Category Archives: Children

But I want it!

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When I was 9 years old, our 4th grade class studied Africa. One textbook photo showed a family of elephants, the adults protectively circled around several babies. My youthful eyes landed on those little elephants with their miniature trunks and wispy baby hair, and I fell in love.

At the dinner table that night I told my family I was going to get a baby elephant for a pet. Everyone had a good laugh and moved on to other topics, but 9 year olds don’t give up easily. I began a relentless campaign to get my elephant and refused to let it drop, even putting my plan in writing to try to make Dad understand.

I told him I would take full responsibility, would build a shed for my elephant in the back yard, and would make money to buy his food by giving rides to neighbor kids. Every bit of this logic was sincere and (at least in my mind) doable.

It didn’t take long for Mom and Dad to tire of my elephant talk, and eventually they delivered a clean-cut “no” along with, “Don’t bring it up again.” Then they added a kicker: “Margaret, you need to be content with what you already have.”

I wasn’t, and determined not to be, until I got my elephant.

Fifty-seven years later, I’ve given up on the elephant but still have trouble with contentment. My unrest isn’t from wanting a bigger house, a newer car, nicer clothes, or any other touchable possession. It’s a craving for a greater understanding of God and a mind like Christ.

Sometimes I listen to a teacher pray passionately for global revival and wonder why I’m not crying like she is. I watch a Bible study video and can’t believe I missed the specific truth she got from the verses. I hear a sermon about miracles and want to see them happening all around me. Scripture says, “No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.” (Ecclesiastes 1:8)

True. And it applies as much to intangibles as to tangibles.

Finding contentment with what we have and then resting in it doesn’t come easily. The apostle Paul told us he’d found it (Philippians 4:11), and we wonder how. Then we look backwards at his life and see that virtually everything had been taken from him: home, possessions, position, respect, safety, authority, even his health. After that, if he received anything back, he appreciated it no-end and was content. He didn’t get angry or bitter, because his contentment was based on something other than what he had or didn’t have. It was based on Christ.

So, I have 2 choices. I can either lose everything like Paul did and learn contentment the hard way, or I can set aside my restlessness and let God decide when (or if) he’ll give me what I hope to receive.

And while I’m waiting, maybe I’ll take a trip to the zoo.

“True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.” (1 Timothy 6:6)

Happy Helping

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In this blog space I’ve already shared that my greatest desire as a mom has always been to see my 7+2+7 (7 children, 2 children-in-law, 7 grands) embrace the Word of God and walk in its truth. My mom prayed the same for her 3+3+17, and she did even more than that. She offered to babysit our little ones so we, as young mothers, could attend Bible study.

Organized women’s studies with workbooks, weekly lectures, and discussion groups were a new thing back then, and Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) met in a church just across the street from Mom’s house. She’d already attended herself and said she had soaked up enough. It was time to pass on the blessings to the next generation.

Since BSF had a teaching program for children ages 2-5, our babies weren’t included, so Mom stepped in. Despite having broken her back in multiple places and being in her 70’s, she met us each week at the door with good cheer, already wearing her work apron, to care for our babies. Then, as the months and years passed, she never said no to additional moms wanting to study Scripture, sometimes caring for 6 or 7 babies at once.

Our weekly routine was: drop the babies at 9:00 am, return at 11:30, and find Mom had made lunch for all of us. If these were stressful hours for her, she never let on. Instead she regaled us with stories of what a blessing it was to be able to babysit.

Mom’s willingness to give a mountain of time, energy, and creativity to the little ones did several things:

  • elevated her to servanthood status in God’s sight.
  • boosted her heavenly rewards significantly.
  • frustrated the enemy by removing an obstacle that would have kept young mothers from attending Bible study.
  • bonded her to a crowd of little ones.

Mom would add one more: “They kept me young!”

Children less than 2 years old are needy, inconvenient, and labor-intensive, but they’re no less important to God than anyone else. Since Mom agreed with him on that, he empowered her to do what she did.

Those of us who “used” her to babysit walked back through her kitchen door after Bible study each week refreshed from quality time away from our 24/7 children, brimming with gratitude. When we tried to put the toys away, Mom would say, “Oh leave that for me. It’s such a happy mess” and we  believed her.

Not all of us are called to care for babies, but we are called to elevate the study of Scripture. And if we’re looking for a surefire way to get “spiritual brownie points” on God’s reward board, we can facilitate this kind of study in the lives of others… of course that’s after we first promote it in our own.

“Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me.” (John 12:26)

Overpowered

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With all the strife and struggle in our headlines these days, we can listen to news reports and quickly feel overwhelmed. None of us can fix all that’s wrong, and there’s frustration in realizing that.

This morning I felt the same crushing helplessness during my prayer time.

Sitting down with God in the corner of my bedroom each day, I put several things on my lap: a clipboard filled with blank paper, an array of scribbled post-it notes in all colors and sizes (prayer requests), a pen, pages of Scripture verses grouped by topic, and my daily devotional book by Charles Spurgeon. A cup of coffee is within reach, and maybe a rice cake with peanut butter on it, at least briefly.

As I start praying, it always impacts me that God is willing to listen and, more astoundingly, to answer prayers. But something else is always present, too. It’s a determination to “do business with God” over my own sin. He never fails to let me know what needs purging and deals with me accordingly. Sometimes the whole hour is spent on that. But most mornings there’s time to sort through the post-its and pray a wide variety of requests over the names and needs on them.

This morning was that kind of prayer time, and I looked forward to claiming biblical promises over the various needs, and listening for God’s directions on how to pray. But something unexpected happened right after I got started.

Reading the serious nature of the requests on the notes, one after another, began to swamp me. Each tiny piece of paper held weighty problems seemingly much too heavy for it, and as I handled the notes, their burdens jumped off the papers and onto me. Trying to prioritize them, my mind swirled like it was in a hurricane of sorrow. Just like with the turbulence in our headlines, I knew I couldn’t fix anything on those notes.

I started to cry, wishing I hadn’t put my mascara on before sitting down to pray. Using the paper napkin that had been under my rice cake, I began dabbing at tears until it was soaked, and then just let the other tears fall. What was happening? I’d prayed for many of these same people in their same dilemmas on multiple occasions in the past without “losing it.”

What had happened to my confidence in God’s ability to do what I couldn’t? Was I doubting he could affect change in the lives of the people I was praying for? Had I forgotten that it was God’s job to “fix” things, not mine?

But God was, as always, up to something completely different than what I thought. And he used a 65 year old photo to let me know what it was.

(Concluded tomorrow)

“God does great things beyond searching out. Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ ” (Job 9:10,12)