Go Figure

Sixth grade kids crack me up! They are so independent one minute and a little kid the next. Some have already grown so tough that it is difficult to approach them for a personal conversation, and others still have questions about Santa Claus! The very ones that are most difficult pull their attention into a lesson are the ones who are jumping up and down on the bleachers dying to be a volunteer during an assembly. Many times, the ones who have attendance issues are the ones running down the hallways to be the first on in the classroom! 

All About Me

Relatively thinking, we live in a “me-first” or “I should get-the-best” kind of world. Often we think that it is only kids who are partakers of this slanted thinking, but we are guilty too. We stand in the check-out lines mumbling. Can they not open another line? Can’t they see me standing here having to wait? I’m in a hurry. At work when things to not seem to go the way we want, we mutter. Really, I’ve worked here all these years, and this is all they give me for Christmas? The examples could go on for a while, but the point is that our biased me-thinking is either entering our minds or lurking near unless we consciously put things in perspective.

Wanting the Best for her Children

Recently reading in the book of Matthew, James and John’s mother asked Jesus if her boys would sit on the left and the right of Him. Hello! The left and the right! She would probably think she should get her own personal grocery store! Honestly, I did think what audacity!

Our List of Demands

I enjoy watching Chip Ingrid; he says such profound things in such a down to earth manner. Sometimes our prayers might come across like a list of demands: “Dear Lord, please fix this situation, heal this person, make this bad think stop happening, please make someone do this.”

At times, we act as if we are requesting the easy life from God: “Lord, let everything go my way, let everyone I know be healthy, give my children the prosperous life, and on and on.”

Not On the Easy Days

Really? Do I do that? Maybe not in those words, but in similar ones. As I look back to the paths I have traveled, I am struck at the times I have grown in my Christian walk.

• Not the sunny days, but in the storms
• Not payday; but three weeks after (Good ole once-a-month teacher paydays.)
• Not the healthy days, but the days when a loved-one was ill
• Not the days the car cranked, but when we were stranded.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”(Proverbs 3:5-6) 

The days the hurricanes hurled the rains into our paths; these are the times to learn to lean on God most. However, I want learned that I don’t want to only lean on God during the rough times, but on the good days as well. In all our ways, the good and the bad.

I am learning to add to my “me-first/make my life easy” prayers by asking God to walk with me every step of the way. I want to draw nearer desiring for more and more of His ways to become my ways. For my young adult children, I want to remember not to pray for them to be first or to have an easy life. For it was during adversity that I learned to walk closer with God, and so may it be for the ones I love.