Psalm 57:1-3

"Be good to me God - and now! I've run to you for dear life. 

I'm hiding out under your wings until the hurricane blows over. 

I call out to High God, the God who holds me together. 

He sends orders from heaven and saves me, 

he humiliates those who kick me around. 

God delivers generous love, 

he makes good on his word." 

Psalm 57:1-3 (The Message)

This is the passage I'm currently memorizing. I hope to memorize the entire Psalm as I've found this entire Psalm to be quite useful when your facing the attitudes that can fly in a house with a teen daughter and preteen boys. The hurricane being the negative attitudes, of course. ;-) 

Something that has helped me so much is when the attitudes begin to fly, I excuse myself from the situation, go into my room and work on reciting this passage. In a sense - "I run to God for dear life" because I know that all it takes is one wrong response from me and the hurricane can destroy everything. But, if "I hide out under God's wings", the hurricane will blow over. And while I'm hiding out with God, he is "holding me together". I literally feel as if his wings are keeping me from walking out and really letting the kids have the full force of my wrath. 

God does "deliver generous love". He does "make good on his word". And if I can just remember to do this each and every time my temper gets set off, our home can be a home of peace. 

If you're a parent, I encourage you to read the rest of this Psalm - I especially like the wording of the Message Paraphrase. Imagine the pride of lions being your kids and it might even make you chuckle a bit. ;-) When it talks about how "they booby-trapped my path" imagine what it's like when your kids all gang up on you and hound you to no end. And when you get through that "attack" notice how David thanked God, singing his praises. (And realize that this can really drive your kids batty when they've "attacked" and you're calmly singing God's praises. Yeah... I have a dark side...) 

And remember, "the deeper God's love, the higher it goes; every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness". (Psalm 57:10 The Message)