How to Grow Closer to God

Being a Doctor

Megan Breedlove September 13, 2010 0Comment

I love the way kids think. Don’t you? (Well, okay, maybe not all the time, but often.) They see things so much more simply than we adults do.

Case in point: one day, when Lindsey was about three and a half, she and I were playing together. She loved pretend play, where she could be an adult for a little while. That particular day, we were playing with the doctor’s bag filled with a doctor’s tools of the trade—a stethoscope, a thermometer, a blood pressure cuff, and so on. Lindsey was giving me a checkup.

Apparently, I was always pretty sick. Lindsey would stick the thermometer in my mouth, take it out, and turn it to the frowny face that said I had a temperature. “You’re vewy sick,” she would say seriously. She was also very good about performing all kinds of medical procedures and curing all kinds of maladies. She has a caring soul, and she wants to make sure everyone is okay.

“Do you want to be a doctor someday when you grow up?” I asked her.

Lindsey replied happily, “I already am a doctor, cuz I have doctor stuff.”

Of course, if it were that simple, we’d all be playing in golf tournaments and driving really nice cars. But there’s a lot more to becoming a doctor than having doctor “stuff”. We know that, and we therefore wouldn’t claim to be a doctor if we hadn’t gone through medical school.

But the not-so-funny thing is, we often claim to love Christ just because we have Christian “stuff” or do Christian things. We look to our church attendance, our six different Bible versions sitting on the shelf, or our Christian music CD’s, and we take them as evidence of our love for the Lord. But those things are not necessarily indicators of how much we love Him. They may result from our desire to draw close to Him. But it’s possible to have all those things and not really love Him very much, if at all.

In fact, Jesus condemned the Pharisees for having all the right religious “stuff” and at the same time having hearts that were far from God. You and I would do well to examine our hearts, too. We may do all the right things, but do we love Jesus? We may even abstain from all the wrong things, but do we love Him? We might look really good on the surface, and we might even think we’ve got this “Christian walk” thing all together, but are we “doing” Christianity, or loving Christ?

I know there have been times in my life when I was amazed to find I had been on the wrong track, or been missing something, when all along I sincerely thought I was getting it right. Perhaps you’ve had those times, too. That’s why we should regularly present ourselves before God and ask the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts and reveal to us anything that does not please Him.

Let’s be willing to do that this week. Let’s lay ourselves open before Him and ask the Great Physician to purify our hearts of anything that doesn’t belong there. Let’s make sure we truly love Christ with all our heart, and not just with the things we do or possess.

Ephesians 6:24—Grace to all who love our LORD Jesus Christ with an undying love.

Intentions

Megan Breedlove May 17, 2010 0Comment

I didn’t realize how much Ellie was looking forward to celebrating Mother’s Day until she came running into the room and announced, “Mommy! Sunday is Mother’s Day! That means we get to celebrate you! Daddies go to work and make money, but mothers take care of you every day of your life!”

Excitedly, Ellie told me about all her plans, which she repeated several times in subsequent days, for making my day special. She was going to buy me “a bunch” of pink roses. She would let me stay in bed all day and bring me breakfast in bed. She and my other children would be extra-nice to me, because “that’s what kids should do on Mother’s Day”. (I even heard her instructing the other kids in this principle.)

Her excitement at celebrating me as her mother touched a place deep in my heart. Due to her completely sincere, heartfelt offerings, I will remember her words forever…even though things didn’t work out quite the way she had planned.

On Mother’s Day, I woke up while (so I thought) no one else in the house was yet awake. But soon, I heard little feet coming my way, and Jessica walked in, sleepily squinting her eyes, and asking to nurse. So I tended to Jessica’s needs. Soon, Kenny woke up, and I helped him with breakfast.

When my husband got up, we began getting everyone ready for church. Lindsey and Ellie still weren’t up, so we had to wake them up. I thought Ellie might be disappointed that all her plans for me hadn’t worked out. As it turned out, she wasn’t.

In fact, she didn’t even mention the gone-by-the-wayside plans. I considered whether or not I should feel hurt that she had forgotten, but I decided not to. After all, I knew her intentions had been good. Her failure to remember and implement the wonderful plans she had come up with was nothing more than the forgetfulness of a seven-year-old. It didn’t reflect any lack of love for me on her part.

I wonder how God feels when you and I forget to follow through on our intentions towards Him.

We promise ourselves, and Him, that we will spend regular time in prayer or Bible study, and then days go by without our following through. Or we tell Him we’ll serve a brother or sister in a particular way, then never get around to doing it.

I bet God gets disappointed, just like I was when Ellie forgot to carry out the plans she’d promised. God loves spending time with us, and He enjoys it when we do things for Him. So when we fail to do either one, we deprive Him of the relationship or enjoyment He longs to experience. We deprive ourselves, too.

Father, forgive us for all the times we could have spent time with you, and didn’t, and for everything we promised You we would do, then didn’t even remember. Renew us so that our relationship with You is first and foremost in our thoughts and mind, above anything else. Lord, we want to spend time with You because we love You. And we’re so very grateful that You desire to spend time with us.

In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Psalm 116:18-19—I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the LORD—in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.

Addiction

Megan Breedlove January 11, 2010 0Comment

Before my first baby was born, I made a decision: I wasn’t going to give her a pacifier. After all, I planned to breastfeed, and I didn’t want her to develop “nipple confusion”. Plus, why would I need a pacifier? If Ellie cried, I would pick her up and nurse her, rock her, or play with her, whatever she wanted. That would take care of the problem.

Things didn’t work out quite the way I had envisioned. I caved while we were still in the hospital. Poor Ellie was crying what seemed like non-stop (we found out later that she was having feeding issues), and nursing wasn’t working out as planned. I decided that having Ellie develop nipple confusion would be far preferable to having me develop lunacy. So I offered her a pacifier. Repeatedly. A few days later, our lactation consultant said, “You know, I almost never recommend that a baby take a pacifier. But I do for this one.”

Ellie took to her “bice” immediately, and she continued her love affair with it until she was almost two, when we weaned her from it by cutting a little bit off the tip. (She put it in her mouth, tried to suck, and realized something was different. “I know, it’s broken,” I said sympathetically. After that, she never tried to suck it again.)

My subsequent three children have also had long, close relationships with their bices. We broke Kenny of his bice habit the same way we had with Ellie, by cutting the tip off. We had to cut a little more off each day for another day or two before he gave up. Lindsey, on the other hand, refused to give up until we had cut off so much that she couldn’t even hold the bice in her mouth anymore. At this point, we haven’t yet weaned Jessica from her bice. We’re working on it.

Well, sort of.

My reluctance is because I always hate depriving my children of something they love so much. Sure, I know that taking it away is best for them, and even helps their dental development. But when it finally comes time to get out the scissors, I’m always nervous.

Will she cry? Will she hate me? Will I ever get any sleep at night again?

Fortunately, there’s nothing morally wrong with being addicted to a pacifier. After all, it’s not like my kids are guzzling vodka from a sippy cup or robbing the local Babies “R” Us. So addiction isn’t the problem. Addiction only becomes a problem when a person is addicted to the wrong things…or fails to be addicted to the right things.

Dictionary.com defines addiction as “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma”. If that’s what addiction means, then it’s wonderful, even vital, to be addicted to the right things.

Like God’s Word. The word “enslaved” shouldn’t throw us off, as the New Testament clearly teaches that we are slaves to Christ. So wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were enslaved to the practice of reading God’s Word such that we form a habit, to such an extent that the cessation of reading His Word causes trauma?

Most Christians take God’s Word for granted. Many of us have several copies in different versions sitting on a shelf at home. They’re there for us to read any time we want. Sometimes, we take one down from the shelf and read it. But most of the time, we act as if we’re satisfied just to know that it’s there, available if we ever decide we want it.

Or maybe we decide on a Bible-reading plan, try to make it stick, and fail. I just don’t know how I can make a daily reading plan work, we sigh to ourselves, and days pass, then weeks. Maybe even months.

Our children are far more attached to cheap little pieces of plastic and silicone than we are to the Book that reveals God to us.

We know we should read our Bibles, but it’s head knowledge. There’s no heart yearning to be vitally connected to God through His Word. We treat as optional a book that Christian brothers and sisters around the world have died for the privilege of possessing because they knew its value.

Most of us don’t. In countries where Bibles are cheap and easy to come by, where we can have one any time we want, most of us just don’t get it. Maybe that was Satan’s plan. He knows that where Bibles aren’t allowed, people are willing to die for the privilege of reading one. In countries where they are freely available, people are willing to die without reading one.

Have we truly formed a habit of reading our Bible? If we were forced to cease reading it, would we be traumatized at all?

I pray we can always answer “yes” to both of these questions. But if we ever answer “no”, may God bring us to our knees (literally or figuratively), and may we beseech Him to instill within us a life-changing love of His Word. May we not stop asking until He grants our request, which He will, because it’s within the scope of His will for us.

We’ve heard a child scream when his or her pacifier was taken away or couldn’t be found. May those cries pale in comparison to the cry of our heart to know and love God’s Word. Because through His Word, we come to know and love God Himself.

That, dear sister, is worth far more than a piece of plastic.

Psalm 119:162—I rejoice in your word like one who finds a great treasure.

(I credit one of the devotions in Michelle Adams’ Daily Wisdom for Mothers, Barbour, 2004, for introducing me to the original idea from which this devotional ultimately developed.)

Breaking Easily

Megan Breedlove December 28, 2009 0Comment

My kids like to pick up things from the yard on the way to the minivan. Something that seemed so perfectly ordinary to me that I didn’t even notice it will snag my kids’ attention and become fascinating.

This particular fall day, it was leaves. Ellie had picked up a few she thought were pretty from our front yard. The leaves were pretty dry, and as Ellie looked at them and examined them on our way down the road, the inevitable happened.

“Mommy, my leaf broke,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Why do leaves break?”

“You see all those little lines in the leaves?” I asked. “When the leaves are on the tree, nutrients flow through those little lines and keep the leaf alive. When the leaf falls off the tree, it doesn’t have anything flowing through it, and it dries out.”

“I guess when things are dry, they break easier,” Ellie said.

She was talking about leaves, but she could just as well have been talking about any living thing. Living things depend on nutrients flowing through them to sustain them. This applies to everything from tiny organisms on up to our far-more-complicated, physical bodies.

It applies to the spiritual part of us as well.

Just as we feed our physical bodies to keep them going, so we must feed the spiritual part of ourselves. If we want to live spiritually, we must have nutrients flowing through us. Our spiritual life depends on it.

We know what kinds of foods our bodies need. But what about our spirits? How do we keep them nourished, healthy, and growing?

There are three primary ways.

First, we develop our prayer life. It’s impossible to live and grow spiritually if we don’t spend regular time with the One who created us. Tragically, many of us truly don’t realize how vitally important prayer is. We tend to think of it as an optional activity, something to engage in if we have the time. When we treat prayer as if doing it is great, but not doing it doesn’t really affect us, we are allowing the nutrients to drain slowly from our veins, and we are becoming dry and brittle.

Second, we spend time in God’s Word. This includes time listening to His Word proclaimed, as well as time in it during our personal devotions. How much and what part of the Bible we should read will vary from person to person. But the fact that we must read it applies to everyone. We may think we know what it says well enough that we don’t need to study it much. That’s not true. The Holy Spirit can make Scripture relevant and meaningful to us, gifting us with fresh realizations about any part of it, even a passage we’ve read many times before. God speaks through His Word, and He doesn’t just do so once, the first time we read it. Thinking we don’t need to study the Bible is either a failure to understand its importance, or simple arrogance.

Third, we fellowship with other believers, both in and out of a church setting. Sure, we can have friends who are not Christians. But we need Christian fellowship as well. We need to worship with others who believe and love the Lord as we do; we need to go through life’s experiences with those who share our Christian perspective; and we need both to give and to receive encouragement in our faith, exhortation, and support.

This coming year, make sure you’re not setting yourself up to be someone who is brittle and breaks easily. Make a plan for letting prayer, Bible study, and fellowship flow through you and keep you vitally alive. God will help you figure out how to make it happen. Then, discipline yourself to do what you know you need to do.

When leaves are dry, they break more easily. When they have the right nutrients flowing through them, they are strong.

Which will you plan to be this year?

John 15:5—I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Glad You’re With Us

Megan Breedlove December 14, 2009 0Comment

Our first Advent activity this year was simple. The kids and I sat at the dining room table, and I asked them whose birthday we celebrate on Christmas. When they responded “Jesus’ birthday”, we talked about how it’s easy to get caught up in all the fun stuff we enjoy about the Christmas season. But the purpose of Advent, I explained to them, is to remember Jesus’ coming. That’s why each day this month, we will do an activity designed to illustrate some aspect of the Christmas story—in other words, some aspect of Jesus’ birth.

Next, we sang the song, “Happy Birthday, Jesus.” I sang it for them first. Ellie knew part of it, and Kenny and Lindsey began catching on quickly. We would learn the song this year, I told them, because it helps to remind us that Christmas is all about Jesus.

Later that evening, I heard Lindsey doing her best to sing the song, in her sweet, three-year-old voice. One line of the song says, “I’m so glad it’s Christmas.” But Lindsey sang it, “I’m so glad you’re with us.”

“No, Lindsey, it’s not ‘I’m so glad you’re with us’,” I heard Ellie say, in all her six-year-old wisdom. “It’s, ‘I’m so glad it’s Christmas’.”

“I’m so glad you’re with us,” Lindsey sang.

I think she has it right.

Two thousand-plus years ago, a baby was born in a stable. There were probably other babies born that day, and certainly, that year. But this baby was special. This baby was not only the son of Mary and Joseph. This baby was the Son of God.

That day, God Himself came down from heaven in the form of a squalling, wrinkly infant, into a stable filled with animals, straw, and stench.

God wasn’t just up there anymore. He was down here.

Yes, God the Son humbled Himself enough to become one of us, at least physically. He Who had made the world now had to have His diaper changed. He Who had existed since before time began now dwelled in time and needed to eat every two hours.

Because of our sin, God would have been completely justified in remaining on His throne and allowing us all to go to hell as we deserved. But He didn’t. He got down from His throne and came to us to show us the way back to Him.

God with us.

The best part of the whole story is that He is still here. If we love Him, His Spirit indwells our hearts.

Now, He’s not only God with us, as if that weren’t far more than we deserve.

Now, He’s God in us.

This Christmas, in the middle of everything else you have to do, take time to stop and remember. Remember that God came to dwell with us, and that now He dwells in us.

Then praise Him for the incredible love, mercy, and kindness He has shown to us.

Remember that He’s not God up there. He’s God down here, and with us, and in us.

Jesus, we’re so glad you’re with us.

Matthew 1:23—The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means, “God with us.”

Fountain of Fun

Megan Breedlove August 10, 2009 0Comment

I bet you can identify with the mom who wrote to me that her son is always asking her if they are going to do something fun. It’s hard, she explained, when you’re already spread thin emotionally, financially, etc., to come up with fun things to do, and then, as soon as you’ve finished one fun activity, to have your children want to know what fun thing you are going to do next.

I know I can certainly identify with her.

All of us have times when we are spread thin. Maybe our finances are tight this week, this month, or this year. Maybe we’ve been pouring ourselves out emotionally in so many different directions that there isn’t much left for us. Yet during those times, we still have to parent. When we’re too exhausted or stressed, we still have to think of things to do with our children.

So when we scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with something, and our kids barely finish it before they want to know what’s next, it’s hard.

Even when we’re not spread thin, and life is reasonably satisfactory for the time being, it’s still annoying to have our children ask what’s next before we’ve even had time to ask them how they liked the first bit of fun.

Most of us have had this happen to us, at least once or twice. We know how exasperating it can be.

How much more exasperated, then, must Jesus have felt when the people around Him were always seeking a miracle?

We know how He felt. You’re not coming to me for my teaching, He told them. You’re coming for the miracles. In other words, He was saying, Look, I know you just want to be entertained. You don’t want me. You want the show.

Are we the same way? Do we demand that God always put on a show to keep us entertained? Do we complain when Christianity gets “boring” and we have to exercise some discipline to keep following through with prayer, reading the Bible, or going to church?

What is it we’re expecting from our relationship with God, anyway?

Far too often, we’re not seeking God Himself. We’re seeking how following Him makes us feel.

Please don’t misunderstand me. Living in relationship with God certainly can be exciting. It’s often new, as when He teaches us something. It’s fine to enjoy the mountaintop experiences when we have them. In fact, we should enjoy them. But if we are seeking the experience rather than seeking God, we have made an idol of our emotions and relegated God to second place or even further down the list.

Precious mommy, are you seeking God Himself, or are you seeking the fun? Where is your focus?

I pray that you and I both will walk closely with Him and keep our eyes on Him. I pray that even the most wonderful or the most terrible things that happen to us will not be enough to cause us to take our eyes off of God and focus on the experience.

But it’s hard. So I suggest you do the same thing I am going to do. Pray. Ask God to keep your focus on Him, where it belongs, and to convict you when it slips. Confess your lack of proper focus. Acknowledge His worthiness as the supreme Person upon Whom we should fix our eyes, and praise Him.

See? Your focus is back where it belongs. Rely on Him to help you keep it there.

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

Hebrews 12:2—Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

God Sees

Megan Breedlove June 29, 2009 0Comment

Precious mommy friend, this devotional is going to be a little bit different from the ones I usually write. I don’t have a story involving one of my kids to share; I don’t have anything funny to say. But I do have a word from the Lord which He wants me to share, so that in the writing of it I may be encouraged, and in the reading of it, you may be.

In the Bible, God reveals Himself in many ways, often through one of His names which is especially relevant to the situation. The name I want to focus on this week is El-Roi, the God Who Sees.

In Genesis 16, Hagar recognizes God as El-Roi because He responded to her in her time of extreme need. Therefore, she knew He must have seen her in her despair. And because there is no shadow of turning with God, we can know that He sees us, too. He sees us not only in our times of suffering or difficulty, but always. He is intimately aware of even the smallest details of our lives.

So may I offer you some words of encouragement this week? Some ways in which God might see you as you go about your mothering?

When you’re so tired you’d give anything for just fifteen more minutes of sleep…when you can’t remember the last time you slept a solid eight hours…when weariness is coloring your world in shades of gray…God sees.

When you carve time out of your day to spend preparing a nice meal, only to have your kids reject it…God sees.

When you’re awake—again—in the middle of the night, feeding a hungry baby, and it feels like you’re all alone in the world…God sees.

Or when it’s the middle of the day, and you’re lonely because you haven’t had time for a good, long phone conversation with your best friend, much less time for a lunch date, because you’ve been busy mothering…God sees.

When you clean up vomit or give another dose of cough medicine at 3 a.m….God sees.

When you do the best you can, and it’s still a horrible day…God sees.

When you need a friend…

When you need encouragement…

When you need strength…

When you need sleep…

When you spend all day doing things that no one notices (though they would certainly notice if you didn’t do them), remember…God sees.

Friend, you do not walk alone. God walks with you every step of the way. He sees what you do for your family, which is ultimately what you do for Him. He knows how hard it can be. He knows that sometimes, being a mom doesn’t seem so great. He knows we sometimes have to struggle for patience, for creativity, or for endurance. He knows it’s hard to be a great mom on four hours’ sleep…or when you’re going it alone…or when other circumstances in your life are crowding in.

But best of all, not only does He know, He cares.

Just as “listening” involves hearing, but is so much more, I believe that in this passage, “God sees” refers to the reality that He both sees and cares. And as if that weren’t enough, He does something about our struggles, just as He did for Hagar. He comes to us. What an incredible encouragement to know that God has chosen to be with us—in us—as we live our lives!

Try something this week. As you go throughout your days, remember that God is El-Roi, the God Who Sees. In your spectacular moments, in your mundane moments, and in everything in between, He sees. He cares. He loves.

I can think of nothing more incredible than that.

Be encouraged, dear friend.

Genesis 16:13– She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

Special Needs

Megan Breedlove April 20, 2009 0Comment

On Thursdays, I take my son, Kenny, to speech therapy. We park along the curb in front of the school, and Kenny and I “race” to see who gets to the school doors first. (He always wins.) Kenny knows the routine: I sign in at the office and put on a “Visitor” sticker, and we go around the corner and down the hall to the speech therapist’s office. Kenny loves his teacher and the other students in his small group. He enjoys the activities they do together, and he looks forward to getting prizes for good attendance.

He also likes getting to check out books from the school library after therapy. He has this privilege because he is enrolled as a student in the district, even though he is only four years old. Because he is officially a student, he has all the rights and privileges of students in the Fort Worth ISD, despite taking only one “class”.

Kenny is not classified as a “regular” student, however. He is classified as being in the special education program. In other words, he is a “special needs” student.

“Special needs” is not a label that any mother hopes her child will grow up to earn. I was no different. I didn’t want Kenny to struggle with any difficulties that would cause him pain. I didn’t want other kids to treat him differently because of his God-given needs.

I knew that this label represented a truth that would cause Kenny to have to work harder than other kids to achieve the same milestones and acceptance. Even now, I am still afraid sometimes that people will look at Kenny and see his difficulties, instead of seeing the wonderful child that he is.

But actually, Kenny is not the only one in our family who has special needs. He’s not the only one who has to work harder in some areas. Our other three children have special needs, too. So do my husband and I.

So do your children.

So do you.

You see, dear mommy friend, we are all special needs students when it comes to the spiritual aspects of life. Oh, our bodies and minds may be physically healthy, but spiritually speaking, we all have special needs.

In fact, each one of us possesses a soul with one extremely special need—the need to be redeemed by the grace of God. Once that occurs, we sometimes assume that everything will fall into place.

It doesn’t always—or even usually—happen that way.

No matter how “together” someone may look on the outside, even she has special needs. No matter how self-sufficient we may want to be, we can never be need-free.

Perhaps God has allowed these seeds of suffering and struggle into our lives so that we will remember that we need Him, and so that we’ll depend on Him instead of on our own strength.

Kenny has to depend on others to help him succeed in areas that are more difficult for him. You and I need to depend on God for the same thing.

If we are to depend on Him, we must spend time with him. Kenny’s needs provide a reason and an avenue for the two of us to work closely together and spend time together that we might not otherwise get to have to ourselves. So, though I would wish his needs to disappear if I could, I recognize their beauty not only in shaping his character but in shaping our life together.

How do you see your special needs? Are they merely an unfortunate or even tragic burden, or do you also see in them the opportunity to draw closer to God in a way that you otherwise might not?

Ask God to help you see your needs as He sees them. You may come to realize that even though your needs themselves are not beautiful, they can be part of God’s beautiful design for your life.

2 Corinthians 12:10—That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

More Rocks

Megan Breedlove November 24, 2008 0Comment

My third child, Lindsey, is usually the last one to the minivan. This is because the older two, Ellie and Kenny, have to have a race to see who can get there first. Lindsey, on the other hand, is content to get there when she gets there.

Usually, Lindsey comes directly to the van. Sometimes, however, something distracts her on the way, and she takes a detour, or simply stops along the way to do something.

On one particular day when she was almost two-and-a-half, Lindsey’s attention was captured by the rocks in our gravel driveway. She was going through a phase where she would squat down, carefully examine the rocks, and choose one or two before moving to the next spot in the driveway and doing the same thing.

This day was no exception.

Ellie and Kenny got into the van, and I lifted the baby in her car carrier and snapped it into the base. Lindsey was still busy checking out rocks. “Come on, Lindsey,” I said.

Lindsey clutched her rocks in her two little fists and obediently got into the van. Then, she opened her fists to show the rocks to Kenny. “Look, Kenny!” she said. “More rocks!”

I tried to be patient as I stood there waiting for her to finish showing off her rocks and get into her seat. After all, I had four young kids to manage and places to go. Rocks were not on my list of priorities. They were not important to me.

They could have been.

Instead of trying to get Lindsey to hurry up and get in the van, I could have taken a few seconds and squatted down with her to admire her rocks. I could have shown her that what interested her interested me, instead of failing to see what she valued as important.

Even before Lindsey reached her seat in the van, I realized how glad I am that God takes more of an interest in my interests than I sometimes do in my kids’.

God is not impatient with my interests because he has other things to do. God doesn’t see the things I am interested in as boring—something he might have been interested in at one time, but not anymore.

No, God involves himself in my life and my interests because he is interested in me.

God’s ways are higher than my ways, and his thoughts than my thoughts. God knows far more than I ever will about everything—in fact, everything that exists, he either created or gave mankind the ability to create. Yet amazingly, astonishingly, God still squats down to my eye level to share my life and my interests with me.

Stop and think about that a minute. And think about the wonderful, profound ramifications of that thought.

When you or I have fun creating something delicious for dinner, God enjoys the experience with us. When we get a “well done” from our supervisor, God is glad with us. When our child takes his or her first steps, God rejoices with us.

How do I know?

Over and over throughout the Bible, God reveals himself as an emotional Being who responds emotionally to the things that happen to his people. True, his emotions are not entirely like ours—his are never capricious or inappropriate, never out of proportion, never sinful. But he does feel. He does react to the things that his people experience.

In fact, Jesus says that anything we do to one of his children, we do to him. In other words, he takes the things that happen to us very personally.

The things we experience matter to him.

How incredible is that? That Almighty God cares about the smallest details of our lives? That he interests himself in the things that interest us? That he is moved by the things that happen to us?

Beloved, as you go through your day today, I encourage you to try something.

Several times, stop and remember the fact that God is with you (if he is in you). Ask him to show you his perspective on your day. Ask him how he feels right then about what you are experiencing. Ask him what have been his delights—or what has been his sadness—about your day.

Then thank him for his magnificent love that cares about you and about your experiences.

See if you’re not drawn closer into an incredible, loving relationship with the precious Lover of your soul.

Matthew 10:29-31—Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

That’s My Mommy!

Megan Breedlove October 20, 2008 0Comment

A couple times a week, the kids and I go to the YMCA. I enjoy working out by playing racquetball or lifting weights, and the kids enjoy the on-site childcare. The childcare takes place in a large room that has all kinds of different toys we don’t have at home, as well as a large-screen TV and a variety of videos. There are usually other children there for my kids to play with, too. Basically, my kids enjoy everything about going to the Y.

When we arrive, I drop the kids off in their room and go to the main building, where the fitness center is. When I’m done, I come back to get them.

And when I do, it’s one of the best moments of my day. Let me tell you why.

At this writing, Lindsey is two-and-a-half. She is completely adorable—cute, funny, quirky, and joyful. She enjoys herself in the play room, but when Mommy returns…well, for her, that’s even better.

When Lindsey sees me coming to pick them up, it’s like it’s Christmas morning for her. She grins and dances up and down, or starts running toward me, laughing with happiness.

But the reason why it’s the best moment of my day is because she’ll say to the childcare workers, as she points to me, “That’s my mommy! That’s MOMMY!”

Oh, she is so excited to see me. She’s so excited she has to tell someone about it—has to make sure someone notices that her mommy is here. Usually, she can barely contain herself long enough to point this out once or twice before she is impelled to run to me, wrapping her arms around me and squeezing with all her little-girl strength.

When she reacts to my presence like this, I can just feel the love for her welling up in my heart. I get excited, too, and I can’t wait to wrap my arms around her. Oh, the incalculable pleasure of having my child delight in my presence!

Dear sisters, do we delight in the presence of our Heavenly Father the same way? Do we bring joy to His heart by the sheer exuberance of our delight in Him?

I suspect that many times, we don’t. I know that I have been guilty of taking God for granted at times. I’ve ignored Him, or forgotten about Him at times.

Maybe you have, too.

Or maybe you have spurned Him at times. Maybe you weren’t interested in hearing from Him. Maybe you didn’t care about His presence.

Oh, friends, that’s a far cry from the joy and delight we were created to feel when our Heavenly Father is near—which is always!

The Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Oh, we know we’re supposed to glorify God. But enjoy Him? We don’t think about that.

If we forget that we’re supposed to enjoy God, we develop a relationship with Him marked by long stretches of joyless obedience, punctuated with brief moments of spiritual excitement, the results of retreats, or summer camps, or maybe a particularly moving sermon.

Should we obey God without question? Absolutely. He is Almighty God, and He deserves nothing less than our immediate, unquestioning obedience. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy Him.

God is not only perfectly holy, righteous, and powerful, He is also perfectly loving, compassionate, and beautiful. We can enjoy a God like that. We can, and we must. And we will if we mediate on His attributes, immersing ourselves in contemplation of Him in all of His beauty and goodness.

It’s easy to think that if God would just show up at our homes, as I show up at the Y for Lindsey, of course we would respond in loving worship.

But friends, He already has shown up. We don’t see Him in visible form, but we know that if we have asked Him to save us, and acknowledged Him as our Lord and Savior, He lives in our hearts.

In our hearts.

That means He’s with us constantly. We don’t have to wait for Him to show up to pick us up. He is already with us, every moment of every day of our lives.

Yet instead of letting this motivate our hearts to respond in joyful delight to Him, we let it cause us to take Him for granted.

Yes, He’s here. We know that, and we become so used to that fact that sometimes, it doesn’t mean all that much to us anymore. We acknowledge with our heads that it is important, but it no longer moves our hearts.

There’s something very wrong with that. If the God of the Universe inhabits your heart, and you don’t regularly and consistently delight in His presence, there’s something very wrong with that.

Delighting in God’s presence won’t look the same for all people. If you are a person who tends not to be very emotional, then delighting in God’s presence will probably look different for you than for someone who is a very emotional person. And that’s fine.

What’s not fine is for you to fail to delight in Him.

Do you need to ask God to cause your heart to delight in Him? Before you do that, do you need to ask His forgiveness for taking Him for granted, for failing to appreciate His wondrous nature?

Think about how you feel when your child delights in your presence. Don’t you want to know that you bring the same kind of delight to God’s heart by delighting in Him?

After all, He delights in you.

Psalm 35:9—My soul will rejoice in the LORD.

Zephaniah 3:17—He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.