I don’t often share personal things about our family, both due to my own reticence along with the desire to protect their privacy. However, this week we really need your prayers for our daughter-in-law Melinda. Last year Melinda was diagnosed with ovarian cancer exactly as my wife had been five years ago. She went through the same chemo regimen as Nancy and seemed equally to have beaten this terrible disease up until this Monday. That was when a scan revealed the beginnings of cancer on the lining of her stomach. Her doctor has already scheduled for Melinda to start another 6 rounds of chemo on Tuesday. This has been devastating emotionally for all of us. I would so appreciate your prayers as we begin yet another journey into the unknown. Please ask especially that the Lord would encourage, heal strengthen and give direction, especially for Chris and Melinda. Thanks so much!
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:16 ESV
For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11 ESV
Years ago, wanting to spend more quality time with our boys, I served in Royal Rangers, which was our denominations variety of Boy Scouts. Though the weekly meetings were okay, what I loved most was camping out. The group I worked with was consisted of 7-8 years old boys and for most of them, camping was a brand new experience.
On one of them after getting a few hours of sleep in our tents, we began making pancakes and bacon over the campfire. Now the interesting thing about cooking over a wood fire is that sometimes a few ashes settle into the pancakes or atop a bacon slice. But the kids eagerly lined up for breakfast, and wolfed their food down so fast you would have thought they were eating manna from heaven. Everyone was having a blast: everyone that is except for Tony. He came back to me, not having taken even a single bite and stood silently holding his plate. It was bent under the weight of the food and syrup dripped off its edge then he looked up and uttered words that have stayed with me ever since, “Commander Pete – I doan like this kinna pancake!”
I laughed then, but after forty years, if Tony were here, I would say, “Me too Tony, me too” There are some days when I come to Jesus and say, “Jesus, I doan like this kinna daily bread. Is there something else on the menu?” But our Lord looks patiently at me and replies, “One day, I was betrayed, unjustly accused and sentenced to a terrible death, I also didn’t at all like what was put on my plate, but I finished it all for you.” Then I bow my head and give thanks for the pancakes that God has chosen for me. Yes, I may not like “This kinna pancake,” – but I know that one day we will sit down at a table together and feast on the manna of Heaven!
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old they he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6 ESV
The old dead elm tree crashed to the ground, right on target, and I shouted, “Praise the Lord!”
The customer, who had been watching us, shouted back, “What do you mean ‘Praise the Lord?’ Didn’t you know where the tree was going to fall?”
“Oh, we did everything to make sure it would fall that way.” I said with a chuckle, “But it sure felt good to see it happen!”
In some ways, raising children is like felling trees. Before we cut a tree, we put a rope in the top to give us the leverage to pull it the right way. To have leverage in our children’s lives we must take advantage of all the ordinary moments to show them, God’s love and what it means to follow the Bible. Now, those moments don’t look very special to us at the time, but one day they will help our kids when they are in danger of falling the wrong way.
Photo by Helena
Secondly, before cutting a tree, we make a pie-shaped directional cut that aims it where we choose. In life, that directional cut is determined by decisions that we make. If we skip church to go to the beach or run up large credit card debts with frivolous spending, we are making a directional cut that, no rope pulling can undo later in life. But if our children see us apologize when we are wrong, help a friend when it really costs us something and forgive people who have hurt us, they learn more about being a Christian than anything they will hear in church.
Last of all, we make a back cut that slices away the wood until the tree begins to fall. This is the scariest part, both with children and trees. That is when we lose control, and change, for better or worse is upon us. That is when our children make adult decisions that will change their lives forever. We have given them God’s guidelines, loved them through the ups and downs of life, but as we cut them loose, we close our eyes and pray urgently! For one terrifying instant, they hang between heaven and earth, and we know that even if we could have done everything right, there are no guarantees. Remember that God did everything perfectly in Eden and His children still went the wrong way. But, oh there is rejoicing in those wonderful moments when open our eyes and see our kids land right on target and then we shout with joy, “Praise the Lord!”
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