This morning after dropping the girls off at school, I took a detour through the industrial area. (To Tim Hortons!) I was following a smelly diesel vehicle. That smell coupled with the not so pretty buildings made me start to think about the people that live here in this beautiful area and find themselves depressed and suicidal.. and obviously there are some that follow through on that. Anyway I started to kinda feel that heaviness when the thought came to my mind... they must not look up .... at this point I glanced up and in front of me. My view was of low mountains/hills. Instantly the next thought that flowed through my mind was the scripture; "I lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth." It choked me right up.... If we can just remember that He is where our help is found... for goodness sakes.... He made all this incredible beauty... do we not think that He can help with our little problems... although they may seem huge to us. Well I guess sometimes they are huge but in the scheme of all that, it's pretty itty bitty and this LOVING Maker of ours is so full of grace AND mercy. An incredibly tender and loving Daddy that wants the best for his kids! I think if we can just grasp even a tiny bit how much He loves us - it would really change how we think and how we do! There's a scripture that says something like this; You know how much you (we) love your (our) kids and you (we) are sinful. How much more does your (our) Father who is not sinful love you (us)!! If we could get this past our heads and into our hearts! It would change how we parent as well. I think we'd show alot more grace... not license to sin.. but grace that spurs our children towards holiness and not away from it as we are so afraid of doing. And then that causes us to parent out of fear of what they might do or turn out like.
Grace does not let one get out of resposibility! It doesn't cause us to lower our standards with our kids but it causes the standards to be raised! It encourages people to aim higher in their relationship with God. Anyway... I'm getting off on a tangent.
We are doing a small group study on Grace Based Parenting. It's very good. It's stuff we need to understand for all relationships, not just those with our children
I'm finished working other than the odd day now. HALLELUJAH!!! So I will have time to start posting again. I've been missing it.
So you all have an awesome week.
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