Procedure Manual Step 1:

Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD,

and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.

(2 Chronicles 20:3)

Raw emotions are hard to battle in the heat of the moment, so I started thinking I should have a set of default procedures to follow when selfishness, pride, impatience, anger, and bitterness rear their ugly heads. And I found a great example of what I was looking for in an Old Testament king named Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20).

Jehoshaphat was in an overwhelming situation. Three countries had banded together, forming a massive army to attack his much smaller country of Judah. If ever there were a time for a king to feel unglued, this would have been it. But Jehoshaphat didn’t fall apart. And I think a big reason he didn’t come unglued is explained by this three-word sentence: “Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved” (2 Chronicles 20:3, emphasis added).

The king had resolved to inquire of the Lord. This is how I want to be. When I feel alarmed, I want to simultaneously be resolved. Alarmed, Lysa resolved. And here’s what I want to be resolved to do —to remember who I am.

We have a four-word family motto we say to our kids almost every time they step out the door of our home. These four words encapsulate every moral lesson, every biblical lesson, and every life lesson we’ve taught them. Instead of blasting them with a sermonette — “Be nice, use your manners, watch your words, don’t drink, don’t smoke, and don’t drive over the speed limit” — all we give them are four words:

Remember who you are.

“Remember, you are a TerKeurst, and a good name is better than all the riches of the world. And even more important than that, remember you are a child of God, holy and dearly loved, whom God has set apart for a mighty plan.”

King Jehoshaphat was resolved. He predetermined to remember who he was. And it prevented him from coming unglued. I need to do the very same thing. I’m not an unglued woman who is a slave to her circumstances, her hormones, or other people’s attitudes. Those things might affect me, but they don’t rule me. I am a child of God, holy and dearly loved, whom He has set apart for a mighty plan. And there ain’t nothing in this world worth trading all that for. Indeed, I must remember who I am.