Learning to Parent

As I was talking with my son's grandmother today, God gave me a picture of my life as a mother. The analogy He gave me was that of a baby learning to walk.

Sometimes I wobble and I fall down. Sometimes I wobble, but then I catch myself. Still other times I take good steps. Sometimes I take multiple ones in a row and get to thinking I am home free only to fall flat on my butt. Then God scoops down, picks me up, brushes me off, gives me a hug and sends me on my way. Each time though I am learning how to "walk" better.

I just need to keep my eyes on Jesus and my heart submitted to allowing Him to do what He wants.

Philippians 1:6 (Amplified Bible)

And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.

Breakthrough

Tonight at IHOP Chicago, I ended talking to a lady afterward that asked if she could pray for me. When she did she prophesied over me. The first thing she said was firm. I don't quite remember all said, but I remember some of it and the general idea. She said that she got the image of a rock being split by roots that were growing through it. She said that God was saying that there are roots that are firmly rooted in Him and they are going to break the rock into pieces. She also said that there have been other seeds that have tried to grow through, but they were not strong enough. This time that are rooted deeply into His love, thereby making it possible.

Jesus, I'm amazed by you!

So much has taken place over the last couple of days it is mind boggling to me. I am just in awe of my savior and king Jesus Christ. It has been quite some time since I have felt His presence in the way that I have over this past weekend. I am humbled.

Revelation

I have heard the phrase that God even rested on the 7th day, what makes us think we don't need to rest. Today as I was reading in Genesis 1, I got a couple new revelations. First If it took God 6 days to make the earth and everything in it, what makes us think we can do it all in one day. Everything is a process. It builds upon that which is already there. The more that is there, the more there is to build upon equaling more results.

Second, as I was pondering all this the idea came to me about God never experiencing set back. He's never failed. Never attempted to do something and had it fail. That is not completely true. While God has never sinned, never done anything wrong, He HAS experienced setbacks. Look at us! The difference is that God makes the best of every situation. He has a remarkable ability to turn things about and bring good out of them. Just like He did with Jesus. He took a hopeless situation of eternity away from His children and CREATED a way to bring us back to Him. He didn't let "the chips fall where they may" per say. He did something about it. God is purposeful in all that He does. We were created in His image. We need to be purposeful in what we do and create opportunities (with His help of course because outside of Him we can do nothing).

Love this verse:

Revelation 4:11 (NKJV)
You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.

That was quick - prayer answered

Tonight as I was praying I asked God what I am to have faith in. I have struggled with that for a long time. When I thought I was done praying, I got up and sat down on my bed. I went to grab my Bible, but I didn't feel at peace. Instead, I felt a tugging at my heart to get back on the floor. When I did that I remembered the words of one of my pastors awhile back about sitting quietly waiting on the Lord. For many reasons, I have struggled with that as well. I was obedient. As I also was also obedient at adopting His schedule in the first place that allowed me to have the time to do all this. Boy did He reward me. Within just a few minutes I heard "That I have begun a good work in you and I will complete it. That is what you should have faith in." Hallelujah!!! God is wonderful! I realized after He spoke that how far I had gotten away from even thinking about that verse let alone believing in it. I really need that reminder and the faith that came from Him speaking to me period.

I love it when God does this

A few days ago, I e-mailed a group of friends about what was going on concerning my brother. Monday, Sarah, one of the ladies, responded and included the scripture Jeremiah 29:11. I had been dealing with some issues and that scripture spoke encouragement to me about my situation. It wasn't until latter that night that I caught the true awesomeness of it all. As I was reading the email to my mom, I was reminded of something she had shared with me before he got locked up.

My mom had been at my house babysitting Dylan not too long after she found out that he was going to be going to prison. That night when she told me about it, she shared how God had encouraged her.

She had been sitting at my computer and her eyes fell on one of the message cards I have sitting there . It is a cross with a scripture written on it. The verse, of course, is Jeremiah 29:11! I did not catch it that Sarah had written the very same verse in response to my praise/prayer for my brother as God had used to encourage my mom. She had no idea about the verse with my mother. God never ceases to amaze me. He is so awesome!

Hurting

I knew when I began to pray recently for a specific thing what that meant. I knew what I would have to go through, what I would experience, the pain I would feel. Well here I am....

For awhile now I have been praying that God would help me to be others-minded. That I would focus on what my reaction to them was teaching them rather than focusing on what they were doing to me.

Just recently, I asked God to help me walk in love. I already know that this year (me being 33) is a year of me dying to myself. It has not been easy by any means. I am rather frustrated with the whole aspect of being able to have control over it and then something happening and it seems like I am back to square 1. Sometimes even worse because not only am I back to where I started, but then the struggle is harder due to discouragement, etc.

Anyway, everything revolves around love. Scripture tells us that we can have all kinds on things and yet if we have not love we have nothing (1 Corinthians 13). God is love. The ultimate for me is to walk in love. That is the foundation for everything else. It ALL starts with love, just like Jesus going to the cross for us.

Well, in order to learn to walk in love, one must go through some stuff. The true indication of someone's ability to walk in love is by dealing with people that don't deserve it. It's to have people hurt you, wrong you, abuse you, mistreat you, neglect you, etc and still extend the love of the Father. I WANT THAT! I don't want to get all shut off/shut down when people reject, misuse, neglect, mistreat me, so I have been asking God to help me do that.

IT HURTS! I have had many a thing happen today that is giving (or has given) me the opportunity to react out of my emotion or out of love. The thing is that one of the keys to learning to act out of love, is learning to manage that pain. It's not that the pain isn't there, one must learn how to handle it. Today, and the next few days, are definitely opportunities for growth for me. It's all based on how I handle it. Please help me Lord. I can not do this on my own.