"Out of the Mouths of Babes"

Hi ladies!! I have to agree with Paulette's sentiments below: I LOVE SUMMER!!! And I love it when God so graciously gives me just what I need. He's amazing like that, isn't He? I was having a particularly trying day (okay, actually a trying few days!) with my 14 year old son. And no, he's not exactly a baby, as the title of this post would suggest, but all the moms can probably relate that our kids will always be OUR babies no matter how old they are. So enough rambling...

I was having an extra hard day with his teenage attitude today. He is a little too much like me at that age. Self-absorbed, rebellious at heart, and well.. self-absorbed. This, of course, invokes all kinds of emotions in me. Fear, however, isn't one of them because I truly trust God thoroughly and completely and have a real sense of peace that this stubborn son of mine is going to do GREAT things for the kingdom of God. (Is. 61:3)!! Nevertheless, I do experience a great amount of sadness and anger over his blatant disrespect and self-centered behavior. The boy really tries me in my patience and even my maturity as an adult!! LOL..

A little while ago, my son came and wanted to talk to me about God. This isn't really uncommon and he is at the age where he asks A LOT of questions, which is great! I love having spiritual discussions with my kids. LOVE IT!! And when he isn't being stubborn, he is very, very open and has some spiritual wisdom that goes beyond his young 14 years. One of the things he said to me was that it seems like most non-Christians have a lot of confidence in themselves and some of them even do good things for others. He went on to say that Christians come to God because they know they are failures, but they don't really seem to have much confidence.

I immediately 'got' what he was saying! Do you see it? As Christians, we come to Christ because we know that we need Him and that's GOOD!! But too often we don't live with the confidence of those who are saved by RADICAL GRACE. We don't live FREE. Yes, I'm still on that FREEDOM thing! I was amazed that even my 14 year old observed this truth. We do come to Christ because we know we are failures, we are sinners... but too often we continue on as though we are STILL failures! Is that what we want our children to observe in us?? Is that what we want our co-workers and friends to observe in us?? What is the draw to knowing Christ and making Him known if we aren't living free? If we aren't BOLDY approaching the throne of grace for our children and others to see? If we aren't reaching out to the oppressed and the lost and hurting with the message of HOPE? We have GOOD NEWS to share and our lives should reflect that.

I am thankful for my stubborn, strong-willed son today. I pray and believe that he will be stubborn and strong-willed for Jesus Christ ~ that he will know Him and make Him known. May our lives be an exciting example of life in Christ to EVERYONE who is watching.

Love you girls!
Linda