3 days in 1

Day 18

I pray you’ll have to wait— and learn the value of patience.

To let go and rest in faith...ahhh!  Doesn't that sound nice?  Wait; you mean let go and watch my kiddos struggle, be flustered and agitated?  But I have to fix it!  No, I don't.  We must realize that our children's impatience simply awakens our frustrations.  Oh, how we all could use just a little patience ... ya ya... oh wait sorry, I got caught up in song there.  Anywho, this patient thing is important, it's a fruit of the spirit and as Lisa states, "But in the waiting, we all come to grips with the fact that we are not in control. We’re compelled to trust the God who rules. We rediscover the value of patience and why it’s listed as one of the gifts of the Spirit, along with such things as love, joy, and peace (Galatians 5: 22– 23)."  Knowing this maybe today I can control the running over and rescuing my babies and know that in the waiting I can trust the what is and not the what might be.

Day 19

I pray you’ll have selective hearing— deaf to all but the Father’s voice.

Twenty-four hour noise.  That is what our children have today from music to internet to texting to school to sports to lessons to even our loving voices.  Has God's voice ever become a shout to you in order to shake you and get your attention?  What response do you think your young ones would give you if you asked them what they thought God's voice was like?  And for your older children; could they decipher God's voice in their heats and know how to seek His comfort?  

I needed to take a couple of days to pray and just meditate on God's word; hence the three day blog today.  I found myself getting up early still, yes, but previously because I was hitting my computer keys I would get lost in the world wide web, email and other social media.  My bible was dusty and the noise was unbearable for the rest of the day.  Yes, I have the YouVersion Bible on my phone and Kindle for the book but I need to feel the pages of my bible and really melt into them.  Today I am refreshed and ready to blog because I have rested and heard His voice nudge me once again to do this.  

"I want to hear you, Father. I want to make time for you, first. I want to be in constant communication with you, feeling your joy, your pain. Obeying your will. Make me deaf to anything other than you, first. Amen."

Day 20

I pray you’ll know fear— and find courage in living with God beside you.

How often do you find yourself saying, but if I had this bigger better thing than I might not be so afraid?  I can battle anything with bigger and better.  Is that what David said up against Goliath?  All David had was a slingshot and a whole-lotta faith.  I love going back to the story of David, especially with my boys because, well, who doesn't love the triumph of an underdog?!  Lisa puts it plainly yet so strongly, "Regardless of what life brings— be they rivers that threaten to drown us or fires that might burn us— our God walks beside us (Isaiah 43: 2). And if we were created by him and for him to be with him, ultimately, that’s where we have to rest. There, in that sweet spot, fear is absent, courage fills us, and peace rules."  I want to be there and I want my boys to be there.  They need to know that God has got their back when they walk into a new crowd, if someone thinks they are weird, if they don't quite fit in.  They need to know that God has bigger plans for them!

 

"And if our God is for us, then who can be against us"  

Gather your kids and sing out loud in praise today with Chris Tomlin's Our God!!!