Stop The Car

My boys and I have had quite a day.  I’m not sure if they didn’t sleep enough last night or what, but they just haven’t been themselves.  We were on our way to Target and Josiah yells “Baby Caleb has Cheerios!”  

What!  The baby’s got Cheerios?  Matthew had them and must have “shared” with the baby.  So I told Josiah to take them away from the baby.  He’s to young for Cheerios especially if I can’t see him or do anything if he starts to choke.  So what does Josiah say?  “No.”  After repeatedly telling him to do it and to do as he’s told, he finally tells me why he won’t take them.  He says they are wet and he doesn’t want to get his hands wet.  What?!?!?!

By this time I had gotten to a place where I could pull over.  I stopped the car.  Took the Cheerios away from Caleb.  And disciplined the boys.  New rule.  No food in the car.  

I stopped the car.  

After a long and trying day.  The boys are finally asleep.  As I step carefully around legos, dinosaurs, and matchbox cars.  I sigh deeply.  What a blessing my boys are.  What amazing little men of God.  In all the crying and misbehaving and craziness of the day I had lost sight of that.  

So as I sit down to write.  I open the Word.  I stop my car.  I receive correction.  I change my perspective.  I get myself back in line.  Was it really just them acting out?  Or did my frustration and attitude make things seem worse than they really were?  

How can I do things better tomorrow?  They’re counting on me to do this right.  It’s a mission that’s much to important to mess up.  Failure is not an option.  I need to get my act together.  Because their lives are to precious a gift to misuse.  

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.  When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

Hebrews 12:1-3

So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course.  Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.

James 1:16-17