The God I Serve

These two are so precious

I've been spending time in the book of Daniel and in the Psalms over the last weeks and I have been reminded of who the God is that I serve.

I serve a God who hears me.
A God who answers me.
A God who watches over me both now and forever.

While this is true for me this is also true for my children.

It's hard raising children.
H.A.R.D.-- HARD!
When they are babies it's a time thing,
holding, changing, dressing, soothing, carrying.
As they grow older they are still close just not with the same constant as the early years.
As pre-teens they begin to stretch their wings of independence,
soon they begin to smooth out their arrow, attach those feathers to it and eventually are released, soaring into the wind. 
A wind outside of my holding, changing, dressing, soothing and carrying.

There is no formula to parenting.
No formula to life really, outside of Jesus Christ.
I always thought if I did and A and B then my children would be C; it's just the natural progression of things.
I thought there was a formula.

I forgot about my God.
I forgot that when I look at the circumstances before me and I see them as sealed with the signet ring of my eyes, I forget that what I view as a situation unchangable, God sees it as an opportunity to show up.
To do the impossible, to preform rescues from lions dens and fiery furnaces.

Report cards,
jobs,
friendships,
college applications,
the "what are you gonna do with your life" question.
All can be lions dens.
All can paint bleak or hopeful futures,
all can fool the eyes, trick the heart.

For God does not look at life like we do.
No, He has an eternal perspective,
He knows the timeline of His Kingdom.
A Kingdom everlasting.

He changes seasons.
He sets up kings
and tears them down.
He functions so different than my natural tendency.

So today as I move forward in steps of obedience.
I desire to obey in belief.
To risk my own logical mind by trusting my God.

To believe that God is who he says He is and can do what he says He can do.
To decide to look back at the fact that "the LORD has done great things for us" and be "filled with joy".
Though parenting often has me "sow(ing) in tears" I know,
I know,
I know,
I will "reap with songs of joy".

Shalom friend,  


Psalm 120:1
I call on the name of the LORD in my distress, and he answers me.

Psalm 121:8
The LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Psalm 127:4
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the sons born in one's youth

Daniel 6:17b
the king sealed it with his own signet ring... so that Daniel's situation might not be changed
Daniel 17:21b
"...They have not hurt me..."

Psalm 126:5
Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy.