Category: Thoughts from my Quiet Time

Bible Verses about being Children of God

2 Comments

  • Mark 5:34 ESV
    And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
  • John 1:12 ESV
    But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
  • Romans 8:14-17 ESV
    For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons[f] of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
  • Galatians 3:26 ESV
    for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
  • Ephesians 5:1 ESV
    Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
  • Philippians 2:15 ESV
    that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world
  • Hebrews 12:5-8 ESV
    And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

    “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
        nor be weary when reproved by him.
    6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
        and chastises every son whom he receives.”

    7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

  • 1 John 2:28 ESV
    And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 2
  • 1 John 3:1-3 ESV
    See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears[a] we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
  • 1 John 3:10 ESV
    By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Being a Light: Encouragement and Resources for Christian Families in Public Schools

Leave a comment

We’ve finished the Open House blitz over here at our house:  Three open houses at two different schools in three days.

We met our teachers, turned in our school supplies, compared class schedules with friends, opened lockers, navigated new hallways, and filled out forms–lots and lots of forms.

Now we’re back to enjoying four more days of summer break before the big yellow bus arrives on Tuesday for the first day of school.

Maybe you have kids who have already headed back to school for the year.  Maybe you’re like me with the brand new backpacks lined up and ready to go for next week.

Maybe you’re a teacher….or a praying grandma….or a young mom thinking about schooling options for her little ones.

There are so many great resources out there for homeschooling parents, which is fantastic for my many homeschool friends!  You can Google and Pinterest search away to find support, encouragement, practical tips, and curriculum ideas.

But for those of  us who have chosen a traditional school setting for our kids, there aren’t always as many resources available.  In our time as a Christian family in our local public schools, I’ve searched for books , prayers, tips and encouragement and found a few gems.  They are reminders that our kids can be blessed in these schools and our families can be a blessing there, as well.

Here are some of my discoveries:

Books

  • Going Public:  Your Child Can Thrive in Public SchoolWhen I was first praying over whether to homeschool or send my kids to  public school, I found this book and read it all the way through in a weekend–no small feat with three kids five and under!  I just soaked up all of the encouragement that I wasn’t dooming my kids to failed faith and failed futures by sending them to school.

For those with tweens and teens in middle school, Jessie Clemence has put together a devotional just for you!

Fern Nichols from Moms in Prayer International has written a few books on praying for your kids.

Check out the prayers on pages 102-140 in Mom’s Little  Book of Powerful Prayers reminders that God  is carrying our children.

Websites:

Prayer Prompts and bible verses:

Here are some of the prayer prompts and Bible verse collections I’ve created to help me focus in prayer during my kids’ school year.  I hope you find some that are helpful!

 

Book Review | 31 Proverbs to Light Your Path

1 Comment

31 Proverbs to Light Your Path
by Liz Curtis Higgs

Proverbs tends to  be one of the hardest books of the Bible for me to read.  It’s full of wise sayings an  directions for life, of course, but some of the Proverbs are hard to  understand without their cultural and historical context.  Besides that, the chapters aren’t a cohesive whole.  Instead, the verses jump for thought to thought to completely different thought.

Since I struggle sometimes with Proverbs, I was excited to use Liz Curtis Higgs’s book, 31 Proverbs to Light Your Path, as a study guide/devotional when reading this book of the Bible.  I’ve loved Liz’s writing style since  I  first read Bad Girls of the Bible.  She examines every verse line by line and sometimes even word by word, using multiple translations to give flavor,  context, and greater understanding.

In this book, she studied 31 favorite verses from the book of Proverbs.  Each chapter begins with the chosen verse, offers a brief and refreshing devotional/study of that verse, and ends with a prayer.  She also includes a “One Minute, One Step” activity after each chapter.  These activities are designed to help you put the proverb into practice, but they are also easy and accessible—truly it would take about one minute to  do them.

I used this book as a devotional  while I read the book of Proverbs.   Liz also includes a Study Guide at the back of the book  for book clubs, small groups, and Sunday School classes, or for an individual who wants to journal or dig deeper into  the book content.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Disclaimer: Heather King is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

Bible Verses on Being Peacemakers

2 Comments

  • Proverbs 12:20 ESV
    Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil,
        but those who plan peace have joy.
  • Matthew 5:9 ESV
    “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”
  • Romans 12:18 ESV
    If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
  • Romans 14:19 ESV
    So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

  • Ephesians 4:1-3 ESV
     I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
  • Colossians 3:15 ESV
     And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
  • Hebrews 12:14 ESV
    Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
  • James 3:17 ESV
    But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:13b ESV
    …Be at peace among yourselves.

Maybe the No is really just Not Yet

4 Comments

This week, we are teetering on a seesaw, trying to balance two things:

Squeezing out every last drop of summer fun

and

Getting ourselves prepared for school to restart.

That means letting the kids sleep in and finalizing reading logs one day.

It means final trips to  the water park  and the beach and getting back-to-school hair cuts.

Today, my son hopped up into the chair for his trim and the lady cutting his hair asked, “Are you going to preschool soon?”

He said, “No.   They don’t have preschool here.”

This is not  a good sign since he is in fact going to preschool for the first time ever and it starts in just two weeks.

At first, when  we had conversations with him about preschool, he seemed pretty excited.

We bought him a Lego Batman backpack and, after all, what more could you need when heading to school for the first time?  A favorite superhero on a backpack pretty much guarantees academic success.

But when we talked about school, I’d say, “You get to go to preschool this year! Yay!

He’d nod his head knowingly and say, “Yes.  I am.   I’m going to ride on the bus with Catherine.”

At which point, I would backpedal for some clarification.

His heart has been longing to get on that big yellow bus with his sisters for all his little life.   He’d sit on the front porch and cry and cry after his sisters left for the day.

Not just on the first day of school.

Not just for the month of September.

But months and months into the school year our mornings would still be a little sad.

And now, it’s finally his turn to go to school.  Hurray!

Only, not with the girls on the bus.  No, Catherine will go on the bus to  her school and Andrew will ride in mom’s minivan to his school.

After a few weeks of repeatedly having this exact same back-and-forth conversation, he finally came up with a new answer.

“Are you ready for preschool?”

“No.   They don’t have preschool here.”

He thinks that’s the end of the whole deal.   There’s no preschool, which means he doesn’t have to  go  anywhere different from where his big sisters get to go.

What this really about, of course, is timing.

To him, it feels like he’s waited an eternity for his chance to  ride on that bus and two more years of waiting is just too  long.

For  me, it feels like he should still be sleeping in a crib and drinking  a bottle.

How in the world is my baby going to preschool?

The truth is that his time will  come.  The season of bus rides and elementary classrooms, homework and  reading logs will be here.

It’s just not yet. 

And we all can probably relate to feeling oh so ready for the future promise that will indeed come, but is frustratingly not yet. 

We can strive and work our hardest to make the “not yet” happen right now.

We can do everything right.  Do what the “successful” people do.  We can check every checkbox and fulfill every requirement.

But:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV).

There is a season for rides to  preschool in the minivan and there is a season for bus trips to the elementary school.

It takes so  much pressure off of us when we accept our “now” and stop pushing for the “not yet.”

We don’t stress in prayer or nudge God repeatedly trying to get what we want.   We don’t have to feel inadequate, like we’re  not measuring up or accomplishing enough for our families or for our faith.

 

Even Jesus always walked carefully in God’s will and also in God’s timing.

When pushed to minister ahead of schedule, he’d say,

My time has not yet come (John 7:6) or “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4)

Jesus knew that the when of God’s will is as important  as the what.

Maybe God has indeed told us “no.”

Or perhaps what He is saying is simply “not yet.”

Knowing the difference can change our heart.  We needn’t mourn or grieve.  We needn’t stress or grow weary fighting.

Instead, we  can rest and relax and allow God to give us the beauty of “now” while trusting Him with what is still  yet to come.

 

The Darkest Time is the Perfect Time to Sing

7 Comments

Just a few days before the Great American Solar Eclipse arrived with all of its accompanying hoopla and rejoicing, my husband asked me this:

“Would it be crazy if we drove to South Carolina to  see the full eclipse instead of just the partial we’ll get here in Virginia?”

Yeah.  That’d be crazy alright, traveling about 7 hours one way on a busy weekend with four kids in a minivan.

Crazy!

But it’d also  by fun.  This season we’re in with four kids who are growing far too  fast, with two of our daughters in middle school this year,  that’s the time to do wild and crazy things.

That’s the time to  make family memories.

So, we started making plans.: texting family in South Carolina, deciding when to drive and how far.

I bought our travel snacks and packed up our clothes and eclipse glasses.

We crammed ourselves into the minivan on Sunday evening after finishing all our activities for the day, alternatively singing along with our CD or listening to our audio book as we traveled.

We drove there and back in a rapid fire turn around of two days,  making it  just in time to  see the eclipse and then traveling the long way back  home so my husband could go  to work the next day.

And it was worth it.

Before our trip, I’d thought seeing the 86% coverage in Virginia would be “close enough.”

I’m so glad I was wrong.

We didn’t even begin to  notice so many of the effects  of the eclipse until the sun was about 95% covered down there in good old South Carolina.

That’s when the shadows became crisply distinct and sharp.  Colors looked like we were seeing them through a camera filter.

Rippling shadows from the sun’s rays danced across the pavement in what we called “Sun snakes.”

Then the world dimmed and a chorus of wildlife roared into  activity.  Crickets, frogs, cicadas–all the singing creatures of the night snapped awake and sang.

They cut through the darkness with their music.

Moments later, the moon slipped right out of the sun’s path once again and normal resumed.

Back to  normal  light and normal shadows and normal colors.

And back to silence among the trees.

No more bullfrogs chanting nocturnal mating calls in the middle  of a  Monday afternoon.  No more crickets chirping in chorus for three odd minutes.

Song over.  For now.

Until later that night,  of course, when these wild musicians would sing once again.

Maybe at some point I’ll forget some of the eclipse effects, like precisely how the shadows looked or exactly how the light altered.

But I’ll remember the singing in the dark.

That’s the example we need, after all, when the world grows dim and darkness presses in on us, how Jesus can give us a song to sing.

And we can lift up our voices to heaven in wild and raucous praise even when we can’t see the sun.

The Psalmist wrote:

By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me– a prayer to the God of my life (Psalm 42:8 NIV).

God’s song is with us and within us, perhaps especially in the night.

Maybe it was that God-song that Paul and Silas were crooning aloud at midnight as they sat shackled together in the prison (Acts 16).

Other prisoners listened to this surprising “joyful noise.”

Singing in the dark,  what an oddity!  No wonder others took notice.

Who can make  a joyful noise when they’re chained down?  Who can join in a round of praise hymns when uncertainty looms and anxiety threatens?

Paul and Silas did just that.

Their worship shook the jail and loosed the prisoners’ chains, including their own.

But instead of hightailing it out of the prison, they willingly remained until God completed the work he was doing.

Beth Moore writes:

How encouraging to recognize that Paul did not discover the strength to leave his circumstances: he discovered the strength to stay” (Living Beyond Yourself).

When we’re feeling chained and imprisoned, when we’re surrounded by darkness, when hope is hard, we might feel  that’s the time to  be silent.

Maybe,  though, the darkest time is the perfect time to sing.

It doesn’t have to be loud and brave,  bold or confident.  It doesn’t need perfect pitch.

It could start out shaky and quiet and grow from there as the worship moves our own heart and cuts through the dark we face.

Our song of praise may not change our circumstances, but it may strengthen us to stay where we are until God leads us on out of  there  and into the light again.

Bible Verses about the Sun, Moon, and Stars

3 Comments

  • Genesis 1:16 ESV
    And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
  • Nehemiah 9:6 ESV
    “You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
  • Job 9:7-10 ESV
    who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
        who seals up the stars;
    8 who alone stretched out the heavens
        and trampled the waves of the sea;
    9 who made the Bear and Orion,
        the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
    10 who does great things beyond searching out,
        and marvelous things beyond number.
  • Psalm 8:3 ESV
    When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
        the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
  • Psalm 19:1-6 ESV
    The heavens declare the glory of God,
        and the sky above[proclaims his handiwork.
    2 Day to day pours out speech,
        and night to night reveals knowledge.
    3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
        whose voice is not heard.
    4 Their voice[b] goes out through all the earth,
        and their words to the end of the world.
    In them he has set a tent for the sun,
    5     which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
        and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
    6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
        and its circuit to the end of them,
        and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
  • Psalm 33:6-7 ESV
    By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
        and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
    7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
        he puts the deeps in storehouses.
  • Psalm 72:5 ESV
    May they fear you[while the sun endures,
        and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
  • Psalm 74:16 ESV
    Yours is the day, yours also the night;
        you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
  • Psalm 104:19 ESV
    He made the moon to mark the seasons;
        the sun knows its time for setting.
  • Psalm 136:7-9 ESV
    to him who made the great lights,
        for his steadfast love endures forever;
    8 the sun to rule over the day,
        for his steadfast love endures forever;
    9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
        for his steadfast love endures forever;
  • Psalm 147:4 ESV
    He determines the number of the stars;
        he gives to all of them their names.
  • Psalm 148:3 ESV
    Praise him, sun and moon,
        praise him, all you shining stars!
  • Isaiah 40:26 ESV
    Lift up your eyes on high and see:
        who created these?
    He who brings out their host by number,
        calling them all by name;
    by the greatness of his might
        and because he is strong in power,
        not one is missing.
  • Jeremiah 31:35 ESV
    Thus says the Lord,
    who gives the sun for light by day
        and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
        the Lord of hosts is his name:
  • Amos 5:8 ESV
    He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
        and turns deep darkness into the morning
        and darkens the day into night,
    who calls for the waters of the sea
        and pours them out on the surface of the earth,
    the Lord is his name;

God isn’t too late, but He’s not early either

4 Comments

A deadline.

Few obstacles pound harder at my faith than a due date, a deadline, the tick-tocking down of time until God has to either come through or He doesn’t.

I know, I know.

God’s timing is perfect.  

He is never late.

I cling to the promises and repeat the reassuring phrases to myself, but God likes to push right up against time boundaries, doesn’t He?

He usually doesn’t show up early, that’s for sure.

Sometimes, He’ll let me pace nervously right up until the last second before He shows up in His glory.

To Him, one day is like a thousand years.  Time is fluid and free.

But it doesn’t work like that here on this physical planet.

Bills and meetings and due dates are a little less subjective here.

Besides that, I hate being late.  I like to be early.  I like to be the first one to arrive, the girl sitting in the parking lot for 5 minutes collecting her thoughts, not the one zooming in 5 minutes late and haphazardly throwing her minivan into park and jumping out the door.

I’m the opposite of a procrastinator (whatever you call that).  I like to have things settled two weeks in advance, not at 11:59 p.m. right before the midnight deadline.

But God knows this about me. So God helps me to cement this shaky faith onto some sturdier foundation.  And God, with His sense of humor and His infinite wisdom, does this by bringing me toe-to-toe with deadline after deadline and coming through for me at the last possible second.

Not because He likes to drive me crazy.

Because He loves me, of course.

Last week, though, I read about Jesus’ first miracle in a new way:  A wedding miracle, a miracle of substance:  Changing plain old water into the finest wine for a marriage feast on the verge of social disaster.

I think as I read that Jesus didn’t just change water into grape juice.

This wasn’t just miraculously altering the chemical makeup.

Jesus bypassed time. 

Quality wine like that would have required years to make–to ferment–, but Jesus simply told servants to fill jars with water and serve it up, and the wine simply was.

Margaret Feinberg writes in Scouting the Divine:

When it comes to making great wine, time is your friend. Yet Jesus didn’t need to wait.

In the past, I’ve tried to explain it all to Him, how some due dates are pretty set in stone and we people here on earth do actually have to follow them or bad stuff can happen.

But today, He explains it to me….

How when I tell Him something will take two weeks…

When I say there’s not enough time for Him to come through for me….

He tells me He can turn plain old water into aged wine in an instant.  Something that should take years is completed in less than a second.

GOD ISN’T JUST ABLE TO DO ANYTHING; HE’S ABLE TO DO ANYTHING AT ANY TIME.

Not only that, but even when circumstances and the world and your own eyes tell you that God is simply too late, even then He is not too late.

Jesus showed up at Lazarus’s home days after Lazarus had already died.

Jesus waited too long to come and heal His friend.

But even a deadline as firmly set as death wasn’t too much for Jesus to overcome.  After four days in the grave, Lazarus walked right out of the tomb when Jesus called him back to life.

And maybe after hundreds of years of waiting for the Messiah convinced many Jesus that God wasn’t able, wouldn’t fulfill His promises, couldn’t ever bring the miracle to pass.

Yet, Paul says,

BUT WHEN THE SET TIME HAD FULLY COME, GOD SENT HIS SON, BORN OF A WOMAN, BORN UNDER THE LAW… (GALATIANS 4:4).

The set time fully came and that’s precisely when God acted.

And the time wasn’t set by any man.  It wasn’t set by a government, by a bill collector, by a judge, by a teacher, or by any human rule or law.

GOD HIMSELF SET THE PERFECT TIME FOR THE PERFECT SALVATION, AND HE WAS NOT A SECOND TOO EARLY OR TOO LATE.

So, we’re human and in this world we have deadlines and due dates, we have words like ‘late’ and ‘overdue’ and ‘delinquent.’

Sometimes we think the clock and the calendar rule over us like arbitrary and cruel overseers, always demanding, always penalizing, always stressing us out.

But our God doesn’t need time to deliver you or time to save you.

He’s not working frantically, racing the clock, sweating with panic as the seconds tick down.

He’s not asking for extensions or inventing delay tactics while He scrambles to get things done.

GOD’S PERFECT PLAN INCLUDES HIS PERFECT TIMING.

Originally published 11/20/2015

Bible Verses about Sheep and the Shepherd

4 Comments

  • Psalm 23:1-3 ESV
    The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
    2     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
    He leads me beside still waters.
    3     He restores my soul.
    He leads me in paths of righteousness
        for his name’s sake.
  • Psalm 78:52 ESV
  • Then he led out his people like sheep
        and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
  • Psalm 79:13 ESV
    But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
        will give thanks to you forever;
        from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
  • Psalm 100:3 ESV
    Know that the Lord, he is God!
        It is he who made us, and we are his;
        we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
  • Psalm 119:176 ESV
    I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
        for I do not forget your commandments.
  • Isaiah 53:6 ESV
    All we like sheep have gone astray;
        we have turned—every one—to his own way;
    and the Lord has laid on him
        the iniquity of us all.
  • Isaiah 53:7 ESV
    He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
        yet he opened not his mouth;
    like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
        and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
        so he opened not his mouth.
  • Isaiah 60:3 ESV
    All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you;
        the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;
    they shall come up with acceptance on my altar,
        and I will beautify my beautiful house.
  • Jeremiah 23:1 ESV
     “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!”declares the Lord.
  • Jeremiah 50:6 ESV
     “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold.
  • Ezekiel 34:11-16 ESV
     “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land.There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.[a] I will feed them in justice.
  • Micah 2:12 ESV
    I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
        I will gather the remnant of Israel;
    I will set them together
        like sheep in a fold,
    like a flock in its pasture,
        a noisy multitude of men.
  • Matthew 9:36 ESV
     When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
  • Matthew 10:16 ESV
     “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so bewise as serpents and innocent as doves.
  • Matthew 18:10-13 ESV
    “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
  • Matthew 25:31-33 ESV
    “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him,then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
  • Matthew 26:31 ESV
    Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
  • Luke 12:32 ESV
    “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
  • Luke 15:4-7 ESV
    “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
  • John 10:11-15 ESV
    I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
  • 1 Peter 2:25 ESV
     For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

This portion God gave me is actually enough

1 Comment

I’m not sure that I’ve eaten more than a handful of my own meals actually on my own in over ten years.

I know maybe it’s not the absolute truth.

But it feels like the truth some days.

It’s as if whatever food I’m eating is a free-for-all for my children.

Sometimes I grab breakfast out of the cabinet and carry it to the minivan as we rush out the door. The very second I open the cereal bar, an alarm system must be triggered because children in all corners of the vehicle ask if they can have some.

Perhaps I should be grateful.  Thank you, dear children, I did not actually need the calories from this breakfast-on-the-go anyway.

But there is something so illogical about this mothering phenomenon.

As soon as my children graduate from pureed squash in a jar to their very own mini-portions of actual human food, they want to have what I am eating from my very own plate.

Even though we are eating the same food.

The same food!!!!

I may have had to cut it up into non-chokeable portions before putting it on a highchair tray; nevertheless, my lasagna did taste the same as their lasagna.

And the Cheerios in my cereal bowl are (earth-shattering announcement, here) the same Cheerios in my child’s bowl.

I know older moms are probably chuckling.  Surely my own mom is.  Because this is probably a universal mothering struggle going back generations upon generations.

Let’s face it, Eve should have gotten used to sharing her fruit with another person because once Cain and Abel came along, she’d never eat completely on her own again.

The thing is, my kids are buying into the same lie that trips us up all the time.

It’s the lie that whatever she has is better than what I have.

Maybe we’re even eating the same food.

Or maybe it really is different.  Maybe she’s sitting down to steak and potatoes while we pick at boxed macaroni and cheese.  Or maybe we’re the ones with the gourmet fare while she wolfs down some PB&J.

No matter what the dish, so often we just really want what she has.

We want the same.  And we want it to be the same quality.  And we want it to be the same amount.

We don’t trust God to care for us uniquely, personally, individually.  We don’t trust Him enough to accept what He gives with gratitude, knowing that He loves us and cares for us, knowing that anything He gives us is far more than we deserve or merit.

I read in Numbers how Moses divied up supplies to the people of Israel.

He gave two carts and four oxen to the sons of Gershon.

He gave four carts and eight oxen to the sons of Merari.

He didn’t give any carts or oxen to the sons of Kohath.

Sounds like a rip-off.  Sounds like a big, unfair, scam.

Those sons of Kohath could have raised a mighty fine protest about injustice and favoritism and the need for equal distribution of all goods.

But Moses gave out the oxen and the carts “according to their service,” and the sons of Kohath cared for “the holy objects, which they carried on the shoulder” (Numbers 7:7-9).

Every one of them received what they needed for their particular, God-chosen, unique job.  He equipped them for their calling.

He does the same for us.

Some days, I’ll confess, it feels like I don’t have enough.

I don’t just mean material goods.  I mean enough patience or enough time or enough patience or enough creativity or enough patience or enough sleep—or enough patience.  Did I already mention that one?

So many others around me seem to have plates heaped full with the very gifts and traits I feel so desperately in need of.

But I take my need to Him.

Because I don’t need any thing.  I don’t need a specific gifting or a particular object.

I don’t need to be the same or have the same as anyone else.

I NEED JESUS.  HE IS ENOUGH FOR ME.

HE EQUIPS US FOR OUR CALLING.

YES, HE GIVES ME ALL I NEED TO DO WHAT HE WANTS ME TO DO RIGHT HERE IN THIS MOMENT.

I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” (Lamentations 3:24 NIV)

LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure (Psalm 16:5 NIV)

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26 NIV).

You are my portion, LORD; I have promised to obey your words (Psalm 119:57).

Originally published March 25, 2015