Delighting In Us

Jason and I took a parenting class long ago when I was pregnant with Abby.  The fist session was the one I remember the most.  The material used in the class came from their own personal study of going through the Bible and highlighting the passages from Genesis on that talked about God as a Father.  This may seem like a no brainer but it struck me then and has stayed with me these ten years.

I recently read through the book of Isaiah and focused in God's role as Father to His rebellious children.  One thing that really struck me is how unlike God I am when I find my kids in rebellion.  It is so easy to feel burdened or even justified in being put out or let down when a child rebels.  It is hard to look on them and delight in them in times of disobedience.  But in the end of Isaiah I took out a pen and highlighted the words that God used to describe His rebellious ones.  I was very convicted and humbled to see how loving and tender God is to His children when they are  hard hearted and stupid.

Judgment did come. But God judged them with exile so that they would return to Him and learn to stay close to Him.  God delights in His people and they are precious in His sight.  He is just as well.  We often remember the justice of God and forget that it is not to be divorced from the grace of God. God delights in giving us grace.  Grace to Israel was Assyria.  Grace to Judah was Babylon. When reading Daniel we can see how loving God was and how exile did just what God wanted it to......repentance so that His children could be near to Him once more.  God delights to bring us near and we are precious to Him.  He is a tender Father.  He is not  pushover for Assyria and Babylon did come and take the Israelites captive.  But after captivity we see that His family became even larger and took in children from other nations as well as bringing Israel back to Him. Our parenting needs to copy that of our Father in Heaven and we should delight in our precious children when they sin and rebel, bringing them to restoration, knowing that this is what God does for us again and again.

The Sins of the Father Will.....

Generational living is how God made the world.  We are connected to our fathers and their fathers and so on.  There seems to be a whole lot of problems then when you come from a home that was dominated by sin and not repentance.  There really are two kinds of homes.  One home has sin as master and the other  has humility and repentance reigning.  Sin is present in both.  Good homes are full of repentance.  When God calls a saint from darkness into His marvelous light, He calls Him to a life of repentance.  If you grew up in a home where anger and shouting where the norm, it is probably something that you find yourself struggling with.  This can be super discouraging because you know that it is wrong but seem to find yourself in the mess before you even realize it.  It is easy to remember how hard it was to be raised in an environment of strife and anger and you feel so horrible that you would do the same thing to your kids.  But God does break generational sin.  He promises.  We want instant freedom.  We want instant sanctification.  Grace is woven into our hearts by humble repentance.  When you yell or have an outburst of some kind, are you asking for forgiveness?  I hope you answer yes.  This is God breaking the power of sin in your family.  Anger is easy to copy.  That is why Proverbs tells us to stay far away from an angry man.  But if you are repenting then you are breaking the power of sin and giving your children something else to imitate......repentance!  When sin comes in, get it out.  This is how God breaks the power of sin in our lives.  If you find that you need to repent often, be encouraged that God is getting out the sin and putting in the grace you need to continue to humble yourself and call out to Him.  God's grace is sufficient to break even the toughest sins and His faithfulness is longer lasting then the effects of our sin!

Glory to Glory

There are times when it seems like I am just stuck in the same place with the same old habits of yesterday, inching along in progress and struggling against a gust that is just too much.  Last year I was in a bible study with some awesome ladies and there was one session that really helped me understand sanctification.  I often get a little idea in my head of how it is all supposed to be going.  My little platonic ideal is a little Martha-ish and often frustrates me as I compare my world to that of what I expect.  Glory is a work of the Spirit.  It takes hold and shapes and molds.  Sinning is not the same thing as falling from glory.  Glory is forward facing and does not turn around when we sin.  It is grace that picks us back up again and uses our falll to change us more into Christ.