Things Above

Today I am thinking a lot about the Father heart of God. Pretty soon, I’ll have a child of my own and I will understand more of what this side of God’s heart looks like, what it feels like, what it grieves like and what makes it rejoice. That’s the amazing thing about human relationships – they allow us to understand God better.

One thing I am more than sure about is that the Father heart of God has a love for His people beyond measure. His patience with us is undeserved, His blessings to us are pure kindness and His plans for us will bring glory to His name. I am humbled to the core when I think about His great grace. The grace that sought me out and pulled me to Himself. I was dead in my sins, yet the Father sent His only son to die for me so that I might have life (Romans 5:8). What a staggering fact! What a humbling realization! Oh, how He loves me. How he loves us!

During this time in my life, I am trying my very best not to get caught up in the worldly things associated with pregnancy. I hear mothers talk about certain issues like breastfeeding, cloth diapering and homeschooling like they are life or death issues. Well I have news for you: they aren’t! In fact, the only life or death issue is whether or not your child grows up to serve the living God. And no amount of homeschooling or cloth diapering will help with that. What will help is if we, as mothers, model for our children what a godly life looks like. From their earliest days, they should remember us praying for them, serving in the church, loving our husbands and caring for the brethren. Of course there are day-to-day decisions that we as parents have to make for our children, and that’s totally good and okay, but we can’t let ourselves be consumed by these small issues. They are merely physical! Fleeting, like our lives here on this earth.

If we are looking to Mama Natural, Oprah, Dr. Sears or anyone else for wisdom on how to parent our children before looking to God, then we are making them the god in our life. This is something we as Christian parents need to avoid at all cost. Instead, we FIRST need to open our Bibles, get on our knees and pray to the living God for the wisdom we need to raise our children in the ways of the Lord. Anything short of that would be idolatry.

In closing, I want to leave you with Colossians 3:2: Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. I encourage you to mediate on this verse today and realize the implications it might have in your own life. I know for me it means keeping my eyes on the cross and continuing to find my identity in Christ alone. I don’t want to be known as the fit mom, the crunchy mom or the working mom, because those things don’t define me.What defines me is my eternal nationality: Christ Follower. Therefore, I want others to see me as the God-fearing, Bible-believing, Christ-following mom who makes all her decision for her children first before the throne of my King.

Grace and Peace,
Alannah