Pretend you can see no color. You aren't blind, necessarily, but everything is muddy, dark, unclear. How thankful you would be one day to wake up and have the ability to see one color. There would suddenly be more definition, objects would be more distinguishable, and the beauty of the color would add an interesting depth to your world. If you never saw another color, you would still be thankful for the one. You could have full enjoyment with what you have. If other colors were added throughout your life, you would have an appreciation for the variety and purpose of each individual shade. Would you be able to remember life without them?
So I have found it is like that with children. Each one brings unimaginable depth to life. Vast amounts of humor, insight, and purpose fill each moment. Personalities vary so much that it is impossible for life to be boring. And while we are to train our children up in the way they should go, it never fails to amaze me how much we can learn from them! There is nothing like being convicted of an attitude because you hear it manifesting itself in one of your children!! Patience, forgiveness, diligence, humility.......
Yet so much joy and fun as each stage of life comes rushing at you, leaving you to wonder how it happens so quickly.
Busy? Of course, but all our lives will be filled with business of some kind or another. Training soldiers with an eternal perspective and duty seems worthy of my time.
Psa 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The Paradox of Blessing
Ephesians 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ"
As believers in America, we thank God for our religious freedoms. We can meet together without fear of the government or others bothering us. Yet believers in persecuted areas are thrown into prison, beaten, or have the chapels burned down for their beliefs.
In America, we raise our children in godly homes, teaching them the Word of God and encouraging them to share their faith. In persecuted countries, the children are taken from their parents, or are left alone while the government threatens to imprison anyone who helps them. The schools teach the kids to tell on the parents if they are involved in "illegal" activity (religious).
In America, we praise God that we have food to put on the table. In other areas, children lay dying, sick and suffering, from hunger. There is no food, and the parents watch helplessly as their babies cry.
In America, we are thankful for the time we get to spend with our families. We go to movies, play games, watch football, and eat out. Others are in prison for following Christ, and never see their families. Some have little money, and there is no leisure time because even the kids are working.
In safety and prosperity, we praise God that He has enabled us to share in the sufferings with our brothers and sisters in Christ, to encourage, help, and above all, to pray for them. To teach our children to serve God, and to openly worship Him.
In prison, in hunger, in times of persecution or abandonment, believers praise God that He is their strength, comfort, and hope. They learn to lean on Him in all things, and are content with Christ alone.
But together, we "give thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:12-14
Partakers of the inheritance
Deliverance from the power of darkness
Conveyed into the kingdom of the Son
Redemption through His blood
Whatever our life circumstances, we can thank Him for His incredible blessings toward us every day!
As believers in America, we thank God for our religious freedoms. We can meet together without fear of the government or others bothering us. Yet believers in persecuted areas are thrown into prison, beaten, or have the chapels burned down for their beliefs.
In America, we raise our children in godly homes, teaching them the Word of God and encouraging them to share their faith. In persecuted countries, the children are taken from their parents, or are left alone while the government threatens to imprison anyone who helps them. The schools teach the kids to tell on the parents if they are involved in "illegal" activity (religious).
In America, we praise God that we have food to put on the table. In other areas, children lay dying, sick and suffering, from hunger. There is no food, and the parents watch helplessly as their babies cry.
In America, we are thankful for the time we get to spend with our families. We go to movies, play games, watch football, and eat out. Others are in prison for following Christ, and never see their families. Some have little money, and there is no leisure time because even the kids are working.
In safety and prosperity, we praise God that He has enabled us to share in the sufferings with our brothers and sisters in Christ, to encourage, help, and above all, to pray for them. To teach our children to serve God, and to openly worship Him.
In prison, in hunger, in times of persecution or abandonment, believers praise God that He is their strength, comfort, and hope. They learn to lean on Him in all things, and are content with Christ alone.
But together, we "give thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:12-14
Partakers of the inheritance
Deliverance from the power of darkness
Conveyed into the kingdom of the Son
Redemption through His blood
Whatever our life circumstances, we can thank Him for His incredible blessings toward us every day!
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