A good gift for an obedient son

  

     We have just recently moved. 

     Which makes us feel sorry for other people who are moving and want to help them. (Well, at least the adults in our household -more on this later). 

      So when we heard that some new acquaintances here were moving, my husband volunteered to go lug boxes. And I volunteered to let him. On my birthday. As long as he took our son with him. 

      Said son is 5 years old and would probably have been more enthusiastic about helping someone else move if he hadn't just lived through a move himself. He wanted to do anything BUT help move. Even though it meant leaving the house with Dad, which he usually loves. 

      Needless to say, lectures about helping others and "Don't you remember all the people who helped us and how much we appreciated them?"  "God loves when we serve others." 

     Nothing. 

     Finally we got down to "Get dressed and get in the truck."  

     Obedience. 

     And away they went. One cheerfully and the other begrudgingly, but at least they were going. 

     When they got there, a surprise was waiting for them. One brilliant Momma who was helping organize the move, had planned for all the little kids to be taken to a jump/fun/play room/
restaurant kind of thing. (My apologies for the lousy description, but having never set foot in one, it's the best I've got. No plans to remedy that anytime soon, by the way.)

    And so, our reluctant mover's assistant was rewarded with a day of play surrounded by other littles and potentially new friends!

     Isn't that just like God? I love it when he does things like this in my life, but I love it even more when he does it in the lives of my kids. He rewards obedience. 

     And you can be sure I pointed that out to my boy when he got home that afternoon. 

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love him and show myself to him." John 14:21

Grandpa

I stopped blogging last May when my Grandpa died.

Suddenly nothing I could say seemed very important.

And how could I possibly start writing again without writing about this man who meant so much to me? Whose loss I am certain to feel every day for the rest of my life?

It hurt too much for too long and I knew that whatever I said would be inadequate.

But the time has come.

My dad wrote a great story about Grandpa that my son read at the memorial service. Be sure to have him tell you about it the next time you see him. It told a simple story about my grandpa that related a profound truth about him. He was always there when you needed him and went to extraordinary lengths to be sure he was.

While I'm not near the story teller Dad is, I want to share my own story about Grandpa.  The profound truth is that he had a way of making everyone he was with feel special. Important. Good at things. Loved.

When I was a teenager I was attacked by the ugly tree. Some kids go through an awkward phase, but mine was more like an awkward decade. I grew really tall really all at once, had pimples, didn't have a clue how to wear my hair or do makeup. I was a mess. And I knew it. Even those closest to me knew it. And I could see it in their eyes.

They had hope for the future, but were clearly aware that the once moderately cute little girl that I used to be had morphed into a painfully awkward and ugly teenaged mess.

Except Grandpa.

He came to visit us (as he did often) and we all went for a horseback ride (as we all did often). We rode past a patch of lavender colored flowers and I was wearing a lavender colored shirt that day. He asked me to get off my horse and go sit in the patch so he could take some pictures of me. He loved taking photos and had a really nice camera at the time.

You would have thought I was a supermodel the way he oohed and aaahd and had me sit this way and that.  He made me feel great; silly at first, but ultimately great. 

Loved.

It wasn't an act. It wasn't something he schemed to do to encourage me or anything. It was just him. 

He was so kind that it filled his eyes and through that filter I actually looked beautiful.

To him, most people did.

Generous Children

photo credit -  mint.com

I caught the tail end of a popular news program last week. The host was reading letters from viewers. One woman wrote to tell him that when he gave out some information about taking donations for a cause popular at the time, her young son responded. He went into his bedroom and got his hard-earned yard chore money to donate. 

His generosity touched me. And the host, apparently. 

I think sometimes it's easier for children to be generous than it is for adults. Some cynics might say it's because they are impractical, but I think the opposite is true. 

They are very practical. They know their needs are met. Their parents provide a roof over their head, clothing on their back and food in their tummy. It's not hard to be generous under those circumstances. 

Our Father is most generous. He houses, feeds and clothes us. He provides for ALL of our needs - not just the physical. 

Wouldn't it follow that His children would be the most generous? 

In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— Ephesians 1:4

Absent Husband = Vigilant Bride

My husband was out of town for a week recently on business. 

I noticed that I took a little extra care to lock things that don't usually get locked. 

I double-checked to make sure things were closed tight that I might usually leave open. 

And, of course, I had a fully loaded thing within arms reach should the need arise. 

I slept a bit more fitfully than normal. 

I knew that because my protector was away, I needed to be more vigilant than normal; but he didn't leave me defenseless. 

Reminds me of the church - the "bride" of Christ. 

He is away, but He's coming back; and He certainly hasn't left us defenseless. 

Let's be vigilant in His absence while looking forward to His return. 

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:13

Results & Duty

Wikipedia

"Duty is ours; results are God's." John Quincy Adams

He said this when asked about how he could press on with the fight against slavery when it seemed so little progress was being made. Of course, he died before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law, but without the groundwork he laid and the fact that he and Abraham Lincoln overlapped for one year in the House of Representatives, maybe we wouldn't have had it at all. 

This quote is so encouraging to me.  Even though our kids grow and mature so quickly, in the day to day of it all, it often seems as if no real progress is being made - in us or in the children.  It can be discouraging.

Unless we remember, as John Quincy Adams did, that God is in charge of the results. 

"And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary." Galatians 6:9

Teaching an old Crochet-er a new Knit

I just finished knitting a baby blanket. I am really enjoying knitting, but it was hard for me to learn. My mom taught me to crochet when I was little, so that seemed like no big deal. And then, a few years ago, a friend showed me how to knit and then I bought a book and taught myself. 

It was weird to hold the knitting needles that way - so different from the way you hold a crochet hook. Think of going from a baseball bat to a golf club. Very similar in their differences. :)

Anyway, it was a great reminder for me that it's so much easier to learn to do something right the first time than it is to unlearn doing it the wrong way. 

My dad made a lot of money over the years "unlearning" horses the bad habits their owners taught them. 

Two lessons here:

1) Go easy on yourself and others when you (or they) are trying to unlearn bad habits or even whole ways of thinking. 

2) Teach your kids the right way the first time. 


"Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Follow the Leader

My Grandpa

Our church is blessed to have a multitude of talented musicians who volunteer to lead us in worship each week. They sort of rotate and share the responsibility. 

A few weeks ago, we were being blessed by the talents of a group of them, when the leader skipped a verse. . . Now, I didn't know the song well enough to tell, and I might not have even caught it, except one of the other singers flushed and looked a little embarrassed - oh and the words projected on the screen didn't match. 

However, the rest of the group just fell in behind him and FOLLOWED WHERE HE LED. 

I was impressed by those musicians - even the one who got a little flustered. They did nothing but make their leader look good. 

Can you imagine if they had gone off on their own? Not only wouldn't it have sounded very good, but it would have confused all of us in the congregation, embarrassed many of the performers, and maybe even damaged the trust they had in their leader - or his trust in them. Perhaps irreparably. 

I wonder how often I damage the trust of my leader, and confuse those around us, when I don't FOLLOW WHERE HE LEADS. 

Now, you might think, well he made a mistake, they had every right not to follow him! 

But, if you are like me, this "not following" can happen even when there are no mistakes being made. 

Thanks mostly to my Grandpa, whose own father taught him how to play, my extended family has a lot of musicians in it. I enjoy it when we all get together. Inevitably, Grandpa has learned a new song that no one else knows. He leads and they all play along. It sounds like music because they FOLLOW HIS LEAD. 

Next time I hear or feel discord, I'm gonna take a step back and remember that if I FOLLOW WHERE HE LEADS, the result will be sweet music.  

"Submit yourselves, then, to God." James 4:7