New Hearts

So here is a truth, "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."  (Genesis 8:21)  We can sometimes watch our children and wonder , "Where did that come from?  Who put such cruel words in that precious three year old mouth?"   The answer is in the Bible.  It says, we are all born with hearts full of evil.  The amazing thing is that it does not say part full, or mostly full.  It is a blanket statement and without a qualifier.  Our hearts are 100 percent evil from our very beginning.

I have a problem when my children prove this verse true. I am shocked, hurt and often angry.  I forget that they were born prisoners to sin, just like me.  I disregard the fact that their evil tendencies come from me.  I fail to remember 1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common..."  

If my children's sins are common to humanity, should I not then have compassion on them, since I suffer from the same plague?  "Your children have the stamp of character that their parents have given them.  How careful, then, should be your treatment of them; how tenderly should you rebuke and correct their faults."  (EG White, Testimonies to the Church, volume 4 page 140.1)  But, because my heart is full of evil too, I do not know how to correct them, nor can I sympathize with their sinful condition. I only know how to find fault, and accuse.  And when I read the rest of Ellen White's statement..."You are too stern and exacting, and have frequently dealt with them when you were excited and angry.  This has almost fretted away the golden cord of love that binds their hearts to yours;" I find myself in a deep dark dungeon of despair.

I despair because I know my sin kills the love in my children's hearts, yet I am powerless to stop expressing it towards them.  "O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

But it is in exactly this condition that I can find hope.  I cannot do anything to change my heart or my children's hearts.  But Jesus came and lived among men, as a man, to free me.  He said, "Father...glorify thy Son...as thou has given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life..." (John 17:1, 2)  Jesus has power over my flesh, and thank God He also has power over my children's.  So although we suffer from evil hearts, God has promised, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." (Ezekiel 36:26)

I do not need to loose my temper with my children until their love is so cold they turn to others for affection.  I can come to Jesus and say, I am so pitiful, I get upset because my children exercise the very inheritance I  gave them.  Please help me.  Give me a new heart like you promised and He will.

And if our children's hearts are cold because of the damage we have done God has another promise He will fulfill. "Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.  And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border." (Jeremiah 31:16, 17)

Have Babies

"And to the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception."  (Genesis 3:16)

Small and fragile, a newborn always gets our undivided attention.  We watch the rise and fall of their chests. We breath deeply of their sweet must.  Their cries elicit our pity.  Their feet and fingers awe. Nothing can be as velvet as their skin.  What wondrous creatures they are.  The epitome of earthly goodness, truth and beauty.  Even as they grow they hold our attention.  But they all own a dark destiny.

Whether by choice or accident, each child is born to break our hearts.  Their illnesses, their trials,  their waywardness and repentance, all cut our souls like God's two edged sword.  Taken from our flesh or someone else's, there is no injury comparable to that dealt by a child born in our hearts.  So why have them?  Why accept the wounds they promise to give?  Because they offer the potential of unconditional love.  Not their love toward us, but the hope that we might learn to love them without qualifiers.  So go ahead have babies, because it is through the sting they inflict that we understand God.

These are my "babies".  Swords that have shaped and pruned me.

Desperate Mothers

Desperation is defined as: feeling, showing, or involving a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with.  I believe every mother has been desperate sometime.  I have been desperate for my child's healing.  I have been desperate at choices made.  I have been desperate for my child's salvation.  Desperation is a cruel master and leaves you weary and spent.  Desperation may feign love,  but unmasked desperation is faithlessness.

But...
With faith, we wait to see the flush of health on that little brow that burns with fever.
With faith, we believe our prodigal child will return humble and converted.
With faith, we anticipate choices made by principle not feeling.
With faith, we hope in the quickening of that quiet body.
With faith, we trust that this illness too, will pass.
With faith, we contemplate the grand reunion.
With faith, we implore for the Master's touch.
With faith, we hold onto the hope of peace.
With faith, we thrill in assurance.
With faith, we expect action.
With faith, we rejoice.
With faith, we rest...

After His Kind

Every living thing in creation reproduces “after his kind”.  God gives a list:

Genesis 1:

v 12  “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yeilding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind...”

v 21 - “whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind...”

v 25 - And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind...”

But mankind does not reproduces after his kind. The record says that “God blessed them and God said unto them. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth...” (Genesis 1:28)  Never does it mention that mankind would reproduce after his kind. And although my daughter looks like me, and I look like my mother and she like hers our goal is not to reproduce after our own kind.  Our purpose in child bearing is to reproduce in God’s image.  He is the Progenitor and our work is to replenish the earth with people that look like Him.

My Daughter, My Mother and Me

Heavenly Spa

And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days..." Leviticus 16:19  For years this verse made me feel as if the Lord considered our natural cycles dirty.  But I praise Him, because although it may not be a deeply theological point, I do believe He opened my mind to a true one.

What happened in Israel when women were put apart for days together is probably the same as would happen today.  At first there would be the "getting to know you" phase where everyone would tell about themselves and their lives.  But after developing friendships things would change.  Conversations would become deeper, the topics would remain the same, but they would shift into "counseling" sessions; older women encouraging young ones.  Maidens listening with wonder at what life might bring to their futures. The women would minister to each other physically too.  If there were some with difficult symptoms the others would make hot poultices.  They would brew teas and deliver remedies.   They would give each other back rubs when they felt weak and offer facials when they felt better. Women put apart for seven days, would not only become friends, they would become sisters.

Eventually, someone might say, "You know this tent could use a little color, maybe a new rug!"  Then the women would begin "nesting" and the tent would become...beautiful.  It would morph into a place where women could rest, recuperate and be revitalized.  It would become... a spa.  The original concept behind the "women's day spa" came from God.

Why did the Lord call women to go to His spa monthly?  Because, with a tender and pitying heart He knows our trials and sees we are prone to weariness.  What a wonderful friend He is.  He created "legalized rest" for women.  Like Martha, ("But Martha was cumbered about much serving...: Luke 10:40),  we become absorbed in ministering to our families and others, but God intends that we routinely take time to come apart and visit His spa.  He wants to bathe us in His energizing presence and give us that peace that passes understanding.

Wanting Babies

God the Self-Sufficient-One needed children in His own likeness.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness...So God created man in is own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." (Genesis 1:26, 27)  In glorious perfection with the company of angels God wanted more.  His great heart longed for children that were like Him.  A race that could relate to Him like no other. This was His plan for us, that we should fill the void in His heart.

Loving couples can feel the same thing.  They are incited to create life out of love.  The desire for children can echo Rachel's cry, "Give me children lest I die."  (Genesis 30:1)  Like our Father, we instinctively desire children.  This is the first great proof that we are His own offspring for He too yearned for a child to love.

He Gently Leads Those With Young

"He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."  Isaiah 40:11

In my mind I picture the Lord, my Shepherd, carrying my children in His arms and me, the bleating ewe, following behind.  That mental picture tells the entire story of parenting according to God's method.  It tells the whole story of child evangelism.  It tells the whole story of witnessing to people young in Christ.  We the parent, evangelist, teacher, etc. following close after Christ as we trust Him to win the hearts of our children.  The focus for our lives is not to figure out how to parent better, rather it is to remain as close to God as we can while we entrust our children to His loving care.

In this blog I will share lessons God has been gracious enough to show me regarding my parenting, family and marriage.  There are many other lessons to be learned.  My hope is that you will be inspired to read your Bible looking for the gentle leading of our Shepherd as you parent your children.