Growing up

My Life on the Road – As a Five-Year Old!

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If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your right hand shall lead me and your right hand shall guide me. Psalm 139:9-10 NKJV

One day, when I was just five years old, I announced to my mom that I had decided to go live with my grandparents. To my surprise, instead of arguing, mom told me that I had a great idea. So, she pulled my little suitcase out of her closet, and began packing some clean underwear, a pair of socks and my cowboy shirt. Once she added a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I was pretty sure I had all I needed. Then as we waited for my stepdad to get home from work, mom explain the directions. “You see, Main Street where we live is also called Route Six and that road goes all the way from Pennsylvania to your grandparents’ house in Connecticut.” That made my journey sound like a cinch, and the three hundred miles in between didn’t bother me because there would be no turns along the way!

After my stepdad got home, he and mom thoughtfully agreed to drive me to the edge of town, to give me a good head start. I was so excited and pictured in my mind the astonished look on my grandparents’ faces when they opened the door! After the car was parked, they helped me get my suitcase out of the trunk. I hugged and kissed my mom goodbye, waved to my stepdad and shrugged off nervousness as I began walking. After about twenty feet, I glanced back and was surprised to see that my parents were gone. It was beginning to get dark, and the first car sped by, and as the car’s headlights blinded me for a second, I realized that this was a lot more than I had bargained for. Then another car passed and suddenly tears began to run down my cheeks. “Mom! Mom!” I called out desperately. Then I saw my parents come running and relief flooded over me. Later, they told me that they had only been a few feet away, behind some bushes, waiting to see how far I would get. Today’s verse reminds me that both King David as well as you and I sometimes think that running away is the solution to our problems. We imagine that things will be better somewhere else. Just like my parents, God sometimes helps us pack our bags and He even drives us out to the edge of town. But if we are His child, we will soon begin to look for Him and cry out for His help. There, at the uttermost part of our sea, we will discover how much we need God. Just like my folks, He is watching and waiting for us to call desperately for Him. Then He comes, wraps us in His arms and shows us that no matter where we have wandered, that His hand will guide us and His right hand will hold us fast!

Letting Them Fly

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Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Psalm 127:4 ESV

One pitfall of growing older is wishing we could hold on to our children (both spiritual and physical). We loved the days when we held them on our laps to tell them stories. Such longing too quickly turns to depression, guilt or blaming someone for the change. But as today’s verse tells us, our offspring are not furniture for our homes or precious jewels to be kept in a safe deposit box. They are arrows which the good Lord has entrusted to our hands for a season. Arrows that stay in the quiver during life’s battles aren’t doing what God intended.

Of course, we innately know this about the kiddos who grow up in our homes. The big guy with the cowboy hat is our youngest son and we are delighted that he isn’t sleeping on our sofa eating nachos and watching tv! But, for those of us who have served in ministry it is far more difficult with spiritual children. We pray for them, weep with them, visit them in the hospital and eat at the same table in their homes. And then one day they are gone. It feels as if we did all the hard work and someone else now gets to enjoy the benefits! But the reality is they never belonged to us at all. They were God’s and He gave us the enormous privilege of having them as arrows in our hands for just a little while. We have put them on our bowstring, aimed them at the target and now they are flying towards the goal that God has for them. Be encouraged today that whether you are struggling in letting go of natural or spiritual children, that God keeps records. They may think of us little, never call or even remember that we taught them to fly. But flying is what God has intended. It is a beautiful sight, and He always remembers and rewards our labor of love!

Sanding Off the Rough Edges

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As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.               Proverbs 27:17 NKJV

Sharpening begins with a tool hard enough to wear down the imperfections that have dulled the blade of a knife. It reminds me a little of a bunk bed building project for underprivileged children where I recently spent two hours sanding 2 by 4’s. Smoothing down those scrapes and gouges reminded how God has used friends to wear off some of the roughness in my own life.

“You’re just an expert on everything!” my boss Al said sarcastically one day, as he threw up his hands in disgust. His words stung because they were true.  Because we moved a lot when I was a kid I tried being smarter or at least cool enough to be accepted by others. Without my being aware of it this left me a bit of a know-it-all until that day when Al pointed it out. As much as his words hurt, they started me on the path that I needed towards change.

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None of us much like criticism but that is the first step that God uses to sharpen us. But we hold the key to how things turn out in our hands. We can get angry and reject any kind of correction from others or we can allow God to put to take off our rough edges. Correction hurts but if we allow it, God will sharpen us and restore us to the purpose for which we are made. We have a decision to make. We can remain dull or we can allow our Father’s hand to sharpen us for His use.