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Someday Heroes

Megan Breedlove No Comments

Before I became a parent, I was pretty sure that training and disciplining a child would be easy. My child would do A, I would calmly respond with a well-thought-out and right-on-target B, and I would get result C—cheerful obedience or successful completion of the task. For the more stubborn issues, the process might repeat itself once or twice.

I didn’t realize that my kids wouldn’t always “get it” as soon as I thought they should.

Your kids probably don’t always understand or comply with your instructions the first time either. You know how frustrating it can be to remind a child to do a task he’s already forgotten (or resisted doing) several times, or to have to repeatedly explain something before your child says, “Ohhhhhh, I get it.”

Jesus understands the need to explain yourself over and over because, although He didn’t have children, He had the disciples. And they required plenty of explanations and repetition for what they should have been able to understand sooner.

Check out what Jesus says in Luke 24:44. “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (ESV) He had already told them that He would be put to death then raised on the third day. But they didn’t really understand until Jesus said, “See? This is what I was talking about all those other times” (my paraphrase).

These twelve guys, Jesus’ chosen ones, didn’t always understand their Master the first time He said something. They couldn’t always do something the first time they tried (see Matthew 17:14-23). Yet despite the fact they were adults and might have been expected to know better, Jesus didn’t give up on them. He was willing to invest His life in them and even repeat Himself a few, or a million, times, so that He could build men who would one day become the pillars of His church. Men who would become heroes of the faith.

Precious mom, as you rear your children, you, too, are building men or women who will one day become the pillars of Christ’s church.

That little boy who won’t stop throwing expensive things into the toilet? Someday, he may be a pillar of the church.

The little girl who still has to be reminded to wash her hands after she uses the potty? A beautiful pillar in the house of her God.

The older boy who can’t keep his room clean to save his life? One day, a hero of the faith.

Even little Peter, James, and John probably had to be told a million times to shut that door. Even the Apostle Paul, when he was a child, had to be taught to strap on his sandals. And yet these same kids who didn’t “get it” the first time or the tenth or the fiftieth, went on to become heroes.

It doesn’t matter if your kids don’t look much like heroes today. God can make them heroes, mighty men and women who contend fearlessly for their faith and their God in the marketplace, in their homes, and in their churches. He can take that child you devoutly hope won’t pick his or her nose during the school play and embarrass you, and turn him or her into a mighty warrior for His cause.

So when it seems like you’ve already told your children something a million times…when it seems like a particular discipline problem will never get resolved…when you wonder why your children just don’t get it, remember that someday, they probably will.

Someday, they just might be heroes.

Matthew 17:14-23— When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. ” When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

No Potties

Megan Breedlove 2 Comments

Recently Ellie (who’s almost 10) and I were going through a set of question cards designed to encourage conversation. Her answer to one of the cards let to a conversation that both confused me and made me laugh. Let me share it with you:

Me (reading from the card): “What would be the worst place to visit?”

Ellie: “Hawaii!”

Me: “Hawaii?? Why would that be the worst place??”

Ellie: “Because they don’t have any potties.”

Me (totally confused): “What?”

Ellie: “They don’t have any potties. You have to use the community outhouse.”

Me: “Sweetie, Hawaii is part of the United States. They have potties there.”

Ellie: “The Schmidtkes said they didn’t. They also said that when it was really cold and snowy, like when there was a blizzard, they had to use a bucket because they couldn’t even get to the outhouse.”

Me: “Hawaii doesn’t have blizzards. Were they talking about Alaska or somewhere?”

Ellie: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Hawaii is one of the United States. They have the same technology we have. They have potties there.”

Ellie: “Oh.”

Even typing this conversation makes me laugh. I found it pretty amusing, and I still do.

What’s not nearly so amusing is when we get confused about what God has said. He said one thing, and we think He said something else.

God says, “I poured out all my wrath over your sins on Jesus when He hung on the cross.” Yet we think He still gets really angry at us when we blow it.

God says, “Don’t sin,” and we think what He actually meant was, “If you sin, you are no longer acceptable to me, and I won’t love you.”

God says, “I so loved the world that I sent my only Son.” We think, “Okay, so He loves the world, but He doesn’t really love me.” We forget that He also said He exults over us.

It didn’t really matter much that Ellie mistook Hawaii for Alaska. It does matter when we misunderstand God.

It matters that we understand what makes God’s heart glad, and what breaks it. It matters that we understand why He considers certain things sin. It matters deeply and profoundly that we understand Who He is, as well as how much He loves us.

How do we make sure we get it right? How do we keep from getting misled into thinking that Hawaii has blizzards?

We have to know the Bible. Inside and out. Cover to cover. Every bit.

Why? Because, as John R. W. Stott says, “The Bible is God preaching.” It’s His Word to us. It’s His love letter to us. It’s what He wants us to know and one of the primary means He uses to reveal Himself to us. Therefore, it should be our primary go-to reference when we want to know what He says.

It’s great to listen to those who claim to teach the word, but what matters is not what they say, but what the Bible says. It’s fine to read books, but what matters is not what the author says, but what the Bible says. Hopefully, the speaker or author will indeed be teaching the Bible, but you have to know your Bible to be sure.

Do you know your Bible? Do you know what God says to you through it?

The Secret Service is the division of our government charged with dealing with counterfeiters and counterfeit money. In order to carry out their jobs, they have to know the difference between a fake bill and a real one. To learn the difference, they study not the fake bills, but the real ones. They study genuine bills over and over and over, so that when they see a bill that’s counterfeit, they will recognize it because it differs from the real thing.

That’s how we should study the Bible—so deeply and so well that we will recognize anything that differs from it.

Do you want to know what God says? Study your Bible. It’s fine to read or listen to what others have to say about the Bible, but you need to study it for yourself too. If you’re not sure how to do it, there are many great resources online or in print that will help you.

That way, you’ll know truth, and you’ll recognize anything that differs from it.

You’ll know that there are, indeed, potties in Hawaii.

2 Timothy 2:15—Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (NIV)

Brushing Off the Crumbs

Megan Breedlove No Comments

Recently, I made two cheesecakes to take to a party. No, I couldn’t have chosen the easy way out and simply bought a couple of cheesecakes. I had to make them myself.

The actual recipe isn’t too hard, and I’ve used it before. The whole experience went pretty well, except for a minor glitch that had to do with my brand-new Springform pans.

I had never used that kind of pan before; previously, I had always bought prepared crusts. This time, I wanted to make my own. So I made the first cheesecake, then had to remove it from the bottom of the pan to slide it onto a serving tray so I could reuse the pan for the second cheesecake.

Everything went fine with the transfer of Cheesecake #1 to Platter #1. Mostly fine, that is. With all that jostling of the crust, some of the crumbs somehow—I still can’t remember how—wound up on top of the cheesecake.

“How am I going to get those crumbs off?” I asked my friend Rea, who was going to the party with me. “I can’t just blow them off.”

Rea came up with the idea of using my basting brush to gently brush the crumbs from the top of the cheesecake. That worked. Until I stepped in.

As Rea gently brushed the crumbs from the dessert, some of them fell onto the platter. I used my fingers to scoop the crumbs into my other palm, and then, for some inexplicable reason that still eludes me, I dumped them right back on the cheesecake.

There was a moment of confused silence before Rea said, “What did you do that for?”

“I don’t know,” I said, as puzzled as she was. And this devotion was born.

You see, what I did with those crumbs is just like what we sometimes do with sin. We realize there’s a problem, we get the sin brushed off of our lives, then we add it right back in.

What in the world was I thinking? we wonder, just as I wondered that day in my kitchen.

I hadn’t stopped to consider the options of where I could put the crumbs. I simply didn’t think about the ramifications of what I was about to do, and I dumped them right back where they came from.

Yep. That’s definitely what we do with sin. We just. Don’t. Think.

Whether we put the crumbs back on the cheesecake on purpose isn’t really the point. The point is that there they are, back where they shouldn’t be. Whatever our motives, we still messed up, undoing all the work that had just been done.

Have you ever been in that place, in terms of sin in your life? Where you got rid of it for a time, then found yourself right back in it?

Sure you have. We all have. That’s part of the insidious nature of sin. It can have a hold on us without our even realizing it.

So what do we do to make sure that we don’t sin without thinking? That we don’t just let the words come out of our mouth that shouldn’t have been said, or fail to do something we should have done, without even thinking about our actions?

We ask God to help us, and we ask regularly. We ask Him to warn us when we’re about to do something wrong. We take those areas in which we know we are prone to sin, and we put those areas to death by establishing plans for dealing with our wrongdoing and preventing further sin.

It’s hard. Believe me, I know. But I don’t want to put the crumbs right back on my cheesecake. You don’t either.

We want that cheesecake to look like it was supposed to.

Psalm 139:23-24—Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (ESV)

Overcome by Vegetables

Megan Breedlove No Comments

Being that our thirteen-month-old son Timmy is as fearless as he is, and being that he has already performed many daredevil feats from which he somehow miraculously escaped unharmed, my husband and I have asked each other a few times, “So, how long do you suppose it will be before we end up in the ER with Timmy?”

That question was answered Friday night. Timmy came walking into the kitchen, tripped over his own feet, and fell face-first onto a large can of green beans. The rim of the can caught him just above the bridge of his nose. Timmy cried heartily for at least sixty seconds, whereupon he got over it. I knew, however, that his cut required stitches.

So I changed his diaper and put him in a fuzzy sleeper (good hospital wear). I then loaded up all five kids in the van and took Timmy to the ER, where he got four stitches in his poor little face. If Timmy grows up with an aversion to green beans, we’ll know why.

The point of this story, other than the fact that green beans aren’t as innocent as they look, is this: despite all his activity, despite all the things that should have done him in long before now, Timmy was overcome by…a can of green beans. Something so simple led to his defeat.

Often it’s the same with us, isn’t it? We get all the big things right, but it’s the “little” things that trip us up.

We don’t commit adultery, rob a bank, or murder anyone. But we lie, speak critically, or gossip.

It’s not a temptation for me to rob a bank. I don’t have any trouble refraining from that sin, because I don’t want to commit it in the first place. But being critical? A temptation to which I give in all too often.

True, some sins may have “bigger” consequences than others. But even what we think of as the “little” sins—the ones that don’t really matter much—can ruin our relationships with God and with others and cause us additional consequences we never intended.

Any sin we commit is an offense against our relationship with God as well as against God Himself. God doesn’t just care about the “biggies”; He cares about all sin, even our favorite sins that we think aren’t that big a deal. He doesn’t like them. In fact, He hates them. Yet we too often excuse them or don’t even call them for what they are.

For most of us, the sins that slip in between us and God aren’t going to be things the world would care about. The things that take us down aren’t going to be things that make the front page of the paper.

No, the sins that bring about our downfall are much more likely to be something that looks like not that big a deal at first.

Something like a can of green beans sitting on the floor.

1 Corinthians 10:12—Therefore let anyone who thinks that [she] stands take heed lest [she] fall. (ESV)

Overacheiver

Megan Breedlove 1 Comment

At one point when my children were younger, I had three of them enrolled in a Mother’s Day Out program for two days per week. They attended class on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 to 2. Each Monday after I picked them up, we would go to the library, where each child got to choose the number of books corresponding to his or her age and then got a piece of candy from the nice librarian at check-out.

One particular Monday, it was a gray, rainy day. I could barely get inside the church where their program was held without getting soaked. I really didn’t feel like trying to take four kids to the library while keeping everyone dry.

So I entered Lindsey’s classroom with the intention of telling the kids that we wouldn’t make it to the library that day. Another mother was already in the room picking up her son. As Lindsey came to greet me, this other mom knelt down to zip up her son’s jacket.

“Looks nasty out there,” the kids’ teacher said, glancing outside, where the rain was beating against the windows.

And this other mother said to her son, “That’s right, we’re not going to be able to play outside today. So we’re going to go home, make a tent in the living room, and have hot cocoa and marshmallows instead. Won’t that be fun?”

Overachiever, I thought. Right on the heels of that negativity, I realized, There’s no reason to be negative. I could have done the same thing she did.

There are two points I want to make.

The first is this: my immediate reaction to the other mom’s words was negative. Instead of thinking, Wow, what a great idea! I thought, Oh, come on. Now I feel guilty about my decision. In other words, I had taken the easy way out, and I resented someone who was doing what I (here’s the second point) could just as well have done. Like she did, I could have turned the circumstances into an opportunity for fun.

It’s not necessarily bad to scrap plans for the library when the weather is nasty. But I wish I had had that other mom’s perspective. I wish I had realized on my own that the thing that messed up my plans was the very thing that could help me create some really special fun. I wish I had looked at changed circumstances as an opportunity rather than a loss.

If I had, I never would have compared her actions to mine and felt like I came up short. But whether or not I shared her creativity, I should never have had negative thoughts about the great idea she had. Her idea had nothing to do with me, and no, it didn’t make me look bad (even though it felt like it did). There was no reason to feel like I looked bad just because she planned something more creative, and even if I had, there was no reason to resent her for coming up with something I hadn’t thought of.

I’m not proud of my attitude, because it stems from pride. I want to be the best mommy. I don’t want to feel like my kids are getting the short end of the stick because someone else’s mommy plans better fun. I don’t want to feel “less than” some other mommy because she’s more creative or more fun or has more energy or whatever. And the thing of it is, I don’t have to. Neither do you.

There’s absolutely no reason to compare ourselves to other moms. Sure, if another mom has a good idea, we might want to incorporate that into our day or our family. But being down on ourselves just because our weakness compared unfavorably to someone else’s strength? Ridiculous. Not how God wants us to spend our time.

You see, He made each of us the way we are. He granted some abilities to me that you don’t have, and some abilities to you that I don’t have. He made some of us better at creativity and others of us better at organization. God doesn’t want us to compare ourselves to some other mom, because she is not the standard He has for our lives anyway.

Learn from her, yes. Imitate her? Maybe. But compare ourselves to her? No.

I’ve learned to be more creative over the years. If I were to find myself in the same situation today, I might very well have thought of something fun to do at home. But even if I hadn’t, I would no longer feel bad just because another mom thought of something I didn’t.

That’s because I now know that what makes me a good mom has nothing to do with how I compare to another mom or whether or not I do things the same way she does. I’m a good enough mom if I’m the best mom I can be—not if I’m someone else.

1 Samuel 17:38-39—Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. (NIV)

That’s Our Kenny

Megan Breedlove 3 Comments

Recently, all of our family except Timmy went to see Kenny’s second grade program for school. (If you’ve been following this blog or FB author page lately, you will know why we chose to leave Timmy home with a babysitter.) We took our seats in the gym and waited for the program to start. Soon, the kids filed into the gym. “Look, there’s Kenny!” Ellie said.

Kenny didn’t see us right away, though he was obviously scanning the gym for us. When he saw us, his face lit up, and he smiled. Not a huge smile, just an “I’m really excited that you’re here, but I’ve gotta be cool” smile.

Once they stood in place on risers on the stage, the students sang several songs. I was proud of my son, of course. He looked great in his school uniform—handsome and way too grown up. I was also amused by him.

You see, Kenny is an enthusiastic kid. When he is excited about something, he participates wholeheartedly. And so it was that while the other students were standing quietly singing the songs, Kenny was busy doing accompanying hand motions, which he was making up on the spot.

It was obvious he was making them up, because no one else was doing any kind of motions at all. Everybody else just stood there doing the expected thing. Kenny, on the other hand, had to express his exuberance. “That’s our Kenny,” my husband and I agreed.

Here’s the point: in the Christian life, you and I are either all those other kids, or we’re Kenny.

Most of us are far too reserved when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. Instead of being crazy in love with Him, we settle for quietly appreciating Him from a distance. Instead of delighting in walking with Him, we do it out of a sense of duty.

Where’s our delight? Why do our emotions not get caught up in dancing with the Lover of our Souls? Why do we just stand there when we could instead be participating like crazy?

I’m talking about more than just whether or not your raise your hands during worship (both are fine) or whether you are an exuberant, outgoing person by nature. Even those of us who are naturally reserved can wholeheartedly delight in Jesus. What’s important is not the outward expression of that delight. God doesn’t care very much about that. What God cares about is what’s in our heart toward Him.

It’s possible that all those second graders were enjoying the program as much as Kenny was. God’s not any more pleased with Kenny than He is with any other student. He knows which students were participating wholeheartedly and which were only there because their parents made them go.

Likewise, He knows which of us Christians are participating enthusiastically because He can see into our hearts. He sees much deeper than however we do or don’t express our faith outwardly with physical gestures. He even sees deeper than however frequently we attend church services, read our Bibles, or give money to worthy causes.

None of those things matters a whit in comparison to what’s in our heart. That’s because God doesn’t need our service. He doesn’t even desire our service, if it comes from wrong motives. What He wants is our whole heart, and He will be content with nothing less.

How much of your heart does God have? How enthusiastically do you walk with Him?

If the answer isn’t good, go before Him right now, confess your sin, and ask Him to change your heart. Ask Him to help you dance in your soul with all your might before Him—whatever that may look like on the outside.

2 Samuel 6:14—And David danced before the LORD with all his might. (ESV)

Hope Now

Megan Breedlove No Comments

If you’ve been following my devotions for very long, you know I love writing about heaven. I love thinking about the incredible things God has planned for us and wants us to look forward to; I love encouraging others to do the same. I’m glad and relieved to know that heaven awaits me—that this life isn’t all there is.

But something a friend said the other day on a different topic got me to thinking. It’s great to know that one day, all our troubles will be over. It’s marvelous to have heaven to look forward to. It’s fantastic to have hope in the future.

But we need hope now, too.

We need hope on those days where everything goes wrong. We need hope when grief is crushing us. We need hope not only that things will be better someday, but that we can make it through this day.

Precious mom who needs hope, let me tell you something: hope is exactly what Jesus came to give you. Not just for heaven, but for right now.

Do you need hope that someone will completely, perfectly love you and meet all your emotional needs? God will do that Himself. Sometimes He uses others to help Him minister His love to you, but even when others fail, He can—and will!—pour His love into you until your heart overflows.

Do you need hope that eventually, the wounds others caused in your life will heal? One of God’s names is Jehovah-Rapha, meaning God Who Heals. He can heal those scars in your heart and soul, the scars you think nobody else truly understands, because He does understand. And He can make you whole.

Do you hope against hope that someday, you will feel like you really matter? Like you’re infinitely worthwhile? God has declared repeatedly in His Word that you are already incredibly precious to Him. And He’s willing to repeat it to you over and over, and to confirm it with His love and by His Spirit within you, until you believe it.

Do you need hope that you can make it through another day? He’ll give you His strength to keep going when you feel like you just can’t.

Do you desperately hope that you’re doing a good enough job of being a mom? He’ll show you exactly what to do to be “good enough”—and it’s probably not as hard as you think. You can be a good enough mom. You can even hear Him say it.

If you put your hope in having pleasing or easy circumstances, you’re going to be disappointed, probably often. But if you put your hope in God Himself, you will never be disappointed. That’s because true, life-giving hope is found not in circumstances but in God Himself, and He’s guaranteed that He will never leave your nor forsake you.

Not just at the end of life. But right now.

Deuteronomy 31:6—Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of [anything], for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. (ESV)

Note:
If you’d like to know more about heaven, eternal life, or the kind of hope you can have right now, I encourage you to contact me through my website or to read some of the materials already there under “How to Know God”. I’d love to hear from you.

Timmy the Explorer

Megan Breedlove 4 Comments

If you have been following the exploits of my son Timmy (either on my Facebook author page or here on Manna for Moms), you know by now that he is an explorer. Which is a nice way to say he is into everything.

One of the things that seems to be especially exciting for him is doors. I think in Timmy’s mind, he is convinced that just on the other side of any door lies something marvelous. So he spends a lot of time opening cabinets and drawers, banging them closed, opening them again, and playing with whatever he finds inside. (And then leaving it on the floor for someone else to pick up.)

He also has hearing like a bat. Whenever I open an exciting door such as the refrigerator door or the front door to our home, Timmy heads toward it like a rocket. He loves to go outside or to scale the shelves in the refrigerator. The other day, we didn’t realize that he had somehow removed a package of lunch meat from the fridge while he was climbing it. We later found the empty package on my bedroom floor. The ham from the package was under a nearby blanket.

The point is that Timmy regards any open door as an invitation to head right on through. He doesn’t seem to stop to question whether or not he should go through the door; he just goes, in the confident expectation that grand adventure awaits him on the other side.

Too bad we can’t be more like Timmy when it comes to doors God opens for us.

I don’t mean that we should indiscriminately head through every open door; we need to consider which doors have been opened for us by God. But when God has opened a door for us, we need to head right on through, in the confident expectation that something grand awaits us.

Too often, though, we’re like Moses. We see an open door, and we say, “I can’t do that, God. You see, I (fill in the blank with whatever excuse comes to mind).”

I’m not smart enough. I don’t know how. I’m not as good at it as so-and-so.

Do we really think that the God who calls us to go through the door doesn’t know our limitations? And if Almighty God, knowing our weaknesses, commands us to walk through the door, who are we to make any excuse at all? Especially when He’s promised to go with us and enable us every step of the way to perform that which He’s told us to do?

Someone might laugh at me. People might not understand. I might lose friends (or family).

Okay, this one is a little tougher. We all know that it can be incredibly painful when people make fun of us. When they imply, or say it straight out, that we’re doing something stupid. When they desert us.

But God doesn’t ask us to do anything alone. He goes with us. And not only does He walk with us and in us, but He will also fill us with all the love, peace, and companionship that Almighty God is capable of (which is a LOT more than mere human beings can do). Yes, we might lose some relationships. We might be on the receiving end of some pretty hurtful actions. But God longs to fill our empty places with Himself. So if our heart is left a little more empty by someone who has damaged his or her relationship with us, or broken that relationship, that only leaves another spot in our heart that is now available to be filled by God. This is not a net loss.

I’m afraid. This will be hard.

It’s okay to be afraid. God understands that we will sometimes be afraid of doing what He’s asked us to do, or that we will only be able to do it with much agony and trembling. Look at Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane right before His arrest that led to His crucifixion. He was so anguished in His spirit that He sweat blood. Yet He still walked through the door. And the Jesus who showed a mind-blowing level of courage in allowing the soldiers to take Him captive and later crucify Him is the same Jesus who will grant us the same courage to walk through the door we need to go through.

So let’s walk through the door He sets before us. But let’s not fix our eyes on what we’re afraid might await us on the other side, or what we’re certain will await us. Let’s walk through that door with our eyes fixed on the God who called us, trusting Him to guide us every step of the way, as we walk through the door and then beyond.

Revelation 3:8—“I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” (ESV)

Hebrews 12:2—Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (KJV)

2 Corinthians 4:18—So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (NIV)

Timzilla

Megan Breedlove 2 Comments

Timmy on DishwasherTimzilla. The Timminator. The Minister of Household Redistribution of Objects, Jr. (Lindsey was Sr.) All these are nicknames for our youngest child Timmy.

At not-quite-one-year-old, he not only walks, but runs. He’s fast, too. I turn away from him for just a second, and when I turn back, he’s gone. Then it’s anybody’s guess as to whether he’s heading for the toilet (to drop something in, or simply play in the water) or the poor cat’s litter box (today he was trying to stuff a dustpan in there while the cat was still inside).

He’s smart. He’s quick. And he’s determined. We’ve childproofed the best we can, but he’s figured out how to defeat at least one of our child locks. We tried to put up a baby gate to keep him out of certain areas, but he scaled it and was on his way headfirst down the other side when we caught him. We’ve told the older kids to keep the bathroom doors closed so he can’t get in, but they don’t always remember.

Timmy Under SinkAll this means that we have to provide more supervision for Timmy than we did for any of our other kids at this age. We love it that he’s curious, and we want him to be able to learn and explore. But we also want him to be safe.

Therefore, we have to have restrict some of his activities. For example, he’s not allowed to eat the cat food or dip his pacifier in the cat’s water. (Eewww.) We also on occasion have to remove him abruptly from a situation he’s gotten himself into (such as the time at the library recently when he began scaling the magazine rack and got stuck), which makes him fuss or cry unless we successfully distract him with some new adventure.

Timmy at LibraryWhy do we limit activities that he loves so much? To prevent him from making himself sick or injuring himself. Why do we pull him away from whatever the current Promised Land might be, even though he cries? To protect him.

If I told you that we allowed him to play in the litter box, go outside on his own, or store his pacifiers in the toilet, and didn’t stop him, you’d wonder what was wrong with us. You might even wonder whether we truly loved Timmy. That’s because as any parent knows, loving a child requires setting boundaries which they may NOT cross—at least not without serious consequences.

You know that. I know that.

Why, then, when God marks something “off-limits” in our lives, or when He delivers some serious consequences, do we accuse Him of not really loving us, or of not wanting us to have any fun? Why do we kick, scream, and cry?

It’s because we don’t realize that God sets limits and makes rules for our protection.

He knows exactly which things will make us sick or injure us, whether physically or spiritually. He knows what we need to be removed from right now, no matter how much we kick and scream. He knows what things to close the door on so we can’t just walk right in like we would otherwise. Yet instead of being grateful when we find a closed door or read a biblical command to avoid something—grateful God has marked out where the danger lies, so that we can avoid it—we get mad. Resentful. Often, we kick down the door and walk in, or we ignore the “No Trespassing” sign, only to find that—surprise, surprise—God knew what He was talking about in the first place, and we should have listened.

Which of God’s commands do you chafe about having to obey? And what difference would it make for you if you realized that God was directing you into paths of abundant life instead of placing an unreasonable burden upon you?

Which doors are you trying to break down, despite the fact that God has told you to keep out?

Is there something you resent Him for not allowing you to do? Or are you perhaps jealous that others “get away with” doing something God has told you not to do?

Someday, when he is older, Timmy will look back on the rules I enforced with him, and he’ll be grateful I didn’t let him do those things. And someday, when we reach heaven, we’ll look back and realize all the dangers and sorrows God kept us from by structuring things the way He did.

Until then…until we understand…let us never forget that He always knows what He’s doing.

And that if we disagree with Him about the benefits of one of His commands, He’s not the one who’s wrong.

1 John 5:3—This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.

Timmy Makes a Mess

Be It Done for You

Megan Breedlove 7 Comments

You know how sometimes when you’re reading the Bible, you read a story you’ve read or heard millions of times before, but all of a sudden God shows you something different from it?

Let me share with you the amazing thing He showed me when this happened to me recently.

I was studying my bible, and I came to Matthew 15, where a woman approaches Jesus and begs Him for healing for her daughter. Jesus tells her (I’m paraphrasing pretty heavily here) that He was sent to the Israelites, not to her people. On the surface of it, this sounds harsh, but it was really only Jesus’ way to delve into her faith. He wanted to see if she understood that he really was there for people of every nationality—that Christianity isn’t a “Jewish” thing only, but a “for the whole world” thing.

The woman passed the test. She replied that she knew that not all the Jews even wanted Him, but that she’d be glad to have Him. Of course, that may not be what commentators might say is the point of this passage, but that is how I took it.

But that’s not all. The “smack between the eyes” that I got from this passage comes from Jesus’ response, where He says, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”

And I wondered, what would I get if Jesus were to say, “Be it done for you as you desire”?

I’d probably get things like well-behaved children, financial blessings, and good health. But is that it? I mean, are those really even the most important things?

If I knew that I would stand before Jesus and He would say “Be it done for you as you desire,” what would I ask Him for?

Before I go any farther, let me be absolutely clear that Jesus is not obligated to give us something just because we desire it. I’d like a vacation to Europe; He hasn’t given me that. You might like a new car or a bigger house or some other material possession. God’s not obligated to fulfill our requests unless, of course, they are in accordance with His will for us.

But the point is this: we ask too small. We ask for houses and health and money and cars. None of those things is bad in and of itself. But is that all we are asking for?

What about asking for spiritual victories? What about asking for victory over a sin with which we’ve been struggling? What about asking for our children not merely to behave but to develop a deep and enduring relationship with God?

Most of us are far more likely to thank God for a new car than we are for His forgiveness (which we need a whole lot more than we need that car). We’re more impressed with His material blessings, not His spiritual blessings; that’s why we spend more time praying about the material things.

What do we really want from Him? Stuff to make our lives easier and more pleasant.

What is He willing to give us? Far more.

So yes, ask for money to pay the bills or for your car to run or for your kids to stop bickering. Absolutely, ask for those things. But ask for the big things too.

We ask too small.

Matthew 15:28—Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” (ESV)

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