Ice Cream and Kisses

Okay, so today I am going to start with a couple of cute stories.
A few years back I worked at a company that employed several Hispanics.  As it would happen, years before I had started working there, they had hired a couple of young women straight out of high school.  They had been best friends forever.  Still are.  Before they moved up into the front office they were hired to work in the warehouse.  Well as the story goes, they are working together, doing their job, when all of a sudden, quite a few of the workers just up and started running for the back door.  One of the young ladies took notice of this and dropped what she was doing and went to grab her purse and started taking money out of it.  Her friend, not sure what to make of her friends actions, asked her what she was doing.  Her friends response was priceless.  "Didn't you hear them?  The ice cream man is here.  It's break time."  Her friend, face palmed and grabbed her and stopped her before she joined the running people that were jumping off the docks and disappearing into Phoenix.  "They weren't screaming "Ice Cream", they were screaming "La Migra"  Immigration had shown up and someone had been screaming "La Migra" over and over again as all the illegals took to foot. 
One more story, more recent.
Last night my daughter in law had had enough of the kids.  It was bed time and she was putting her foot down.  She declared to my grandbabies (her kids), "You guys need to get in bed right now because I'm about to get real pissy."   Everyone but Matthew, he's four, heads for bed.  She sees him and says, "Matthew? Are you trying to make me crazy? Go to bed!"  To which he replies (with the sweetest face EVER), "I cant, I am waiting for you to get real kissy"  You better believe he was immediately covered in kisses.
Now, those are two different stories.  But the point I am making applies to both of them.  Both misheard but a good misunderstanding.
One heard ice cream and one heard kisses.
What great optimism!
You know it is said of an optimist that they see the glass half full.  I really think an optimist sees the glass with potential for more.
So many times I think that we get caught up in our circumstances and can't see a way out.  How many times have you been going through something and you get caught up focusing on the problem instead of the answer? 
Guilty!!
We get mired down in our own circumstances and forget to call out to Jesus.
We have all heard the phrase, "Under the Circumstances."  I am going to ask you a question.  What are you doing UNDER the circumstances? 
We are called to be overcomers!
We all know that we, most times, cannot dig ourselves out from under by ourselves.  But the good news is, we don't have to!
Psalm 40:1 - I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto (listened, found favor towards) me, and heard my cry. 2 - He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my going.  3 - And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God:  many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord!
King David had it going on!  How many times do we live in the place where we have no hope?  Why do we choose to stay there?
We have a helper, a strong hold, someone who is inclined to listen to us when we need help out of the miry clay, the pit.
You would think that I am getting a little off topic..but wait there's more.
You see, my point is that my friend and my grandson were in dire circumstance.  One, even though it really would not affect her, if she had taken off running she could have been rounded up and possibly detained.  Jailed even.  But my point was that she didn't hear the warning of "La Migra", she heard "Ice Cream Man."  I gotta tell ya, I love me some ice cream.  It is possibly one of my favorite deserts.  I believe I could eat it morning, noon and night.  If I had been by her and had seen her doing what she did, I probably would have grabbed my purse and ran for the ice cream truck right with her.  Ice Cream Is Good!  She was going for the Good!
And the point with my grandson.  He heard a totally different thing than his siblings.  His response was fabulous!  The others avoided pissy but they didn't get any of the kissy.  Kissy is good.
They both looked for the good.  They ran to it.  They waited for it.  The circumstances could have been something they could have easily gotten under but they looked for the good.
I will take ice cream over jail and kissy over pissy any time of day!
Psalm 100:1 - Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.  2 - Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.  3 - Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.  4 - Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.  5 -  For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.
Why would I put this passage here you might ask?  Because it reminds us in verse 5 that the Lord is Good!!!
So I am compelling you to look to the good.  Don't live under your circumstances.  Let the Lord, who is Good, who is so inclined to hear you and lift you out of your miry clay do what He says He will do. For the Lord is Good! 
He isn't jail or pissy.  He isn't even ice cream and kisses.  He is so much better.