Perhaps some others think the tongues with interpretation that was shared today during our worship service was for them. Well, I'm claiming it as mine. I can't begin to express how I needed the reassurance that was offered through it; or how desperately I needed to be confronted by the choice made clear through it: will I settle for letting my circumstances be my portion, or will I embrace Him as my portion?

This choice, my friends, is the difference between the two women described in the word shared. One has joy that endures as she travails; the other sees only the pain of the moment.

It made me stop in my tracks.

How often have I been the one focusing on the moment? (And I'm not just talking about when in labor here, as the analogy was just that--an analogy.) If I'm honest with you, I'll tell you that it wasn't just this week that I've been struggling to get beyond my circumstances and the enemy of my soul. Daily there are moments when I see only the situations around me, or the hurt, or the wrong by me or by another. Daily I fail to look beyond what I'm feeling and experiencing to the joy of knowing and walking with and in Him.

No more.

Today I choose Him. He is my portion and my lot.

And I find that the lines indeed fall in pleasant places when I am gazing upon Him.