Respect the Journey

As a birth worker the  idea of "respecting the journey" is something that comes up often. Respect of the birthing woman...respect that her body, if left alone, will birth a baby. Respecting that the baby knows how to be born. God has shown me how this plays out in our journey as Christians as well.
He has also shown me that the journey doesn't really matter.


It's hard for me to wrap my head around this.


But if we could always understand God then He wouldn't be much of a God, right?

When I was pregnant with my first child, I would tell God, "I can't have a baby. I'm not where I need to be spiritually!"

I wanted to be at a place on my journey with Jesus where I spent quality time with him everyday- where my faith could literally move mountains. I wanted to see miracles, healing, signs and wonders everyday and hear God clearer than I could hear my husband.

But I wasn't there at all.

Like, not even a little bit.

God told me something like this:
"It doesn't matter that they (my children) aren't seeing the "glory" of your relationship with me. What         matters is that they see your hunger and your thirst. It matters that they see you pressing on towards your goal and striving to know me better. If they just see the end result, it will all feel way out of their reach. They need to see your journey, and you need to respect your journey and not wish it away."

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Just the other day, my daughter was eating her lunch. She was taking each and every pea, squishing it and putting it to the side. She said she was making "pea oil." It took everything in me to just walk away and trust she would eat. I tried so hard to fight every urge to control the way she was choosing to eat her food, after all, I kept telling myself, all I really cared about was whether or not the peas made it into her belly.
I walked away and washed the dishes. To my (very pleasant!) surprise, once I was done, I looked over and she had eaten all of her peas. I heard God say "It doesn't matter how they come to me, all that matter is that they do." This gave me hope that no matter what the journey looks like, the end result is what matters.


Hey, maybe the lesson is this:

They need to see my journey, I need to respect their journey, and God will take care of the end result.

Yea and Amen!

Just some food for thought:

As parents, there is a lot of pressure (from ourselves mostly) to make sure that we follow-through with our discipline. When we say no, it means no. When we lay out the rules of the game then we are also going to make the heck sure the rules are followed; and if not the necessary action is taken. This is because kids need boundaries and they need to understand the repercussions of their choices. Consistency and follow through are essential to toddler living.

Yes. I get this.

But here's a challenge: What if we took the focus off that game for awhile. What if we tried playing a different game. The one that's called something like "every time we say "yes, later, I'll help you in a minute, we can do that after your nap, maybe another day" we actually follow-through and do it!

What would happen to our children if we focused our follow-through energies on the promises?

Chances are it would be easier for them to trust us. Chances are they would quit pushing the envelope so much. Chances are the outbursts would become less and they may even become more-- dare I say it-- reasonable! Chances are we would all have a lot more fun together.

Chances are they would learn that their parents are trustworthy and then therefore, so is God.

Whattya think? Up for it?

1 Corinthians 1:20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. 

The Three Essentials

I told God one day, "I want my (our) daughter to grow and learn and be healthy." Much to my surprise He didn't go on and on about the importance of always eating organic food, or keeping her away from sweets (Gosh, I wish He had because that would be the BEST excuse when explaining myself to family and friends). He didn't say anything about parenting philosophies, approaches to learning, or taking multi-vitamins either. This is what He said:

Sunlight. Fill her with the Word. Relax. 

That's what it takes?

I wasn't sure if I had heard the whole sunlight business correctly... I mean, what about SPF 155 and sun hats and umbrellas? But then I got to thinking... God created the sun, He would never create something that would destroy His people... I decided to do some research.

Did you know that living creatures survive because of sunlight? Plants need it to grow and we need it for energy and growth as well. We not only consume sunlight from being outside on a sunny day, we also get vitmain D and stored solar energy from the plants and animals that we consume.
Hello cellular respiration! Finally, biology class is coming in handy!

The latest research is also showing that EARLY exposure to sunlight decreases the risks for autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and cancers like prostate and wait for it... MELANOMA! It seems that the people who have a history of being in the sun are more likely to recover from cancers like melanoma. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

The list goes on...

[Now I realize that our world is broken, and that the sun and our atmosphere are not necessarily in tip top shape, I am certainly not negating the importance of sun safety. My point is that it was created for good-- and we should take advantage of that-- not fear it.]

Next up-- filling her with the Word. I must admit, this is one that I struggle with. How do you fill a baby/toddler with the Bible!? I've come to take this a couple of ways... there is the Bible, there are the words that God speaks to me, and there are the words God speaks to her.

As for the Bible, when she was a baby, I would read to her while she nursed. I imagined the sweet words of God seeping into her little brain, exciting her spirit, and nurturing her in the best way possible.

But then she became a toddler.

We read a little toddler Bible to her occasionally-- and when I read my "verse of the day" I try to remember to read it out loud to her. It seems as though her busy toddler self doesn't really care much for the Bible though. hmph.
I still believe that whether she is sitting quietly in my lap as I read or roaming around looking for a left over snack somewhere on the floor, the words of the Bible are seeping into her little brain, exciting her spirit and nurturing her in the best way possible :)

Then there are the words that I hear from God, that her dad hears and that even the other people around her hear. We believe these are just as important to growing a little life. Early on we started recording her history and soon after she was born I started writing down the things that God was speaking to me about being a mom. These may not serve her just yet, but eventually I know that these "words of God" will build her up and encourage her wherever she is at.

Finally there are the words that God speaks to her. This has been my favorite way by far of filling my child with the Word! We simply ask her to be still for a minute and see what God is saying to her, or sometimes we ask her if she would like to pray and wait to see what comes out!
She will often tell us that Jesus is saying her name... one time she prayed that her friend would come over the next day. I decided to keep my mouth shut and not tell her that her friend was not coming over--and good thing because the next day his mom called and asked if we could watch him for a couple of hours! How amazing it was to share that answer to prayer with her. Hopefully this type of simple communication will foster an incredible relationship between her and her Father.

Last, but certainly not least, was God telling me to chill out. I, and I think a lot of moms, can get quite crazy about- well- everything! Crazy about nap time, whether or not our kids are eating too much or too little or the wrong things. Crazy about how much time is spent on the iPhone or the television, and what they are actually watching on these devices! Or how about GOOGLE??! I find myself constantly googling symptoms and issues-- one time I even heard God say "do you trust me or google?" GULP.

Whisper His name in the whirlwind.

I once heard that said. Seems to be the cure to my craziness-- my key to relaxation.

It centers me-- whispering His name.

I also remind myself that my kids are His kids-- and before I lay them down to sleep I give them right back to him (well, let's be honest here-- when I remember!). Like, audibly tell myself and God, "here you go-- they are yours!"

So sunlight, word, relax. Seems easy.

It's not.

The busy-ness of this life seems to get in the way of most of what God teaches me.

But when I remember what God has spoken, life seems so much sweeter.

In these moments I learn exactly what it meant when Jesus said "my yoke is easy", and I can rest assured and in true trust that my children will grow and learn and be healthy.

Ask and you will receive!

Childlike

I am thankful to have a husband who strives to make his relationship with his children mirror that of our Father and all of his children. When our daughter was a bit younger and she would fall asleep in his arms I would think "Yes! This is what true trust and rest look like. Sleeping so soundly in dad's arms, not a care, not a worry or thought about the future. Completely at rest."

God continues to show me how I should be through my children.

Nothing like a child to learn how to be childlike!

I believe this is what He has said to me:

"Be like a child.

Carried.

Moved by her parents.

Receiving love. Giving love by just being.

Asking for what she needs in her own language until she learns the language of her parents.

Not giving up.

Observing.

Finding wonder in everything.

Learning constantly.

Wanting to be no where else but in her parents arms."

What if this is how our relationship with God went? 

What would that look like?

A History Lesson with God

Ever wonder what Freshman History might have been like if Jesus was your teacher?

I can't wait to one day see every day completely and totally from God's perspective. I bet I will belly laugh at the silly little things I let worry and stress me day by day.

Something that we like to do in our family is record our personal "history" so that in the dry times we can remember back to what God has done in our lives-- instant faith booster!
These personal histories not only serve as a faith builder, but we also use them to look back and see how God was moving through a certain situation or setting us up for something we were believing for when we didn't even know it.

A good example of this was when we found that we were going to have our first baby-- it was quite a surprise! A surprise as in, we weren't trying at all, and had actually planned on having a baby after we had been married for at least two or three years, but here we were coming up to our first anniversary and our little lady was on her way!

It would be a lie to say that we didn't errr... struggle, in the beginning with what was to come. I desperately needed to know WHY?
As I spent time with Jesus, Holy Spirit started to show me what was going on. When I looked back through my prayer journals and my recorded history I saw what was happening.

God totally wanted her and he wanted her now.

I was amazed to read prayers I had prayed about my children that I had forgotten about. And prayers about my health that later I realized were cured by having a baby!

Miracle worker from the start!

Eventually as the pregnancy went on, the prayers spoken over me were about this baby actually bringing me into my destiny. After 5 long years of praying for my purpose, an unexpected baby would bring me down the path God needed me on.

WOAH.

As I looked back, I realized that before this child was even born, she had a history with God.

We definitely needed to record it.

She is only two, yet she has pages of history already.

Gosh, I think of how different my life may have been if I had the opportunity to see how Jesus used me and moved in my life way before I was aware. Where would my faith be now?

If your child's history with God was recorded what would it say?

How much more of an appreciation would you have for that little soul?

And how much more would you be able to trust God with her?