Our week started out hard for one of our children and I ended a particularly rough day earlier in the week lamenting that this child had not made much progress in 20 months of being in our family. I cried out to God over how hard daily life was and still is for our family - so much fear, anger, and grief consume the children that my days are overwhelming trying to contain the behaviors that pour out of them due to these big emotions and their learned maladaptive coping mechanisms necessary in past home settings, but destructive here in a safe, loving family. I wept in my husband's arms completely at a loss for how to help my precious children. If there is one thing I feel on a daily basis it is failure. The list of reasons why is nearly endless. My husband reminded me that God's plan is for our good and for our children's good and that God's plan is eternal, not a quick fix. (Jeremiah 29:10-14) Feeling like a failure is miserable at best, but it has kept me utterly dependent upon God as my sufficiency and seeking Him in every moment. He is transforming my view of earthly success in this parenting journey and it is a beautiful thing.
This morning I was reading a story about a king from the Old Testament who found great success. He became king at age 16, reigned 52 years, did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, found success in strategic political/military maneuvers against the Philistines and Arabians, built towers in the cities and cisterns in the wilderness and plains for his large herds of livestock, had farmers and vineyards, commanded 2,600 men of valor and under their command 307,500 soldiers, directed engineers to build weapons of protection for the towers. He had found success in everything, it seemed, until one day his success caused him to grow prideful and forget that everything he had attained came from God and he overstepped a boundary. This king felt that because he was so successful that he had a right to go where only the priests were allowed to go and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. The priests corrected him, but he became angry at them and in his anger, he broke out in leprosy and lived that way to the day of his death. (2 Chronicles 26)
All of our trials are precious in that they are refining fires creating in us opportunities to learn to act in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control, trusting God with the eternal outcome of the situation. After my lament earlier this week over our failures, I am thankful this morning for our lack of earthly successes which have created a dependence and desire for more of Jesus.
As I write this morning in the quiet time before the children wake, I am praying that those of you reading this are able to take a second glance at those things that seem like failures, refining fires, or heart wrenching situations where you would rather see success and see in them an opportunity to draw nearer to God, to cling to His sovereignty, His sufficiency and His grace and then to give thanks for the preciousness of His provision in this day.
1 comment:
We often hear people express their delight with the miracles in their lives by saying, "It was a God thing." While that is true, I believe it gives us a very incomplete, distorted and inaccurate view of the way God moves and acts in our lives. It dismisses His providence in that all things in our lives are from His loving and gracious hand, and all things from Him are good! It is our earthbound mentality and perspective that has quantified events in our lives as good vs. bad. Because we do that, we confine ourselves and limit our ability to see that even the hard things (notice I didn't say bad things) are good and from Him for our good and His ultimate glory.
God's providence is perfect and His hesed is always present no matter the circumstances of our lives. We will never fail if we keep a heavenly perspective on our earthly trials. We need to learn that those moments are likewise "a God thing" and always trust that He is faithful to complete His perfect plan in our lives.
Rest in His comfort and His care and grasp firmly to His hand to sustain you - even when the life is being sucked out of you. You are far from a failure, and I know that feeling that tells you that you are. In the fog of strife, you're just having a hard time seeing all of the successes and miracles unfolding before you. Fix your gaze on that which matters eternally, and soak up the God-things going on all around you in this glorious struggle.
Robin
Post a Comment