"Mom, how many times did you lie to me to protect my heart?" Wow, a question I didn't plan or expect to hear tonight.
But let's step back a moment to help you understand. Daddy is visiting with friends this evening, so it was just me and the kids for dinner. Rather than cook, I decided to eat dinner out, but we couldn't decide. After driving a short distance down the road to have the boys arguing back and forth between Taco Bell and Fazzoli's, I had had enough yelling. I stopped the van on the side of the road and after a few seconds, I asked Sofia. She kept telling us she wanted to go to Emily's. I could not for the life of me figure out what in the world she was talking about. After a few minutes, she said that Emily would make her a sandwich, a pink sandwich because that is, she said her favorite color.
So now we knew she wanted a pink sandwich made by Emily. I was lost. Finally I heard her say, she makes one for Little Bear, Momma. I know she would make one just for me. There we had it. Emily, from Little Bear was who we had to find. So I asked if Emily would make him a burger, but she said that's not what she does. She makes turkey Momma.
So, that is where my creative lie came from. I found that first of all, my boys are not equal liars (which is good to remember for when they are teenagers). I also found them eager to not hurt their sister's heart by telling her that it was impossible for Emily to make her a sandwich. And that is the tale we began to weave as I turned our direction and headed for Arby's. Suddenly, Arby's was Emily's restaurant, and she makes special sandwiches for people all over Grove City. She would be more than willing to make a turkey sandwich for our dear Sofia. The boys kept feeding the lie as we went through the drive thru, from the fact that a girl took our order and that HAD to be Emily to the fella in the drive thru window was helping her out because she had to attend to business in the kitchen. It continued as we got into the house and she began to eat her sandwich. Now, you can ask anyone in the family and they will tell you that no matter what Sofia wants to eat, she won't eat it once she has it. So this elaborate lie could have been all for naught. But not to night. That child ate every last bite of that turkey and cheese sandwich (didn't touch the fries and only drank half the juice, but she ate all of the sandwich).
Alec is the one that asked me the big question. He said, it to me and winked but later he returned to the question. He wanted to know. This Momma isn't ready to fess up about the elaborate hoax we have created for Jumbo, our elf on the shelf or Santa or even the Tooth Fairy who comes to life and takes the tooth to leave a shiny gold coin. I'm just not ready to let my biggest baby grow up. I did though fess up to the lengths I would go to protect his heart. For instance, we talked about Charley. What a special family member she was. She morphed throughout the years, starting as a bug and eventually moving into a little girl who not only went to preschool with him, but came over for lengthy playdates. Charley lived at the post office, you see. My darling son has got his Momma's creativity and he insisted every time we were out that we needed to drop off Charley off at the post office. We went as far as to open the door of the van for Charley to get out. That is just one of the creative lies I have told over the years. He's catching on though. I know eventually I will have to tell him the truth about all of them, but I love that he knew it was just stories to protect their hearts. :-)
November 17, 2011
November 8, 2011
Thankfulness and Friendship
We are 8 days in the one month when everyone publicly declares they are thankful. Unfortunately, I just can't do it right now. I'm so beyond overwhelmed with the Glory of God, that I just cannot possibly select one thing to be thankful for.
So today, I want to write about friendship. You see, I have this special friend that my heart is crying for right now. I have held onto this pain for her for several months now and haven't even responded to a couple of her cries for prayers just because I wanted the right words. Remember, I am a writer. Finding those words are difficult for me. Yeah, I plug out a good 2000 words a day if need be, but I can't seem to find the right words to help heal my friend's heart. I've done what I know how to do by calling out to Jesus for those words, but as you can see, they just aren't quite there yet. But He's speaking to me right at this very moment. I feel His presence and feel His charge. He's asked me to write this blog post for her. He's asked me to share love with her that I have held back in fear.
So, while the rest of this blog will be for my beautiful, sweet friend it will help you too. God is calling me to write this. It's not me. It's Him!
Sometimes it just isn't going to make sense.
"For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Romans 9:15
There are a lot of things about God that are difficult to understand. This verse shows one of those things. God selects certain people for certain things. He picks and chooses among people!
Sometimes we are at the feet of Jesus begging for something we feel we need, but it seems He is not listening. Sometimes we are seeking God's Will, asking him to remove everything that hinders us from being His servant, our life is upside down. It just does not make sense! Why isn't He protecting us from bad things? Why doesn't He rain down blessings on us? I mean, haven't we been obedient? Haven't we sought after Him even in those times of biggest stress? I think about Noah. God blessed him, right? Sometimes, like him, it makes sense. Noah was chosen because God saw that he was righteous (Genesis 7:1). Makes sense, right?
But think about it. I remember more examples in the Bible that just don't make sense when it comes to people getting what I believe they deserve.
Why would God choose Jacob over Esau?? Jacob tricked his father into blessing him by lying!! (Genesis 27:19). That makes no sense at all.
And what about Job. Wow. He certainly suffered for God to prove a point to Satan. Satan's a jerk. Why would God waste His time proving something to him?? That doesn't make sense.
The Israelites. They were tired. Tired of wandering in the wilderness. Tired of manna bread, manna burgers, manna cereal, manna, manna, manna. They complained and grumbled. God sent fiery snakes to bite them and they died (Numbers 21:4-6). WHAT? Holy cow, I've been frustrated before and am thankful that I survived that! They were just frustrated. That doesn't make sense.
Romans 9:18-21 says:
"Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"
When I stop and think about it, I see where God may just have known what He was doing, at least some of the time. For instance, the grumpy, frustrated Israelites, what if the grumbling isn't all they ended up doing. What if they all decided to go back to Egypt?
I can sit around and compare my life to other people and see where I have had some really awful things happen to me, things that seem to to be truly unfair, mean or just bizarre. The more I try to be in God's Will, the more things happen, it seems.
So, I should just give up and walk away from God because sometimes I feel like I am going crazy. Right? But wait a minute, WHY haven't I gone crazy? Why haven't I buckled under the load? I've not been squished like a bug, but why?
Despite the frustration, despite the sadness and utter uncontrol I have, God has sustained me. He is the Potter and I am the clay. Even if I can't see any good coming out of my trials, I must have faith that he knows what He is doing. Some of the trials have made me stronger, some have helped other people, and some have no results that I can see.
I doubt Job knew why God allowed all the sorrows to be heaped on him. The Bible doesn't say he knows that, so we have no reason to believe he did.
A scripture of encouragement:
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ."
2Cor 1:3-5
God WILL comfort us and help us through our trials and tribulations, my friends! At the very least, we will be able to have the strength to comfort others. Have you ever been able to minister to someone by saying, "Been there myself"? Sometimes that is the only way to reach out to someone.
Jesus suffered. Why do we think we are so better than He that we shouldn't??
So when the trials get heavier than you think you can hold, remember that God will keep you from being crushed completely flat. When you look back you will see His hand was there all along, holding you up.
My love goes out to my Sister in Christ. I hope this brings some encouragement to you to know that you are not alone in this and while it is easy for some to say it shall pass, I can say, I've been there Sister! You will not be crushed, so hold tight to the One who is always there for you, holding you up and loving you strong!
So today, I want to write about friendship. You see, I have this special friend that my heart is crying for right now. I have held onto this pain for her for several months now and haven't even responded to a couple of her cries for prayers just because I wanted the right words. Remember, I am a writer. Finding those words are difficult for me. Yeah, I plug out a good 2000 words a day if need be, but I can't seem to find the right words to help heal my friend's heart. I've done what I know how to do by calling out to Jesus for those words, but as you can see, they just aren't quite there yet. But He's speaking to me right at this very moment. I feel His presence and feel His charge. He's asked me to write this blog post for her. He's asked me to share love with her that I have held back in fear.
So, while the rest of this blog will be for my beautiful, sweet friend it will help you too. God is calling me to write this. It's not me. It's Him!
Sometimes it just isn't going to make sense.
"For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Romans 9:15
There are a lot of things about God that are difficult to understand. This verse shows one of those things. God selects certain people for certain things. He picks and chooses among people!
Sometimes we are at the feet of Jesus begging for something we feel we need, but it seems He is not listening. Sometimes we are seeking God's Will, asking him to remove everything that hinders us from being His servant, our life is upside down. It just does not make sense! Why isn't He protecting us from bad things? Why doesn't He rain down blessings on us? I mean, haven't we been obedient? Haven't we sought after Him even in those times of biggest stress? I think about Noah. God blessed him, right? Sometimes, like him, it makes sense. Noah was chosen because God saw that he was righteous (Genesis 7:1). Makes sense, right?
But think about it. I remember more examples in the Bible that just don't make sense when it comes to people getting what I believe they deserve.
Why would God choose Jacob over Esau?? Jacob tricked his father into blessing him by lying!! (Genesis 27:19). That makes no sense at all.
And what about Job. Wow. He certainly suffered for God to prove a point to Satan. Satan's a jerk. Why would God waste His time proving something to him?? That doesn't make sense.
The Israelites. They were tired. Tired of wandering in the wilderness. Tired of manna bread, manna burgers, manna cereal, manna, manna, manna. They complained and grumbled. God sent fiery snakes to bite them and they died (Numbers 21:4-6). WHAT? Holy cow, I've been frustrated before and am thankful that I survived that! They were just frustrated. That doesn't make sense.
Romans 9:18-21 says:
"Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"
When I stop and think about it, I see where God may just have known what He was doing, at least some of the time. For instance, the grumpy, frustrated Israelites, what if the grumbling isn't all they ended up doing. What if they all decided to go back to Egypt?
I can sit around and compare my life to other people and see where I have had some really awful things happen to me, things that seem to to be truly unfair, mean or just bizarre. The more I try to be in God's Will, the more things happen, it seems.
So, I should just give up and walk away from God because sometimes I feel like I am going crazy. Right? But wait a minute, WHY haven't I gone crazy? Why haven't I buckled under the load? I've not been squished like a bug, but why?
Despite the frustration, despite the sadness and utter uncontrol I have, God has sustained me. He is the Potter and I am the clay. Even if I can't see any good coming out of my trials, I must have faith that he knows what He is doing. Some of the trials have made me stronger, some have helped other people, and some have no results that I can see.
I doubt Job knew why God allowed all the sorrows to be heaped on him. The Bible doesn't say he knows that, so we have no reason to believe he did.
A scripture of encouragement:
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ."
2Cor 1:3-5
God WILL comfort us and help us through our trials and tribulations, my friends! At the very least, we will be able to have the strength to comfort others. Have you ever been able to minister to someone by saying, "Been there myself"? Sometimes that is the only way to reach out to someone.
Jesus suffered. Why do we think we are so better than He that we shouldn't??
So when the trials get heavier than you think you can hold, remember that God will keep you from being crushed completely flat. When you look back you will see His hand was there all along, holding you up.
My love goes out to my Sister in Christ. I hope this brings some encouragement to you to know that you are not alone in this and while it is easy for some to say it shall pass, I can say, I've been there Sister! You will not be crushed, so hold tight to the One who is always there for you, holding you up and loving you strong!
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