2016

Like a Little Child

Megan Breedlove September 26, 2016 0Comment

You know how it goes. You’ve left your child in childcare somewhere (your church, your homeschool co-op, your MOPS group), and walked away despite the tears and cries and outstretched arms calling you back.

Then, halfway through your event, the unthinkable happens: Circumstances conspire to require you to walk past the room your child is in.

Oh, no. Please, not that.

But it can’t be avoided. So you do one of two things: either you run past that door like you’re Usain Bolt, or you drop to the ground before you can be seen by anybody inside, crawl past the room—way past—then stand up, flatten yourself against the wall, and edge a few feet farther away before you resume walking normally down the middle of the hall.

Because you know what would happen if you didn’t. If your child saw you, it would all be over. The wailing would begin, and this time, it wouldn’t stop. And you’d have to pick up your child and leave early.

You don’t even want to speak above a whisper if you’re anywhere close to the door, because if your child can hear you but can’t see you, that’s even worse.

Or, to put it less traumatically, let’s say you arrive at the room to pick up your child, and your child is busy playing and doesn’t see you right away. “So how’d it go?” you ask the caregiver, and all of a sudden, your child’s head whips around toward you. He registers the fact that Hallelujah! It’s Mommy!, and makes a mad rush toward you.

You could have been standing there for five minutes watching him, with other mothers talking all around you, while your child remained deeply absorbed in his play. But the minute he hears your voice—your voice, as opposed to any other mommy’s voice—he homes in on you and runs into your arms.

I think this kind of response is exactly what Jesus was referring to when He talked about sheep not following a shepherd whose voice they didn’t recognize. He knew the sheep would hear the voice of other shepherds. But they would reserve their best response for the shepherd whose voice they know.

God wants no less from us. He wants to be so special to us that His voice is the one we attend to, even in the midst of other (perhaps very necessary) pursuits. He expects us to hear those other voices—our children, our husband, our family and friends, our boss, our society—but His desire is that the minute we hear His voice, all those other voices become secondary. He wants to capture our focus merely by speaking, to know that we are so constantly attuned to His voice that we will hear Him even above all the other voices clamoring for our attention, and that we’ll respond.

May His voice become more known, more beloved to us, than any other. May we never focus so completely on earthly voices that we have no attention left for the Voice we most need to hear. And when that Voice speaks, may we respond like a little child:

Hallelujah! Daddy’s here!

John 10:3-5—“The sheep listen to [the shepherd’s] voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger…because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” (NIV)

Just Love Them

Megan Breedlove September 5, 2016 0Comment

This devotional begins with a story that has to do with my husband, not my children. But the principle God taught me is equally applicable in a mother-child relationship as it is in a husband-wife relationship. So whether or not you’re married, please read to the end.

While my husband and I have many things in common, we also have some differences. Sometimes, those differences come in the area of opinions. And what sometimes makes it really tough to resolve a conflict that arises over a difference of opinion is that nobody’s sinning. For example, in the case of this recurring dilemma that had cropped up yet again for me, I couldn’t say, “Well, Phil is sinning, so he should be the one to give in.”

He wasn’t sinning. I wasn’t, either. So what should I do? How should I respond?

Those are the questions I asked God. What do I do, God? How do I act toward my husband?

Suddenly, without even having to pray very long this time, God’s answer reached my spiritual ears, loud and clear: Just love him.

Yes. Love.

Jesus seemed to think love was pretty important, too. He told the religious leaders that the greatest command of all was to love God, and the second most important was to love others. At the last supper, He underscored His own words by framing it as a new command to His disciples: Love one another.

Granted, just loving someone doesn’t mean we’ll always know what to do or how to treat them. But love should be the starting place of our actions and even thoughts toward any other person, including, yes, our husband—but also our precious children.

Too often, in the hustle and bustle and confusion of parenting, we forget this. It’s not that we mean to forget, or that we don’t love our children in that moment. It’s just that sometimes we’re busy, or distracted. Or tired. Or annoyed. And we react out of how we feel at the moment instead of stepping back, emotionally speaking, and then entering the interaction purposefully, from a starting point of unconditional love.

We make our interactions with others all about ourselves—what we like, what we want, what will please us—instead of asking, What would loving this other person look like right now?

Let’s be completely, heartbreakingly honest: sometimes we love ourselves more than we love our children.

Oh, God, we need Your help! Help us to love You first and others second—not ourselves first, and You and others only when (and if) we feel like it. May we never act towards others with anything but love, following the example of Your Son, who never did anything less or anything else than love. Amen.

Mark 12:30-31—“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (NIV)

John 13:34—A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

When You’ve Just. Got. Nothing.

Megan Breedlove August 22, 2016 0Comment

My sister is my best friend. We keep in touch regularly and frequently. We sometimes talk on the phone even when we don’t have anything much to say. At some point, if we run out of things we can pretend are important enough to talk about, there will come a long pause, and then one of us will say, “Well…I got nothin’.”

Today, it is with reluctance that I say the same to you, the precious mom reading this. And I’m sorry to have to say it. But I got nothin’.

The details don’t matter, and I’m not including them here for the same reason I think Paul never told us what his “thorn in the flesh” was: so that we could all identify with him, instead of only a few. And I’m well aware that others in this world are suffering far worse than I am. But suffice it to say that right now, I am spread so emotionally thin and am struggling to bear so much stress and pain that I have no encouraging words for you. I have no funny stories. I have absolutely nothing to offer you that would make your day any better, urge you any closer to the Lord, or even make it worth your time to read this.

Unless, of course, there is someone out there who can somehow benefit from reading the following words: I still have faith.

I do not have faith that God will necessarily make my circumstances better (some will not improve until I reach Heaven, unless God should choose to do a bona fide miracle). Can He, if He wants to? Oh, yes. But will He? I don’t know.

But if He doesn’t, it won’t be because He doesn’t care. It will be because somehow, in some way, He knows that He must not. That He can not, if He is to do what is right and best (and only He gets to determine what those are). It won’t be because He is somehow unaffected by my neediness and pain; on the contrary, He will weep with me.

I don’t know whether or not He is going to take away my pain. I hope He does! But I refuse to define His goodness by whether or not he changes my circumstances. I refuse to stop loving Him simply because He won’t do what I want, like some sort of genie in a bottle.

I refuse to accept good from God, and not trouble.

I choose faith.

I choose Him.

Job 2:10—“Shall [I] accept good from God, and not trouble?” (NIV)

Daniel 3:17-18—“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (NIV; emphasis mine)

Christianity Go!

Megan Breedlove August 8, 2016 0Comment

By now, you’ve probably heard of the game Pokemon Go! Players download an app to their smartphones and walk/drive/parkour anywhere and everywhere, trying to locate and capture Pokemon.

Within 13 hours of its being made available, Pokemon Go! became the top-grossing app in the U.S. It attracts 21 million users and 4-5 million downloads per day. In other words, it’s very, very popular.

Why? Because it gives people a fun way to obtain something they really want.

If Christianity were something people really wanted, they would be out chasing it, too. But it isn’t.

Why? Because when nonbelievers hear our presentation of Christianity, they feel like we’re giving them an unpleasant, arduous way to obtain something they don’t really want—a relationship with a God who isn’t really interested in them unless they get everything right.

Maybe, just maybe, we should take a closer look at how we often present Christianity.

See if the following way of presenting the gospel sounds familiar: “God is holy, and we’re sinners. We can’t come close to God unless we’re righteous. Fortunately, Jesus made us righteous, so now we can belong to God and go to heaven when we die.”

It’s all true. It’s 100% accurate. But most people don’t want just one more person (God, no less) to tell them that unless they find a way to measure up, they can never be accepted. If that’s the only thing you tell them, they probably won’t be interested.

What people are interested in is relief from stress and loneliness, comfort when they’re discouraged or grieving, wisdom to know how to relate to others and which decisions to make, and the assurance that they can make it through this crazy, sometimes excruciatingly difficult and painful thing called life.

A relationship with God offers them all of those things, but that’s not what we tell them about. Or if we do, we promise them incredible things, then make those things conditional upon their right actions.

Please hear me clearly: YES, we must submit to God and obey Him. YES, we must admit our sin and our neediness. YES, we must acknowledge Him as the Lord of our life. YES, we must make sure people know about God’s holiness and our sinfulness and what Jesus did on the cross for us.

But this is not how Jesus primarily presented the gospel. He didn’t say, “You’re a screw-up. You need to get it right for God to love you.” Instead, He showed them by His response that He already loved them.

When Nicodemus came to Him seeking a right understanding of God, Jesus took the conversation deeper and explained the answers to questions Nicodemus didn’t even know he had.

When the woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, He first assured her that He didn’t condemn her, and then He told her to stop sinning.

When a pagan Roman soldier sent emissaries to Jesus to request that Jesus heal his daughter, Jesus began by commending his faith, not confronting his sin.

True, Jesus confronted sin when appropriate. I’m not suggesting that we not do that. There will be many occasions when we must confront sin. But even then, we must remember that the point of presenting the gospel is not to get people to clean up their lives, but to introduce them to the incredibly rich spiritual blessings of a relationship with a holy, perfect God who loves them passionately.

That’s the good news, that such a relationship is even possible.

Psalm 16:11—You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (NIV)

Comparing Candidates

Megan Breedlove August 1, 2016 0Comment

This November, voters in the United States (and U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote but currently reside elsewhere) will go to the polls and vote for the man or woman they want to become the next President of the United States. Hopefully, those voters will carefully consider the qualifications of the candidates before choosing one and casting their vote.

To the end of assisting voters in determining whom to vote for, many organizations and individuals have published charts comparing two or more candidates and their positions on various issues. Of course, one always has to take these charts with a grain of salt, because they may be slanted according to the author’s bias.

I’d like to offer you a completely unbiased comparison chart between two contenders for something far more important than a U.S. citizen’s vote in November. Well, okay, not completely unbiased; it’s biased toward what the Bible says. In other words, I have prepared this chart as if what the Bible says is 100% trustworthy (because it is).

This chart compares the two leading contenders—actually, the only two contenders—for control of your life. You will choose between them each and every day (and sometimes moment-to-moment). They, are, as you have probably guessed by now, God and Satan.

But they’re not the only two contenders, you might say. I myself am a third contender for control of my life.

Nope. You’re not. The Bible says that anything that does not come from God is sin. And who is the author of sin? Satan. So if you think you are ever in control of your own life, think again. With every action, thought, and desire, you are either yielding to God’s control of your life or ceding control to Satan.

So here, for your consideration, is a chart comparing the two, in order to help you choose which one you want to follow.

	God	Satan
What will he do in your life?	Grant spiritual abundance (John 10:10)	Steal from you, kill you, and attempt to destroy you (John 10:9)
How does he feel toward you?	Loves you deeply and forever (Jer. 31:3; Eph. 3:18)	Hates you (John 17:14)
Will he tell you the truth?	Always (John 14:6)	Only when it suits him (John 8:44)
Is he trustworthy?	Yes (Numbers 23:19)	No; he will lie whenever it suits him (see John 8:44)
Will he show you his true colors?	Yes (see: the whole Bible)	No; this would be to his disadvantage (2 Cor. 11:14)
Will he comfort and support you in times of need?	Yes (Psalm 37:39)	No; he wants to destroy you (see John 10:9)
Does he keep his promises?	Yes (2 Cor. 1:20)	No; he lies when it suits him (see John 8:44)
Can he give you everything you need?	Yes (Phil. 4:19)	No, and he wouldn’t want to, because he wants to destroy you (see John 10:9)
Can he protect you?	Yes (Psalm 121:7)	No, and he wouldn’t want to, because he wants to destroy you (see John 10:9)

I could go on and on, about how God knows everything and Satan doesn’t; about how God has all power and Satan doesn’t; about how God is everywhere, always, and Satan isn’t.

But ultimately, you are the one who has to make a choice.

So I leave it to you.

Joshua 24:15—But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. (NIV)

What We Can Learn from Toddlers

Megan Breedlove July 18, 2016 0Comment

It seems that as parents (or, in my case, a godparent) of toddlers, we spend the majority of our time trying to teach them things.

Don’t put that in your mouth!

Hands are for loving, not hitting.

Sweetie, the cat doesn’t like it when you do that.

Teaching our toddlers the things they need to know is good and right. It’s important. It’s part of our job.

But I believe that God put toddlers in our lives not only to learn from us, but also to teach us.

Take, for example, an incident that happened with my godson the other day (he’s 17 months old) when I was babysitting him.

Marshall had climbed up onto the piano bench. He loves to bang on the piano keys and listen to all the different, cool noises they make. But, being a toddler, his attention span is only so long. After a few moments of playing, he attempted to get down from the bench.

The only problem was, his technique needed a little work. Marshall turned onto his stomach on the bench and tried to lower his legs down to the floor. This might actually have worked, except that the bench was pretty close to the piano. Marshall wound up halfway to the ground, wedged between the bench and the bottom of the keyboard, clinging to the bench with all his might. Naturally, he began to fuss, and he was working up to a good cry when I swooped in and grabbed him under the armpits.

You know what happened next. When Marshall felt my firm grip on him, he released his grip on the piano bench and allowed me to pull him upward to safety.

I think the lesson God wanted me (and you) to learn is this: Marshall did exactly the right thing when he found himself in a scary situation: he cried for help. But then, when help came, he utterly released his grip on the piano bench.

If Marshall hadn’t believed I could handle his problem, he would have kept clinging to the bench. But because he trusted me implicitly, he turned all handling of the situation over to me without hesitation. In other words, he acted upon his trust.

You and I are pretty good about calling for God when we’re in trouble. But when He shows up, we keep clinging to the bench because we’re afraid He won’t resolve our problem the way we want Him to.

I realize full well that God doesn’t always do what we want. But it all comes down to this: Do we, or do we not, believe that God’s handling of our problem will be right and good?

We may say with our minds that we believe it will. But our grip on the piano bench will show what we really believe. Will we keep clinging to the bench, as if our efforts to save ourselves could somehow be better than His?

Or will we cling to Him, believing that nothing we could do is better than what He is ready to do?

Psalm 34:4—I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. (KJV)

When You’re Tempted to Get Good Things in a Bad Way

Megan Breedlove June 27, 2016 0Comment

I should have known, when Timmy was playing quietly in his room for too long, that something was amiss.

I realized it when I entered his room and saw large, looping swirls all across his carpet—in yellow marker.

“Timmy?” I sighed. “Did you draw on your floor with this yellow marker?”

“Uh…uh….” Timmy ducked his head.

“Pretty much?” I prompted, and Timmy nodded.

“Why did you do that?” I asked.

“Because I wanted a pretty floor,” he said.

Well…that makes sense. Who doesn’t want a pretty floor? It’s a legitimate desire.

But Timmy tried to fulfill his legitimate desire by illegitimate means.

Did he know they were illegitimate means? You bet he did. We’ve had the don’t-draw-on-your-floor-with-markers conversation several times before. Yet he chose to disobey me simply because he wanted what he wanted and didn’t care whether or not he had to disobey me to get it.

Good thing you and I never try to get good things by illegitimate means, isn’t it? Oh, wait…we do.

We try to gain our husband’s agreement by nagging him.

We try to gain material goods or fun experiences by putting them on a credit card because we really can’t afford them any other way.

We try to gain emotional peace by denying reality or refusing to face it.

Is it wrong for us to desire our husband’s agreement, or material goods/vacations, or emotional peace? Of course not. But it is wrong for us to go about getting those things in any way that doesn’t please God.

Jesus knew that, of course. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he offered Him good things: food, a way to convince people to believe in Him, and authority over everything. Was it wrong for Jesus to desire those things? Of course not. He had a human body, so naturally, He desired food. (I can’t go for 40 seconds without eating, but He went 40 days.) He was the Son of God, so He is entitled to all authority, and it’s good and right for Him to desire that people should believe in Him.

But Jesus didn’t succumb to Satan’s temptations because He was unwilling to gain any good thing by illegitimate means.

What about you? What about me? Are some things so important to us that we’re willing to do illegitimate things in order to get them?

Before you say No way!, consider these questions: Do you ever try to gain peace in your household by yelling at your children? (Guilty here.) Do you ever try to gain people’s approval or admiration by boasting—or maybe just by “letting them know” about your accomplishments? (Um, guilty here.) Do you ever try to “encourage” your husband to change by being critical? (No comment. I’m going to plead the Fifth.)

When doing something bad in order to get something good doesn’t bother us—or when it does bother us, but we push those guilty feelings away and refuse to think about them—we are most certainly not being like Jesus. We’re not pleasing God. And ultimately, we’re not even pleasing ourselves.

You see, the reason God has told us not to do certain things in order to get what we want is because He knows not only that they aren’t right, but that the more we do them, the more they damage both us and others.

What are you willing to commit in order to get what you want?

We need to throw ourselves on God’s mercy if we’re willing to commit anything less than holiness.

Matthew 4:4—Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (NIV)

3 Fun (and Free!) Ways to Bond with Your Child This Summer

Megan Breedlove June 21, 2016 0Comment

Here in Texas, summer is one long stretch of heat that begins in May and lasts through September. Basically, the four seasons of our year, in order, are Summer, Not-Quite-Summer-Anymore, Sort-of Winter, and Almost-Summer-Again.

But whether you live in a place where summer is one extended reminder of why hell would not be a pleasant place to spend eternity, or in a place where summer confines itself neatly to three months out of the year and lets each of the other seasons have its fair share of months too, you—like me—are probably looking for fun things to do with your child this summer.

I would like to offer you three suggestions of great things you can do that will not only be fun, but also bond you and your child closer together, and ALSO be great opportunities for helping your child connect with God. (It’s like fun with a bonus.) And, as the title suggests, you can do these things no matter how much money you have, because they’re all free.

Can’t beat fun summer activities that strengthen your relationship with your child and your child’s relationship with God, and don’t cost a thing, can you? Great! Here are some ideas:

1. Go to the beach! Don’t worry; we’re not necessarily talking an actual beach, although those are great, too. This activity is primarily designed for moms and children who don’t have a great beach nearby (like us). How can you go to the beach when you don’t actually have one anywhere close? You make your own.

Before you start worrying about how you would ever vacuum up all that sand, let me assure you that there’s no actual sand involved. You simply spread beach towels in the living room. You get in your swimming suits, put on sunscreen, and lie on your beach towels wearing sunglasses. Periodically, you go to the kitchen to get refreshments—ice cream, soda, hot dogs, etc.

What about the water? Couple things you can do on this one. You can fill up the bathtub with cool water. You can place a small wading pool (if you already have one) in the living room and fill it with water.

This activity obviously works best with younger kids. But think about it: you get all the advantages of the beach without any of the hassles; you get to wear your swimsuit without worrying about appearing in it in front of other people; and you get to bond with your child!

You can use this activity to talk with your child about the majesty of God’s creation. Talk about many of the Bible stories that involve water or oceans. Talk about the verse that says, “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19, NIV).

2. Go to a baseball game! And you don’t even have to pay for tickets or find parking. Why? Because you’re going to watch the game in your very own front or backyard. Set up some camp chairs or lawn chairs, haul your laptop, portable electronic device, or even your TV outside, and watch the game.

You and your child/ren can take turns walking up and down the “aisles” and offering everyone hotdogs, popcorn, or a cold drink. (Be sure you holler, “Hoooooooooootdooooooogs!”)

Make tickets to the game, and have one child be the ticket taker before you sit down. Bring your purse with you so that one child can be the security agent and examine your purse for unauthorized items (you may want to clear any private items out of your purse first).

If you want to get really creative, invite some friends to watch the game with you. Let everyone bring something (this still counts as free, because you’d have to eat anyway). This activity can work well with baseball fans of all ages. Your kids might like doing this even if they aren’t particularly baseball fans; they will probably find novelty and enjoyment in watching “TV” in the front yard.

A baseball game is a great opportunity to talk with your child about rules. Talk about why rules are necessary in a baseball game and what would happen if the players didn’t follow the rules. Point out that just as rules are necessary in baseball, so they are necessary in life—not to stop people from having fun, but to help them have more fun.

3. Go camping! Again, there’s absolutely no cost—and no special equipment needed. This one works best if you have a fenced-in backyard. Grab sleeping bags (or blankets, or a tarp) and pillows, and sleep in the backyard. If you have camping gear, go ahead and use it—but it’s not necessary. Your kids will do just fine with sleeping in their backyard with very simple gear.

Build a “campfire,” if you want to! You can either build an actual fire (though be sure to practice fire safety), or you can lay a fire and then just not light it. You can sit around it ad tell stories or jokes, or sing camping songs (or any songs, really). If someone in your family plays the guitar, have him or her do so.

Talk about how the first announcement of Jesus’ birth came to shepherds who were abiding in the fields, just as you are abiding in your backyard. Ask your child what he/she thinks it was like for the shepherds back then. Talk about what it would be like to be sitting around having a campout, and then all of a sudden to see an angel in the sky with a wonderful message from God.

***

Hopefully, you will find one or more of these activities fun and helpful for your family. If not, that’s fine—just make up one of your own. The main thing is not which activities you to do bond with your children and teach them about God, but that you do such activities.

Have a great summer!

Deuteronomy 6:7—You shall teach [the ways of the Lord] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (ESV)

How Parenting is Like a Roller Coaster, and How God Can Help You Through It

Megan Breedlove June 13, 2016 0Comment

(Guest post dictated by Kenny Breedlove, age 11.)

Kenny Hey, Mom, I have an idea for your devotional. You could write about how parenting is like a roller coaster. It has ups and downs, and it sometimes has fast and slow moments. Like it’s fast when kids grow up too fast. It’s slow when you have a hard time being a parent. Down is when kids are being bad and you have to punish them. Ups is when you first get your kids, and bonding with your kids and having fun moments with them. Sometimes, you can be scared on a roller coaster, and you can be scared at moments in your parenting life. Like you might be scared or worried when you’re looking for part-time jobs to raise money for your kids. And you’re scared when it’s your first time parenting and you don’t know what to do, or finding the right babysitter when you’re gone and it’s just your kids.

God sometimes plans crazy lives similar to roller coasters, or sometimes just smooth, normal lives like a running river. And if you’re ever scared or afraid, you can look up to Him, and He will help you with your parenting. After all, He planned the life, and He knows everything.

God can also help you know how to teach your kids to worship Him when they’re older, if you don’t know how. Also, if you have a crazy life similar to a roller coaster, God can help you go through it all calm and smooth.

Sometimes, roller coasters go all the way upside down, like your life suddenly changes once you figure out you’re pregnant and you become a parent. Your life is upside down, and you’ve got more to take care of, more to worry about, and a kid or kids to care for.

Sometimes, you have to buy tickets for a roller coaster to get on and have fun, as you would have to buy equipment and things your babies would like for them to have fun.

Sometimes, you have to wait in line to even get the tickets for a roller coaster, like you sometimes have to wait in line to get tickets for your kids’ favorite puppet show or favorite movie.

Almost always, you have to get tickets for a roller coaster and decide how many people get on and who gets to get on. Like in parenting, to get kids, you would have to find a husband, get married, afford to host a baby shower, and afford the bills of a hospital to produce the babies. If you’re a woman, that is.

So moms and future moms out there, if you are having trouble parenting, you can either read this a couple more times, or look up to God, and maybe He’ll have some answers for you. Good luck with your life.

The Ultimate Reason We Hide from God

Megan Breedlove June 6, 2016 0Comment

Timmy hiding The seven of us had just arrived home from a trip to Houston. Of course, we all had plenty of stuff to unpack and put away. I headed to my bedroom to take care of the things in my suitcase, but the door was, strangely, locked.

So I picked the lock with a toothpick we keep wedged into the upper doorjamb for that very purpose, only to find Timmy nestled into our mound of pillows, headfirst.

‘Timmy?” I asked. ‘Why are you hiding in my pillows?”

Timmy shot me a sideways glance. “Because I thought you were Daddy.”

“Why were you hiding from Daddy?”

“Because he would want me to unpack,” Timmy said.

It’s not like Timmy was well-hidden. But at least he had the strategy right: if you don’t want someone to find you, you hide.

It’s the same strategy Adam and Eve used when they wanted to hide from God, as well as the same strategy that we, their descendants, have been using ever since. When we don’t want to take the chance of coming face to face with God, we hide from Him.

Maybe we hide because we’ve done something wrong and don’t want to get in trouble. We think if we can avoid thinking about God, much less actually talking to Him, then we can avoid whatever consequences might be coming.

Maybe it’s because we don’t want to feel guilty about something we’ve done. If we can ignore God steadfastly enough, we won’t have to feel the burden of guilt which is justly ours.

Those two reasons for hiding are pretty common. But the third reason is perhaps the most common of all: We hide because we don’t want to have to come to terms with God’s authority over us and our lives. We want to do what we want to do, and if we encounter God, we might have to let Him be in charge. So we do our best not to encounter Him.

No matter which one of these fits our circumstances, it’s not the ultimate reason we attempt to hide from God. When it comes right down to it, we hide because we’re afraid.

We’re afraid of God.

Not that we probably realize it. We probably think we’re just afraid of the consequences of our actions, afraid of our emotions, or afraid of losing control.

But ultimately, we’re afraid of Him.

If we truly believed that when God allows us to face consequences, it’s for our good, we wouldn’t be afraid to face Him when we’ve done something wrong.

If we truly believed that God would walk with us through any emotion we face and bring us out stronger on the other side, we wouldn’t be afraid to face our guilt.

If we truly believed that with God in control, our lives would be much better, we wouldn’t be afraid to let Him make the decisions.

It all comes down to what we believe about God.

What does your fear level say that you believe about Him?

1 John 4:18—There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (NIV)

2016

Like a Little Child

Just Love Them

When You’ve Just. Got. Nothing.

Comparing Candidates

What We Can Learn from Toddlers

When You’re Tempted to Get Good Things in a Bad Way

3 Fun (and Free!) Ways to Bond with Your Child This Summer

How Parenting is Like a Roller Coaster, and How God Can Help You Through It

The Ultimate Reason We Hide from God

You Missed

Priorities

I Wouldn’t Do That

Little Things

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