Verse of the Day for December 12

Psalm one hundred is short enough to learn in a morning, and its second verse puts two words side by side that we rarely keep together. Serve the LORD with gladness.

Serving usually sounds like duty. Gladness sounds like rest. The psalm will not let them be separated. Whatever service you owe, it is meant to be carried with a glad heart, and that includes the hard service of honest words.

Then the order: come before his presence with singing. Before you come before anyone else, you come before him. The conversation you are dreading is not the first meeting of the day. This one is.

That changes the temperature. A person who has just been with God is less likely to come out swinging. They have already been seen and loved, so they do not need to win in order to feel safe.

If you have to speak to your landlord, your teenager, or a colleague who hurt you, sit in the car or the stairwell first. Sing one line, or hum it. Then go in, and serve them with your words as gladly as you can.

Gladness is not the opposite of honesty.

You do not need to win a conversation you have already brought to God.