He’s My Father Too!

I love having friends who challenge me and push me to think deep thoughts that I haven’t pondered yet.  For me, a good friend has plenty of conversation that leads me to Jesus.  I like hearing what is happening in the hearts of others.  Last week we got together with some really good friends of ours for dinner.  Of course the conversation turned to Jesus and the lessons we were learning from Him.

We were discussing how some missions families were struggling financially and some were blessed.  Our friend said, I think about it like this- we both have the same Father, right?  Well if my Father chooses to bless my Brother, then I can rest assured that my Father will also take care of me.  We don’t treat all our children the exact same way because they don’t need the exact same things.  We take care of our children in the way that we feel is best for each one on an individual basis.  If my Father is good to one of His Sons, then He will also be good to me because I’m his Son too.  But His goodness will look different in my life from how it is revealed in my Brother’s life.

And it’s true.  As parents we don’t treat all our kids the same way.  When I was younger, my little sister was struggling with her weekly spelling tests.  My Dad motivated her by promising to take her out for ice cream if she got 100% on a test.  She studied hard each week to earn her weekly ice cream date with Dad, and I don’t think she ever missed another word again.  I, on the other hand, would not have been so highly motivated by ice cream.  I didn’t NEED ice cream to encourage me to study.  Our Father didn’t love me any less or my sister any more.  He just knew what each of us needed to become the best version of ourselves.  This is how our Heavenly Father treats His children as well.

I’ve been thinking about that all week.  Not that I had begrudged my Brother any of his blessings, but it changed my perspective about both blessings and trials.  Both come from the hand of God and both are given to serve a purpose.  I don’t always know God’s purposes for sending hardships, but neither do I know the purposes for blessings either.  God does what He sees as best for me.  I can rest assured that I lack nothing when God is my Father.  I have all I need because He is watching over me and treating me as a unique, beloved daughter.

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Hold You?

Every morning when my alarm goes off at 5 a.m. I breathe these words before my feet roll out of bed, “Lord give me strength for today.”  I wake up in pain and there’s nothing I can do about it.  So it’s best to forget about it and get on with my day.  But I ask for help from my Father God.  He slowly infuses me with the energy and strength I need to make it through today.  He has taught me to be thankful for my weaknesses because they force me to rely on Him more.  

He has promised to help me when I call on Him.  And He’s glad to do it!   He is drawn to weakness because it is the white canvas on which He paints His beautiful pictures of mercy, grace and bounty.  With Jesus, I have enough.  With Jesus, I can do today.  Tomorrow I will ask for more, but today He will give me enough of what I need right now.

A friend of a friend posted this on FB the other day.  I liked it because it is how I view my walk with the Lord.  I grow weary as my little legs pump twice as hard as His long strides.  I ask him to hold me.

Hold You?
The other day I was watching a friend’s little 2 year old daughter. We went for a walk down to a nearby swing set so we could play. As we walked down the street, this little gal’s chubby fingers clasped my hand as she took two steps for every one step I took. She trotted along like this for sometime, chattering on about “swing” and “mommy” and “mammie and papa” and “birdies”.

Then she inquisitively said these two sweet words, “Hold you?”

She was tired. She was weary. The sun was shining, she had exerted all the energy her little legs could muster.

Her question was simple.

“Hold you?”

“Do you want me to pick you up?” I asked her.

“Yes.”

I picked her up and began to carry her on to our destination.

Today Jesus will do that for me. I am tired, I am weary. The sun is shining, I have exerted all the energy my little heart can muster.

My need is simple.

“Hold You?”

And He picks me up and carries me to our destination.

“. . . in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place.” Deut 1:31

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I don’t have to like it…

Recently God and I were locked in a battle of the wills.  (Of course you know who won.)  As I squirmed under his thumb, I felt him speak to me in that Fatherly tone that he often uses with me.  He said, “You don’t have to like it, you just have to obey.”  

Now clearly I would be assured of a greater blessing if I submitted with humble faith to the thing that I didn’t understand.  But God and I were beyond the point of tender prodding and gentle leading.  I had gone through all my whining “Whys?” and settled into a defiant pout.  Now all he could do with me was to pull the “Because I said so” card, the Parental Ace.

I go through this with my own children sometimes.  They whine, “I don’t want to brush my teeth.”  You don’t have to like it, you just have to obey.  “I don’t like peas.  I don’t want to eat them.”  You don’t have to like it, you just have to obey.  I don’t always explain my reasons to my children for the very purpose that learning to obey a parent will help them learn to obey God when he is also silent about his motives.  Sometimes children just need to trust that the grown ups know more than they do.  And sometimes I need to trust that God sees things that I don’t see.

I’m still not happy about what I know I’m supposed to be doing.  I still don’t understand it. But I have grimly set my face towards obedience, like Jonah plodding towards Ninevah with whale vomit pooling in his shoes.  I don’t have to like it.  I just have to obey.

Last night I prayed, “Lord, change my desires.  Give me your desires.”  And immediately I felt my cold heart begin to melt a bit.  This is going to take some more praying and more submitting of my desires, but I think I’m learning little by little.  I still don’t understand, but I choose to obey.

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Lather, Rinse, Repeat

“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.” -Tom Bodett

Have you ever read the back of a shampoo bottle before?  I did once.  It actually had directions on it!  They said, “Lather, Rinse, Repeat.”  How odd, I thought, wouldn’t the shampoo be strong enough to do the job the first time?  Why repeat?

Several years later I read somewhere that some marketing guy came up with the idea to put those instructions on the bottle of shampoo.  His idea was considered folly until the end of the fiscal year showed a 30% increase in shampoo sales!  Of course then he was hailed as a genius.  I still don’t know why it worked, but apparently people believe what they read on the back of shampoo bottles.  After all, why would your shampoo lie to you?

There are times in life when I’ve felt like I was reading the back of the shampoo bottle, spiritually speaking.  Lather, Rinse, Repeat… and repeat and repeat and repeat until the lesson is learned.  God keeps us cycling through lessons until we master them.  For example, have you noticed how forgiveness is not a one-time shot?  You have to deliberately forgive someone and let go of hurt feelings over and over again until it becomes second nature to you.

You have to flex those spiritual muscles over and over, building up their strength, concentrating on your form, until those spiritual movements are habits.  Forgiveness, tithing, prayer, a devotional life, taking captive every thought, not lusting, not coveting, not gossiping… all of these spiritual actions take training.  Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Having to repeat a life lesson because you just didn’t learn it the first time around is not something to be ashamed of, it’s just how us humans learn.  Practice makes perfect in the spiritual realm too.  Anything worth learning is worth repeating until you have it down perfectly.  Forgive 70×7.  Capture and return stray thoughts to God a hundred times a day if you have to.  Bounce your eyes away from lust inducing images over and over again.  Repent as many times as necessary.

If Jesus told us to forgive our brother 70×7 then how much more is our Heavenly Father disposed to forgive us over and over when we fail and fall short, but want to keep trying.  Do it again.  Repeat the lesson again.  You haven’t mastered it yet.  I want you to nail this one.  Try again.  And again.  And again.

Repeating lessons over an over is like Father God running next to our bicycle as we learn to ride without training wheels.  We fall, he picks us up again and sets us back on the bike.  Try again, Child.  He is our patient, loving Father.  He gives us chances to repeat lessons because he loves us and wants us to succeed, not to punish us.  This is for our good.  Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

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Before you break your heart

Sometimes when the Lord speaks to me, it is in the same tone that I speak to my children.  I know God is treating me like his child, and I need to respond to him as my Heavenly Father.

This last week I sent Teacher Christmas presents to school with all my kids.  My Kindergartener has two teachers, an English teacher in the morning and a Spanish teacher in the afternoon (it’s a bilingual school).  In each gift bag, I packed a cute mug, hot chocolate mix, chocolate covered coffee beans, and a plate of home-made Christmas cookies.  My little one was so excited!  She’s 5 years old, so of course she wanted to carry her own presents to her teachers.  But she’s also short, so for the entire walk from the car to the classroom I was coaching Lulu in my most patient parental voice.  “Pick up your bags, don’t drag them.  Don’t clink your bags on the ground or you’ll break the cups.  Do you want me to carry those for you?  Be careful.  Lift them higher honey.”  Every 2 seconds it was a new instruction.

Now, I’ve mentioned before that this child is an insurance claim waiting to happen.  She is a natural disaster on two feet.  I have FEMA’s emergency number on speed dial.  She’s not malicious or naughty (usually) but she is high-spirited and has inherited her mother’s gracelessness.  So I knew it was a risk to let her carry her presents herself.  Sure enough, my fears proved to be foresight.

The minute she saw her little friend Anika she went running to hug her with a gift bag in each hand.  The arms swung around her little buddy and the bags smashed together behind Anika’s back!  It was all I could do to surpress the disappointed tone in my voice.  I then had to explain to her teachers that she just got too excited and forgot to be careful.  Sorry, here’s your broken coffee cups.  A little Super Glue should do the trick.  I felt so bad, but there was nothing more I could do as a parent to prevent her from breaking the cups aside from carrying them myself.   If she was going to carry them, it was a certainty that she was going to break them.

So last night I had a moment with God when he spoke to me like I was speaking to Lucy on that day.  He said to me in a Fatherly tone, “Give me your heart to hold for you.  Give me your heart before you break it.”  I set my heart on things that are unrealistic, dreams that will never become reality.  I invest my heart in ideas or plans or day dreams or wishes and then I am disappointed when my ideas fall flat.  Father God asked me to give him my heart for safe keeping.  If I were to hold on to it, I would certainly break it.  I have high expectations.  I am constantly getting my hopes up and then they come crashing down to the ground like Lulu’s Christmas cups.  I get all excited and smash my heart to bits.  God says, “Child, let me hold that for you before you break it.”

Now the question is, will I trust him?  Do I really believe that he knows better than I do what is good for me and what is wrong for me?  Am I going to surrender my heart, my dreams and expectations to him?  Am I going to trust my Father with my heart?

Here’s a promise I can trust when I am looking for how to guard my heart.  “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:7