Learning Important Spiritual Lessons From My Kids

I picked up my kids the other day from school.  After parking in the garage and beginning my after school routine, my eldest son came through the door to the house whining and in tears about how his brother NEVER closes his car door.

Now, you see, there is a reason why younger brother doesn't close his door sometimes.  It's because he can't.  I have to move the door in such a way to enable him to do his job.  About a third of the time, I forget.  It doesn't bother me.  The lights in the car automatically turn off and it's in the garage.  This insights the frustration of the older brother.

"YOUNGER BROTHER NEVER CLOSES HIS DOOR NEVER!!!!" is something I hear on a regular basis from my eldest.  This begins teaching time for eldest.  "Sweetheart, that's between youngest and me.  Don't worry about what he's doing, just make sure you've done what I've asked you to do."  Apparently this is not an easy concept to learn because, I do the same thing.


"FATHER GOD, LOOK WHAT THAT CHRISTIAN IS DOING OVER THERE!!!!  THEY'RE NOT OBEYING YOU!!!  THEY'RE NOT DOING X, Y, OR Z"  Never mind that it's not my responsibility.  Never mind that I'm not the Holy Spirit in that person's life.  Never mind that God never asked me to take care of them.  Never mind that I still need to close my own door.

I've been learning recently to release people into the hands of God.  He's always had them in the first place, and He never gave me His place with them.  We see in part and know in part, which means I don't fully know what's going on.  I don't know what God is trying to show, teach, heal, deliver or work on with any given person.  I must learn to release people and walk by His Spirit and not by my flesh.  My flesh will always get it wrong, but His Spirit is always there to teach me how to obey and follow the LORD.  I must throw my fleshly judgement out the window and be lead in the Spirit.

This means releasing myself from worrying how God's other children are going to get their work done.  I never asked my eldest son to help his younger brother close his door.  It's not his responsibility to make sure it gets done, but I know he feels the weight of it.  He shouldn't and neither should I.

Reminder that hope does not disappoint

I was listening to my kids' cd of Bible verses turned into song tonight. These cd's have been such a place of renewal of childlike faith for me without all of my adult baggage. The song that struck me was from Romans 5. It speaks about our process of suffering and that it ultimately produces hope which won't put me to shame. As I was listening to the song, I was remembering this past weekend of the triathlon. I was remembering my brick workout from late this afternoon. Those felt like suffering; my history in sport has taught me it will bring endurance. I'm not afraid of that kind of suffering in fact I embrace it. I'm so thankful that the spiritual benefit of suffering produces so much more than a good showing at a race. It produces hope because, "...God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." I long to embrace the spiritual suffering the same way I can the physcial.

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:1-5 ESV