We usually have a group of friends and acquaintances that we love and enjoy and choose to share our lives with. For some of us (myself included) we hang out with people who are like us - usually church folk.
A lot of us don't have relationships with people outside of God's people. We hang out with other Christians "like us". I've spent so much time protecting my little ones from sins and sinners. And I know that has been the right thing to do. In fact, I can't stress just how important it is to shelter children from harm that could be caused either by exposure to too much too soon or from harm that could be inflicted on them by those who would prey on their innocence. But, that's a whole other blog post.
However, as my family is growing up, God is giving me a greater desire to share my life with people who are different from me and hurting. I've realized that there are a lot of people who I'm already around every day that I can choose to share my life with.
I know the saving grace of Jesus. I know that even when I was in sin and lost, God sent His only Son to die a gruesome death as a satisfactory sacrifice for my sin. I know the pain of living separated from God and I know the satisfaction that comes from being a "friend of God".
When someone is lost - they're lost. If they knew the way they wouldn't be lost. For the people in our lives who don't know Christ, we may be the only influence in their life of someone who does know Him.
That person needs relationship with us to show the way to God. They're already well acquainted with judgment and rejection. If Jesus was here they'd get something much more engaging. They would get something they could not resist.
But then, He is here - in us!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Parenting is Relationship
When Emily was 2 months old, we went to visit a friend in College Station who was a Christian counselor. Being new parents, we were very concerned about raising Emily in a godly way and we wanted to be faithful both to God and to her. After talking with our Christian counselor friend, he said something that has had a great influence on us and how we parent. He said, "It's all relationship."
It took me awhile to absorb those words. At first, I couldn't figure out what they meant. Here's a bit of what I have come to understand over the years.
We were created for relationship. God created us to be in perfect relationship with Himself. Of course, that got all boogered up when Eve and Adam sinned in the garden. But still we were created for relationship with God.
Relationship with us is so important to God that He did something unthinkable. He gave the life of His perfectly loving, pure, selfless, and only Son, with whom He had enjoyed perfect relationship for all eternity, just to restore relationship with people like you and me. Jesus is the only offering weighty enough to pay for the cumulative sin of mankind and therefore restore us to relationship with Him.
Relationship is a pretty big deal - both to God and to us. God desires it. We are created in His image - we need it.
The relationship we model to, for, and with our children is a picture of relationship with God and parenting is relationship. It's important to keep relationship with our children intact and intimate. Kids need to know that they are loved and belong to us. It's a picture of the great lengths God went to to restore us to relationship with Him.
All that being said, relationship is the glue in our lives. Whenever we've gone through difficult times, it is what has carried us through turbulent waters of parenting to the other side.
We are created by God, in His image, for relationship.
It took me awhile to absorb those words. At first, I couldn't figure out what they meant. Here's a bit of what I have come to understand over the years.
We were created for relationship. God created us to be in perfect relationship with Himself. Of course, that got all boogered up when Eve and Adam sinned in the garden. But still we were created for relationship with God.
Relationship with us is so important to God that He did something unthinkable. He gave the life of His perfectly loving, pure, selfless, and only Son, with whom He had enjoyed perfect relationship for all eternity, just to restore relationship with people like you and me. Jesus is the only offering weighty enough to pay for the cumulative sin of mankind and therefore restore us to relationship with Him.
Relationship is a pretty big deal - both to God and to us. God desires it. We are created in His image - we need it.
The relationship we model to, for, and with our children is a picture of relationship with God and parenting is relationship. It's important to keep relationship with our children intact and intimate. Kids need to know that they are loved and belong to us. It's a picture of the great lengths God went to to restore us to relationship with Him.
All that being said, relationship is the glue in our lives. Whenever we've gone through difficult times, it is what has carried us through turbulent waters of parenting to the other side.
We are created by God, in His image, for relationship.
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