Letting Go and Lettting God Build My House
Introduction
My computer decided to make updates without warning me that it was going to shut off and thus the first blog entry was not saved or published. At first, I was discouraged because I spent an hour writing but then realized two things in the meantime. First, I started writing the blog without truly seeking God and spending time really listening to Him as to what He desired. Many times I say quick prayers but then just want to get started. I do this with Mothering too at times instead of listening to the Lord and seeing Him order my steps. This rewrite gave me another opportunity to seek the Lord and His will. Second, just before my computer made updates and shut itself off, my son heard a garbage truck outside our house. He wanted me to pull up the shades so he could see the garbage truck. As we looked out the window, the sanitation engineer saw Nehemiah and gave him the biggest wave and smile. Nehemiah’s little hand raised, and he returned the friendly hello. The man waved again as the truck headed off down the street. This experience showed me once again how being a Mommy is about dying to my own desires, wishes and experiencing the joy of seeing joy in every day moments through my child.
Of course getting up from writing to see a garbage truck is a small way of dying to self but it reminded me of a story that I recently read in “3 Things Kids Need The Most” by Fred A. Hartley III. The story was about a woman whose face was scarred severely in a fire. She was badly disfigured. The daughter was embarrassed by her mother and she refused to be seen in public with her mother. She also would not bring her friends home to play. She would not give her mother affection, and she also made cruel remarks to her mother constantly. After the daughter went to college, the mother lay sick and dying in a hospital bed. The father told the child to come home to say goodbye to her mother. Before the daughter entered the hospital, the father met the daughter and told her it was time she knew something about the mother. The father said “All these years she has made me promise not to tell you the truth about her scars. Now I think you need to know. When you were only six months old, our house caught on fire. You are so pretty, and you look just like your Mother once did. She could not bear the thought of losing you. Willing to lay down her life for yours, she broke through the arms of the firefighters, entered the burning house and rescued you. Tears coursed down the melting skin of her face as she emerged from that raging inferno severely burned and forever disfigured. However, your mother was overjoyed that you were safe and unharmed. Maybe now you can understand why she did not want you growing up feeling guilty every time you looked into her marred face.” The daughter ran to her Mother and said “Mother, I am so sorry! Can you ever forgive me? I never knew how much you suffered for me. I am so ashamed.” The Mother had waited patiently for over twenty years for her daughter’s love and with a smile the Mother said “Honey, I have already forgiven you.”(3 Things Kids Need Most,pg. 164-166).
This story of course brought tears to my eyes knowing that I have a heavenly Father like that. Our Lord Jesus left the comforts of heaven and laid down his life for you and me. He too was disfigured and marred as he was severely wounded and beaten for our sins. He chose to lay down his life for the joy set before Him of knowing that He would save us and provide a way of restoring our relationship with Himself. Without him, love would not be possible. Although we may be like that little demanding daughter who does not want anything to do with Jesus, He is patient. At the Cross, He has already forgiven everything we have ever done. He is waiting for all of us to return to him and He is waiting for you to hear “You are forgiven child.”
Therefore, God is the ultimate homemaker. He will teach us how to lay down our lives for our families and how to receive them as a blessing. His presence gives a joy and strength in the midst of difficulties and frustrations. God calls children “ a gift and a reward.” He calls us parents blessed to have children. I wonder how many of us parents don’t feel blessed or we don’t always see our children as a gift or a reward because we are trying to build our own house with our own ideas and ways. I remember that the Lord calls children a reward, a gift and a blessing but many times I fail to remember that the verses on children being a reward are after the verses on the Lord building the house. The verse I will be focusing for Letting Go and Letting God build the house is Psalm 127:1-5.
Psalm 127:1-5 Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.
2It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors (Sorrows);
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. 3Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward. 4Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth. 5How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
The next entry I write will start to explore what it means for the Lord to build our house. Lord, this morning I mumbled to myself that I needed prayer and then I heard my two year old immediately pray “Lord Jesus, help my Mommy.” You are my strength and an ever present help in time of trouble. May you open our hearts to hear You. The prayer I hear my son pray most often is “Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.” Thank you for being so humble and patient with us. May we come to know you more and more and may we learn to humble ourselves as Mothers and Wives and to lay down our lives for You and the precious people you put in our life.
Questions to think about before next post:
1. How am I trying in vain to be a homemaker and build my house without the Lord? What do I need to let go of?
2. What does the Lord mean “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it?
Be encouraged, God has forgiven us. His Joy is our strength.
