Scepter in hand

This weekend in church, our worship leader challenged us not to worship the words on the screen, but to actually worship God. As that was settling into my brain, we began singing the chorus of "How Great Thou Art" and the holiness of God collided with my universe. 


At the same moment, a clear picture came to me of Esther. She had to have courage to approach the King. Though she had been chosen by him, he had not commanded her to come before him. She was fearful but still she went before him, and he extended his scepter to her. She was welcome and he delighted in her presence.

 

God does not give us a summons, nor does He order us to approach His throne. We, like Esther, must step out and come before Him. We are painfully aware of His holiness and our sin, but He has extended His scepter, His grace, His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. All we have to do is approach and accept this wondrous gift. Were we to spend our lives without God, we would be summoned before His throne for a final judgment that deserve-an eternity apart from Him.

Yet, that is not His desire. He longs to refresh us and our weary souls daily! We are in a dry, thirsty, cursed land and easily become dehydrated. Much like our physical bodies will trick us into thinking we are hungry during dehydration, and we eat (often empty calories) food instead of drinking water, so our spiritual selves need living water. We are duped by the father of lies who tells us we are hungry for things of this world, then wonder why we feel dissatisfied after "eating our fill".

God's grace is a wonderful gift and learning to listen to His voice as He speaks truth into our hearts is a worthy goal that we can spend our lifetime pursuing!
~Tammy

picture courtesy:
1. Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
2. José Manuel Suárez [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Lessons to be learned

God loves humans. He loves us infinitely. He understands our quirks, our whims, our impulsive decisions, and He loves us for them.

As a parent, I am very thankful that God is not human. Each of us have been given challenges in life to shape and mold us, either to wean us of the control that we tightly grasp onto in our lives (or the illusion of control) or perhaps to use us in the lives of others. It is given us to "Do everything without complaining or arguing" in Philippians 2:14. The NIV text translates "complaining" specifically as "grumbling".

Tonight I want to be allowed to grumble. A particular challenge in my job as a parent is still challenging me. It is something that perhaps is specially catered to me and my own quirks so that it will shape me as I walk through this with my daughter. On a list of things that I cannot control, this one is very high.
I will resist the urge to grumble and instead show you what I think God may be trying to show me.

My daughter is struggling in a matter of self-control and it is not something I can physically or verbally fix for her. There are no rewards or consequences I can present to her that can replace her own free will. In other words, I can do nothing about it.

I don't like that. Not a bit. If there is a problem, I'm the parent and I should be able to help her, and therefore be able to fix it.

God is actually being very generous with me. At the young age of five, He is already showing me that my oldest will not always make the best choices and that she and she alone will have to take responsibility to change. I can provide the best loving, caring environment possible, but I can't control her choices.

She knows I am displeased and I'm doing my best to restrain my tongue from lecturing her. What she needs is another chance, and another, until the day that she "gets it" and no longer has an issue. At issue in my own mind is this: Is it a conscious choice or is there a different underlying problem that I need to examine further?

God cannot force us to make choices, however beneficial to us, because He has given us free will. How I must frustrate Him sometimes! In all of this, He is lending me perspective so that just as I have been forgiven and embraced and loved unconditionally, I will, in turn, present that same forgiveness, embracing and love to others around me--especially my children.

If you have time, read Psalm 103. It really blessed me this morning and expounds on the mercy of God. I'm glad I read it before this evening. It was a fresh lesson in my mind, and though I have a far way to go, perhaps as a future grandmother, I will be able to share this lesson with my own children as they go through their own personal parenting trials.

~Tammy~

Fancy Pencils

My oldest daughter is in school this year. She's five and loves to learn. The tiniest things give her fits of giddiness. One prime example was the day she came home and proclaimed "we tested my eyes in the library today, and then I got a pencil!"

I remember purchasing school supplies, well, picking them out. My parents purchased school supplies. For a time, the "oil-dipped" pencils were the must-have school item.

My daughter brought home a pencil with a blue eraser and a sparkling, royal blue holographic block print. She excitedly asked me to sharpen the pencil so she could begin drawing with it on our oodles of blank computer paper that the girls have free access to.
I did, and within a minute or two, a frustrated cry escaped her mouth. I looked over to see a piece of broken lead and a worthless pencil in her hand. I took the pencil, shaved more away with the sharpener, and it broke off in the sharpener. After about three attempts, I had a conversation with her about quality.

That was when it hit me. Aren't we just like pencils? The extra sparkly, flashy ones look good on the outside, but inside they are poorly put together. There are hollow places, cheaper wood, they break easily, but when we look at them, those are the ones we are drawn to. Without God, all of us are poor quality pencils. Now, when you pay a little extra for those quality "yellow number two" pencils, they may not be flashy. They're downright boring. Still, the wood is stronger, the lead seems fused to the wood instead of a flimsy shaft pressed between two halves, and it sharpens so well, only a turn or two will produce a fresh point!

 (Rachel's drawing for me)

So it is with God inside us. We are solid. Useable. Quality. There is a strength under pressure, a reliability. Though we look plain, we have much more under the surface.

 In first Samuel, Israel was given a king. I Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (NIV)

 Isaiah 53:2(NIV) describes Jesus in the following manner: "He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."

If you feel like a plain pencil today, perhaps that is exactly how God has designed you to be. He doesn't need your eraser, either. :)