😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. Every chapter in your life is a new journey and there are times when you have 5, 6, 7 chapters being written all at the same time. Thinking back on work interviews and trying to make myself and talents seem more appealing to potential supervisors and companies, I remember selling myself as a good multitasker. I can bounce from this task to that task lickity split. I never really take a moment to breath before I jump to the next. My mind is always moving, whether I’m at work or home. Never taking a moment to be still and quiet until my head hits the pillow at night. I think this is taking a toll on me. For the past few weeks I’ve found myself not wanting to go to bed. I think my mind is trying to tell me to seek stillness and quiet before I go to bed, but yet I keep letting the meaningless tv program run and keep me distracted from the peace and quite my mind and body are desiring. Can you relate? Why do we do this? We hear our bodies calling out for help, yet we ignore ourselves. What’s your body calling out for? Is your body calling out for energy? It can be hard to put effort into being active when all you want to do is veg on the couch. Is your body calling out for conversation? Real conversations? It can be intimidating and a bit scary putting yourself out there and having actual face to face or phone conversations, not screen to screen. Awhile back I had a conversation with my four-year-old granddaughter about talking with God. At one point she asked me how do I know when God is talking to me when, I can’t see Him. I told her, “Do you remember when we were driving in the Jeep, you were in the back seat talking and I asked you, What did you say? and you told me, I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to my eye.” I then asked, “Was your eye talking to you? And you said, Yes.” I then said, “Well, talking with God is kind of like that. You don’t see Him, but you can hear Him.”
He built some of Himself into each and everyone of us. That’s how close he wants to be with you. When you hear your body speaking to you, it’s not just your body. It’s Him within you, trying to nudge you along toward what’s good and right for you. Not necessarily what WE KNOW is right for us. But He won’t hold us back from what WE KNOW to be best. He will let us act upon our own thoughts and will, falling down and getting a few bumps and bruises along the way. Which circles us back around to listening to those little cues He’s giving us when our “body” speaks to us. In moments like these, God is showing us a great example of being a loving parent. He wants the best for us, like most parents want for their children. But He doesn’t smother us. He’s not there trying to control our every move. He allows us to make our own mistakes within a safe environment. Whether we take it our not, after we make a wrong turn, He ALWAYS provides us with an opportunity to find a way out. Which is what we should do with our children as well, especially when they’re young and still under the protection of our homes. It’s okay to create a safe environment for them to make some (age appropriate) free will choices and learn from their choices. As parents, we don’t need to put a bandage on every scrap or scratch. Yes, they will heal without it and it’s okay to let them cry. Sometimes seeing those exposed scraps and scratches are just a good reminder of the choices they made and how they would maybe do things differently next time. You know, it’s better for a child to experience and learn lessons within the loving protection of a parent than it is to smother them, making them incapable of thinking and discerning situation for themselves and get beatdown and eaten by the wolves that lurk outside waiting to pounce. Wolves that beat you down just to make them feel better about themselves.
Thank You Lord, that You still speak guiding words with me even when I think I can do things on my own.
Thank You Lord, for allowing me to fall within your presence to help grow me to understand and choose You more.
Thank You Lord, that even though it’s sometimes painful as a parent to watch, you allow me to feel the pain of my choices to help prepare me for the journey ahead.
Thank You Lord for being my loving Father, who loves me so much that You allow me to make my own choices.
Bless others and be blessed.
#ChrisTomlin – Good Good Father
Third Day Devotions 