Our youngest son graduates from high school in a few weeks. It's a landmark time for him -- and for my husband and me.
We're all looking forward to this new phase of our lives, and our hearts are full of wonder and anticipation as to where God will lead us.
All of us reach pivotal points in our lives where we seek to move to the "next level." I often hear Christians talk about how they hope to take their faith to the "next level."
Just what does that mean, anyway?
I've given that a lot of thought lately, and I've come to the conclusion that there is only one place to start (and return often!): On our knees -- maybe even prostrate before our Heavenly Father. Only there can we humbly surrender to His will for our lives. Quite possibly we'll find that we need to shake off a lot of what we've been doing so that we can be still before Him and remember that He is the only One who deserves to be glorified.
Do I want our son to be a hard-working productive young man? You bet! But my desire for him isn't worldly fame or riches. More than anything I want him to fully rely on Jesus -- the author and perfecter of his faith -- and to live out his faith by obeying God and loving others.
And I'm going to make sure to let him know that sometimes God moves us to the "next level" by taking us down a peg or two so that we don't get so high on ourselves that we forget to look up to Him.
Cindy Gray
This was a difficult area in our lives as well. When all our darlings were either off to college or getting married, life changed. IT took a time of transition and many tears for the things we loved were now over. The times we had a house full of giggling girls, make-up wars, silly fights, all the noise~~~~it all ended. And for several years there was a time of loneliness, a sense of loss and even tears. How we missed those darling girls running through the house, slamming doors and calling on the phone. We also realized too late, that so many of the things we thought were important were not so. Some of the battles that were over minor infractions were not as big of a deal as we once thought. But we have come through that area of change slowly~~~ Now we have ventured on to new things, a daughter building a new house and more importantly the same daughter having a precious baby girl. Life seems to go in cycles. It still aches and hurts sometimes. And most of all, I have now found out the mess-makers in the house were not necessarily the girls. It was Mike and I, oh my!!
ReplyDeleteBut we can hold on to the things of God that were placed down deep into their hearts, knowing that the Word does not return void in them. Someday those seeds will grow into beautiful trees or flowers of life.