Easy or Right?

Have you ever thought (you can be honest here, we're all friends) that it would have been so much easier if each child the Lord gives us came with an instruction manual and a built in screen on their forehead that flashed the page number for the issue at hand? I have. Truly.



Picture it: Child number Two is melting down because s/he has to fold a few pieces of laundry. Their head is spinning round and round, fists and words are flying and a bright red number 44 flashes on the forehead. You whip your handy-dandy Child Number Two Manual out of your back pocket, flip to page 44 and Oila! The answer for all your woes. You calmly apply the wisdom you read there and Child Number Two acquiesces (that's a cool word, eh?!) and all is calm and peaceful again. Ahhhhh!!

There are many days when I have wished fervently that I had manuals and flashing forehead screens for my three delightful children. Days when I question the years and years I prayed for kids of my own. Days (like yesterday, since we are being honest) when I wish we already lived near my family and I could take that kid and drop him/her off for some Grampa time.



This then, is what I have learned over the last five years. If these darlings of mine had come with manuals, then I would not be relying on the One who gave them to me to raise for Him. You see, in His instruction manual, it says that He knew each of them before they grew in their mother's wombs. He knew the days allotted to them...it reads like this:

"For You formed my inward parts; you covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!" Psalm 139:13-17

So if the God who created them knew them, and "saw their substance, being yet unformed", and all their days are "written, when as yet there were none of them", then I am guessing that it is not a mistake that they are in my home. Not a mistake that He chose me to be the one who would help them to know Him and to become all that he created them to be. Not a mistake. Not a mistake. Not a mistake.



What I am learning is that I need to be spending time with the One who created them. That I need to be asking Him what to do when I reach that melt down point, and if I am doing it right, maybe the melt downs will lessen. That no book (no matter how wise the author) is going to give me all that I need for each of my children. Yes, I can glean ideas and be comforted by those with whom I share my mom heart, but truly the answers for this child and this situation are only going to come from the Creator of this child.

I challenge you to seek His face for your kid troubles. He will never let you down. See, He knew YOU in the secret place and your days are also written, and He is using this time with your kids to shape you and mold you too!! Thank God for that!!