become absorbed into me so completely that they become “the words of my mouth.” It happens with you too.

David grew very wise in his walk with God. He knew that if the meditations of his heart pleased God, then the words of his mouth would please God too. Then, the long-run result would be that anything that pleased God would also please the ones who loved Him most.

My friend and I decided that she should concentrate her meditation on the things Tom got right and consciously speak of his great relationship with his stepchildren, his financial support over many years, his sobriety… any good thing she can find. After all, “Hold a crown a few inches above their heads and lovingly encourage them to grow into it” was great advice in 1640 (I found it on a very old sampler), and it still works better than you might think.

Guard your thoughts. They guide your communication, and your communication directs your life.

• Yes, God. May the meditations of my heart, then the words of my mouth, please You.