Praying for the right thing

 

Having two kids, and watching them grow up and make all the same mistakes that all kids make it made me realize something.

With my oldest, I really wanted him to be happy.  Of course I want my youngest to be happy too.  It’s just that I realized that maybe it isn’t always happiness that they need to grow.

I realized that sometimes I prayed for the wrong things for them. 

That sounds crazy doesn’t it?  But I realize now that the things that I may have thought they needed, they didn’t need at all.

One example, when my son was in middle school, he was pretty good at baseball.   As he got older he didn’t want to be involved in sports.  I prayed that he would be good at everything that he did.  I wanted him to get the feeling of self gratification that he got when he played baseball.

I was thinking about his self confidence.  I wanted him to know his worth, by someone other than his family.

I was wrong.  I had the best of intentions of course, but I was going about it all wrong. 

I wish I would have prayed for his relationship with Jesus.  That he would grow in his faith and then he would have naturally seen that he is worth so much that God would have sent Jesus to earth even if he were the only one on earth. 

I was focusing on trying to get him to fit into the what the world sees as self worth, when I knew that it is what God says we are worth that really matters.

So, I have changed what I pray for. 

I pray that they will grow in their relationship with the Lord, then everything else just seems to come together.

Blessings

Jesus has the power of God, by which he has given us everything we need to live and to serve God.  We have these things because we know him.  With these gifts you can share in being like God, and world will not ruin you with its evil desires.

2 Peter 3-4

This is just one of the things we have been talking about in our bible study.  


God has given us everything we need to live, not just to live but to serve.  


Lately, I can't let go of the need to get rid of some stuff.  


So I am going through and purging.  Getting rid of stuff that I haven't used, or maybe I just don't want anymore.


It will be furniture, clothes, anything that I don't feel like I can't live without.  


What about you?  Anyone else feel the need to simplify?

Simplify!

We started something new in our Sunday School class, it's called Affluenza.  


It's about how we are affected by how the world measures success, and how we can avoid falling into the trap of keeping up with the Jones'.  


It's something that I have really thought a lot about lately.  I truly feel like I need to let go of "things", don't get me wrong, I am certainly not a hoarder or anything but I definitely have more than I need.


One of the things someone suggested to kind of begin the process of simplifying is to just clean out our closets.  How many things do we have in our closet that we do not, or cannot wear?  I once heard that if you haven't worn it in a year then you don't need it.  


I know that in my closet are some things that are still perfectly good, but I don't use them anymore so I just put them in the top of my closet. 


I usually make myself clean out my closets every summer, but this year I am really cleaning them out.  If I don't use it on a daily basis, it is going!


What about you?  Do you own your things, or do they own you?

Job

One of the goals I set for myself this year was to read through the bible.  So, I copied a plan off the Internet that goes in Chronological order.


I started out in Genesis and then went to Job.


I really, really, really liked reading Job,


I have heard people talk about that book a lot but reading it for myself was great.  I learned so much from it.


I was comforted by Job's reaction to his circumstances, first that he questioned God, because I think everyone at some point and time in their life questions God.  Things happen all the time that I don't understand and it made me feel pretty good that even such a righteous man as Job questions his trials.


And having said that it also made me very humble in that I am nothing and God can do whatever he pleases and I should just trust him and not say a word.  

"Surely I spoke of things I did not understand:

I talked of things too wonderful for me to know."

Job 42:5,6

I think we can all see our self as Job in some sense, I mean we all have times when we don't understand why everything seems to happen to us?  I mean some people just can't seem to catch a break.  It's normal to seek God's will during those times, isn't it?

These are opportunities for us to grow, to grow in our relationship with Christ and within ourselves.

I mean it all turned out pretty swell in the end for Job.

The Lord blessed the last part of Job's life even more than the first part.  

Job 42:12

Suffering

If you are trying hard to do good, no one can really hurt you.  But even if you suffer for doing right, you are blessed.

1 Peter 3:13,14

Key note; even if you suffer for doing right, you are blessed.  


I know that is true, I mean I know it in my head.  I believe it, I really do, it's just that when you are in the middle of the suffering it can be down right difficult to feel blessed.


With everything that is going on in the "world" today, there is suffering every where you look.  I see good people who have been out of work for a long time.  I see people who have always been able to pay their bills on time struggling.  I see people who can't afford to buy medicine that they desperately need.


That is suffering.


Will these people be blessed?  Definitely!  I know it!


Will I ever see it?  That I don't know.  


I do know that God's time and mine are definitely not the same.  But do I trust his word?


YES!  YES!! YES!!!!