How often do we try to handle various tasks alone without the help of our Father? We tackle the chores of life every day, and we frequently do it without asking for our Father's help. We don't stop to consider that the daily challenges we face would be easier to handle if we called upon the love, knowledge, and wisdom of God our Father.
A couple of weeks ago I was mowing my yard, and my youngest son Brian insisted on helping me. At his young age of 2 1/2 years he knew in his mind that he was big enough to help Dad. Brian wasn't happy just helping, he felt that he could push the mower himself, and he wanted to do the job alone. Naturally, I knew that Brian was far too small to handle such a task, and I convinced him that it would be both safer, and much easier if he let Dad help.
Just as we care for, and love, our children, God loves His children, except that the love that He has for us is so much more than we could possibly give. God's love for us is perfect love, a love like no other. In retrospect, just as our children love and care for us, we should love and care for our Father.
Now I don't know about you, but personally I want to try to be as much like Jesus, as I can. I want to have the same love, and compassion for others as He does. I want to have the forgiving heart that He does. I want to be all that God wants me to be. Paraphrasing a line from a song by Phillips, Craig, and Dean, “I want to be a living Bible that my little boy can read”. We should all be a living Bible for our children, and all others we encounter. I want the world to know that I am a Christian. I want them to know by my character, by the person that I have become.
I have noticed how my young children look up to me, and their mother, and learn from what we teach. Our children look to us as if we could do no wrong. They have faith in the parents that they love. They have faith that mom, and dad can do anything, and everything. This child like faith is the same type of faith that our Father expects us to have in Him. We must have the faith that our Father can do anything, and everything. We must believe without any doubt that our Father loves us more than we could ever love, or ever be loved.
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. All regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ - the Message - have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another to use good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives - words, actions, whatever - be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Colossians 3:12-17
Thank God that you can be the kind of parent that He wants you to be. Thank Him that your kids can look to you, and see Jesus in you.
Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE, Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson, 1993, 1994. 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Copyright 2002 Steven R. Ridenour
