We were not meant to be apart from God
Have you ever watched a home restoration show? They come in with their camera crew, showing all the flaws. Then demo day comes, where walls get knocked down and the redesign starts. Before you know it, the house is done, the show is wrapped, and the team is off to a new restoration project to save. God designed all aspects of life when He created the Earth. Part of that design is that God was always meant to be a part of it. His plan was never to create the world, create man and woman, and then leave us to go work on a new restoration project. His plan all along was to be with and walk with us. That’s how He was in the Beginning, how He is now, and how He will always be. He loves us too much not to. We are all His creation and He is with us always. Even when we leave Him, He never leaves us.
Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live. (Psalm 23:6 HCSB)
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life – that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us… (1 John 1:1-2 HCSB)
Life with God is meant to be eternal, not seasonal. Growing up, people talked about parenthood as if it has a cutoff date. Once you hit 18 and graduate high school, you moved out and moved on. Whether that was to college or to the workforce, it didn’t matter. The goal was to raise you till you were an adult, and then you were sent off on your own. Even now, you see Instagram posts about how many hours you have with your kids till they hit 18 and move out. It’s a countdown clock, warning you not to miss a single second because it isn’t designed to last longer than 18. You find yourself pacing how you parent based on a cut-off age. You need to feed them with every bit of information you can till they hit 18 and then it’s all up to them.
But, that’s not how God designed our life with Him. We don’t hit a certain age and then God kicks us out the door and is done with us. God makes his covenant with Abraham when he’s already an old man. God was with Moses and protected Moses throughout his life, but waited till Moses was old till he appeared to him through the burning bush. Job was old and had grown children when the Lord spoke of his righteousness. Life with God is a lifelong journey.
Q: Is it hard to think about life in longer terms like that?
Q: Does that change how you prioritize your life?
Q: Does that give you a different perspective on parenting?
He is our Father, so let Him parent us
The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. (Genesis 3:21 HCSB)
Just before God sent Adam and Eve away from the Garden of Eden to work the ground as punishment for eating the fruit from the tree of life, God made them clothes to wear. Even after they brought sin into the world, God took care of them. They multiplied and had many children. They lived long lives. He never stopped being their parent.
He wants to take our burdens
God didn’t design us to live a stressed out, heavy burdened life. Jesus came to bring peace and healing to a broken world, not condemn it.
Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. (Matthew 11:28-30 HCSB)
When I give it to Jesus and trust that God will protect me, He always does. The peace you feel in those moments, when you trust with confidence in God’s power and will, is a peace that can only come through giving your burdens to Jesus. If you do, but still have those moments of, “But what if”, then you haven’t fully trusted that he has your back. God didn’t design us to live in a constant rush. Even Jesus would take time away from his disciples to go pray on a hill. And when Jesus said to give him your burdens, it wasn’t out of frustration. Sometimes, when my daughter is trying to prove she’s big enough to do something but makes a mistake and spills her drink instead, it’s easy to just take over her task, out of frustration. But that’s not what Jesus does here. Jesus takes on our worries out of love, not frustration. It isn’t a sign of us not being good enough. He wants to take that off our plate, so we can slow down and find rest at his feet. It’s about His perfect love, not our incompetence.
Q: When your spouse or children need help, do you do it out of love or out of frustration?
Q: When you respond, are you critical or are you humble in heart?
Trust and Obey – He is the Creator
When God designed us, he knew we couldn’t do everything on our own. He is our Father and wants to be there and rescue us from the world, not throw us away into it. His design always called for us to trust and obey. That’s why he pointed out the tree of life to Adam and Eve. For that matter, that’s why he created it to begin with. After all, God created the world, we didn’t. Why would we try to figure out life from our own perspective when the One who created it is right there with us? We see life through this small period of time. He’s been since before creation and will be well after.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths. Don’t consider yourself to be wise… (Proverbs 3:5-7a HCSB)
Trusting and obeying God’s words is a sign of love. You trust God’s love for you; therefore, you know He has your best interest at heart. You’re obeying shows that trust. Even in times when that trust is hard, obeying says, “I know this is hard for me to understand, but I trust that you love me, so I will obey.” There’s also a humility that comes when we obey. It’s our chance to show that He is God and we are not.
Again, God didn’t design us to feel anxious about life. He knew we would, but that’s not how life was designed. That’s the world talking to us. His design was for Him to be our Father when times are hard, and help us through it. In the good and in the bad, He designed our lives to include Him with it.
Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14: 23 HCSB)
Q: Which is harder for you? To Trust or to Obey?
Q: Do your children trust or obey easier?
Q: Knowing that our relationship with God the Father is designed for a life long journey, not just a short period in time, how do you hope your relationship with your children looks like through the years?