one word ... "no"

As a parent, there is nothing more frustrating than when your child tells you "no." Now, my older kids know this is not acceptable, but there are times that their own desires supersede my request and they choose to tell me "no" at which time they chose punishment or saying, "yes."

Today as I was reading my devotions (Experiencing God and Rev. 2 and Jer. 43), God drilled it into my head the importance of this in my relationship with Him.

In Experiencing God, something struck me that I've never thought of before. It said, "If we say, 'No, Lord,' He is not our Lord." OUCH! That hit me right between the eyes. Would I dare speak the words that God is not my Lord, but I have ... each time I've told Him, "no." Reading these chapters from the Bible, reiterated what God does to those who chose to say, "NO." I don't want that to happen. I want to obey, regardless of how hard it may be. So, give me strength, God, to obey in those situations where self wants to say "no."

what I learned from a cup of pudding and Max ...

Yep, two in one day ... it's amazing with how tired I am! Maybe God works better when I'm sleepy!

So, Max is in this stage of independence. "Max do it" is the typical reply I get throughout the day. While humorous for the most part, there are times when it gets a little tiring, because he can't always do it.

For instance, Max LOVES pudding cups (especially the tapioca ones), but the top is a little hard to pull off. I've always done it for him, but lately he wants to do it himself. Fine, I say, go at it. So, I watch (somewhat amused) as he tries with much difficulty to figure out how he's going to get it off. His fingers don't quite pull hard enough, so he heads to the barstool, which he promptly pushes over to the counter. Climbs up on the stool and reaches for the scissors. Nice. Little stinker. So, I take over at that moment. Quick, easy and he can happily eat his pudding.

Made me think of my relationship with God. How many times do I try to take care of things on my own without asking for His help ... too numerous to count unfortunately. And I wonder if God ever sits backs and gets a little chuckle out of us struggling to do something on our own that we're just not capable of doing. Why do I act like a stubborn little toddler and exclaim that I can do it myself instead of just allowing Him to do the work ... Wouldn't it be so much easier?

And, yes, of course, I want my children to learn to be independent and take care of themselves when they need to, but more important to me is that they have a dependence on God instead of on themselves. They are only human ... He is our God, our help, our Saviour. I have seen firsthand how when we grow up thinking we can do it ourselves, we lose sight of who God is and our need for Him. He wants us to need Him, so we can glory in who He is. He doesn't want us to do it ourselves, because then we give the glory to ourselves and not to Him.

So, next time you look at a pudding cup ... think about letting God help you with your issues instead of struggling through it yourself. I definitely will.

What I learned from an aspirator ...

Yep, that's what I said. Although I'm a wee bit tired from being up early this morning with a congested baby, God still spoke to me through something as simple as an aspirator.

Blake woke up around 4 unable to breath through his nose. This makes it very difficult to nurse, so I needed to help him out. My first step was to give him some saline to loosen things up and then use the aspirator to clean him out. Needless to say, he was not happy with me at all ... although, in the end he would be much happier, he fought with me the whole time, crying and screaming in frustration. Once I was finally able to finish cleaning him out, he was able to breath with ease and could eat and go back to bed.

God nudged me as I was going through this. He reminded me of how he works on me. Sometimes I can't understand why I have to go through something difficult or that I don't understand, when instead, I should TRUST in the fact that God does know, and He has a good reason for what is going on in my life. Each circumstance has meaning ... and I can choose to kick and scream through the whole experience or rest in the fact that God is using this for my own good.

what I learned from a Sunday School song ...

Actually, it struck me as I was reading the devotional put out by Proverbs31.org. If you're not signed up for those, you should be. They are great little devotionals that are easy to read and really make you think. I'm a little behind, so I was reading one from this week, and it was talking about spiritual revival, and she discussed how she was taking such good care of this plant because she didn't want it to die and comparing it to how our relationship with God would flourish if we would just take that much time and care.

When I taught Cubbies back when Katelyn was little, there was a song we learned that was so fun ... the kids love it ... and the words are, read your Bible, "pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow." And then next verse goes, "neglect your Bible, forget to pray, and you'll shrink, shrink, shrink."

I then realized that we are lucky ... we're miracle plants ... while we may shrink, shrink, shrink, we never die. God is always there when we seek His face like we're supposed to, and when we come back to Him after neglecting our daily watering. I know I need a revival in my life. Too often, other things take precedent over spending that time with God like I know I should. Think about that next time you're watering your plants (by the way, I don't have plants ... they would die in my care!).

Max, Nail Polish, and God's Love

So, I'm going through the Experiencing God workbook for my devotions, and today's study was on God's love. I've always had a hard time with love ... what is love, do I have it, do I really show it, etc., etc. I know, I'm weird, but it's a hard concept for me. And, so, when I spent time in prayer, I asked God to show me what love was.

A few minutes later a client called, and while I was on the phone with her, I hear devilish giggling in my bedroom (I had the baby monitor on in there). So, after I get off the phone, I go to my door, which I find locked of course, and hear the laughing getting louder and louder. It's a good thing there is a door to the backyard in our room, because I can go around back and unlock it with the key.

So, what do I find when I get in there? Hmmm, Max with a bottle of nail polish (empty by now) with polish all over the floor, himself and Izzy. At this point, now that I can reflect on it, I guess I'm glad it was white nail polish, as it blends in quite well to Izzy's fur, but at that time, I found NOTHING good about this. And as I'm chasing Max through the house, yelling at him, I'm also yelling at God in my head, "Is this your idea of showing me love?" I mean, come on, Steve's out of town with Katelyn and it's just me and the boys, and Max is acting like this! Can't he help me out here.

You know, God probably just laughs at me. I just learned something about His love and how it's unconditional and doesn't change with our circumstances, and I sit there questioning it because my naughty two-year-old is ...

acting like me.

God showed me today that even though Max is naughty, I don't stop loving him. Yes, I'm pretty mad at the moment and I may lose my cool (which I don't know if God gets as mad as I do ... but then again, he did want to wipe out a couple cities!), but I still love him and when he tells me he's sorry, my heart breaks because it's so sweet.

God's the same way. I'm pretty naughty in my own ways (laziness, impatience, gossip, and on and on and on) and God probably looks at me like I looked at Max ... "she's so naughty, but I still love her."

Off to clean nail polish off the dog and floors. Now that's my lesson on love for today. Anita