God's Love Lap

As we approach the holiday of love I ask myself what does love really look like? I was reading a book for homework and came upon this story. This comes from George Barna’s book Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions.

Here is the story.

Children often need reassurance that they are loved by those whom they trust and depend upon. My oldest daughter loves to ask challenging questions of her mother and me. Several years ago, while spending a laid- back Saturday lounging around the house, she wandered into my study where I was working at the computer.

“Daddy,” she began innocently, “do you love me?”

After turning away from the computer to give her my full attention, I affirmed that she was more important to me that anything else in the world and that I loved her very dearly. She smiled and then let loose the big one.

“How do I know you really love me?”

Ah, the thoughts that went through my mind. I thought to myself let’s see. I wiped your poopy behind every day for two years, ran a car into the ground carting you to sports practices, spent hours awake late at night holding you or calming you when you had earaches or stomachaches, spent more money than I’d care to tally on special adventures and events, played silly games until I couldn’t bear it any longer, and so on.

I just replied, “ I hug you and kiss you and tell you all the time how much I love you, “ I replied.

“Yeah, but how do I know you really mean it?” she pressed forward, digging for the golden nugget of truth.

“I work really hard to make the money that provides your food, clothing, home, and toys.”

“Yeah, but you have to do that. That’s what every parent has to do, but that doesn’t mean you love me.”

I invited her to sit on my lap while I told her the ultimate, indisputable way that she could know that I loved her more than anything on the planet.

“Buddy, I do everything I can to try and raise you up to be the woman that God made you and wants you to be. There is nothing more important than that you love, obey, and serve God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul. And I do everything I can to help you be a little girl who grows up to be a big girl who is God’s pleasing and faithful servant. There’s nothing more special that any parent can do than to help his or her child honor God; and I will never stop trying to do the things that bring you closer to Him. That’s more important than buying you nice clothes or giving you a cell phone, than letting you see every movie you want to see or giving you the biggest room in the house. I really want God and other people throughout the world to be blessed by who you are. “

Her big, dark eyes continued to stare intently into mine for a few seconds after I finished delivering my best shot. Then she pursed her lips, grinned, nodded her head up and down a few times, and simply said,

“Okay,” and went bounding out of the room. She has never asked me that question again. I hope it is because she sensed the truthfulness and sincerity of my reply.

May we all feel this kind of love from our family, friends, and Lord. May we all crawl into the laps of our Heavenly Father and be reminded of this incredible blessing.

The Winter Blahs

This winter has been nuts. As a teacher it has been a nightmare as well. We have a total of 6 snow days. Winter has brought a lot of inches of snow and ice. This morning I slept in due to the late start. This morning I awoke to something different than the last days. I opened my garage door and peering in the door was something I have not seen in a while it was the sun. The sun came into my windows today all day. It was a glorious thing. The sun was flexing its muscles in the face of the darkness and dreariness that we have seen this winter. The sun was screaming and bringing with it a fresh start. The sun this morning was a reminder of how the God that loves me and created me is and always will be the God of new beginnings. Today I am looking and listening to God who sends his love with the rising of the sun.

Burning Sheltering Presence

Day 1

Yesterday I was reading my devotions and I was struck by the passage in Exodus 23:23-25. This passage says, “ During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”

Egypt often times in the Bible was symbolic of worldliness and bondage. Maybe as a single person you have been in a place of slavery of worldliness or bondage. For example when one refuses to accept their single state, it sets a Christian in a state of bondage, which WILL have an effect upon your life as a Christian. When a person refuses to accept their single life, they tend to focus on a spousal search. A spousal search may be all consuming because everything we do or every event we attend will always be under the umbrella of searching for a mate. This limits our vision, creativity, and our ability to be useful to others. If we will focus on Christ as our source of life instead of a spouse, God WILL fill any void we have.

The Israelites in Egypt groaned and suffered for a long time and God said nothing to them. Maybe some of you feel like you pray endlessly for a man and God is silent and not answering. But, right after the people groan it says God remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and was concerned about them. God knows our hearts and he is concerned with us too. Isaiah 65:24 reads, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”

Here is where the passage gets real good. Just following the peoples groaning God appears to Moses in the burning bush. I am almost positive this is not the way the Israelites or Moses thought God would answer or speak to him. Go read Exodus 3 and she the conversation between Moses and God. Hear what God is saying. Listen to the love and compassion that God has for his people as he speaks to Moses. He has that same love and compassion for us. I once read that the burning bush to the Jews was a symbol of God's sheltering presence during times when the Jews will go through "burning difficulties." The bush keeps burning because God is its exsistence, so too will God will also support our existence in our time of need. So as single people maybe we are not in slavery in Egypt but just the same God is our sheltering presence in our burning difficulties.

The author of my devotional Erin Marshall added this to the story.

“But when we enclose our expectations of God in a box with a set timer, we’re saying to Him, ‘ I trust you, God, if you answer in this way and by that time.’ This strategy invites doubt and suffocates faith. God is more interested in our growth than our comfort, and he doesn’t often do things our way…Silence often promotes deeper thought and richer faith. He knows when the time and quiet are needed to fit us and our circumstance for his finished answer.”

So the next time you are waiting for God to answer. Look around and see how he has already provided and answered. Maybe it is not exactly a burning bush to show his sheltering presence, but I can guarantee he is there and waiting to answer and at the perfect time.

“Every happening, great and small, is a parable by whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.” – Malcolm Muggeridge

Blessings! Until tomorrow…

-KB

Singleness in Community

I am currently taking a class entitled discipleship in community. I have been fascinated the last weeks about community. The many communities that I have been a part of and am still a part of.

God has created us for community. We were created in the image of a God of community. Stanley Grenz states, “ Only in fellowship with others can we show forth what God is like, for God is the community of love—the eternal relationship enjoyed by the Father and the Son, which is the Holy Spirit.” In the book I read for class last week entitled Creating Community Stanley and Willits say, “ Living life alone does not accurately reflect the One whose image we bear.”

So what do these quotes say to my many single friends and me? When people ask me what the hardest part about being single is I answer the knowing you have a constant community to come home to and love you.

As I watched the preview for the movie Valentine’s Day for the twentieth time my mind got thinking. To add to that a friend of mine pointed out the many eharmony and match.com commercials flooding the television I decided to in the next 25 or so days to build a singleness in community. Each day until Valentine’s Day I am going to write about joys of singleness, contentment, trust, doubt, and where ever else the Holy Spirit leads.

Singleness in Community………