Wednesday, January 23, 2008

WAITING ON OUR KIDS - GROAN OR GROW?

Beau here. Still reading through Acts and God really used this morning to point me back to Him as we wait on "the call." I read most of Acts 7 this morning where Stephen gives the Jewish leaders a brief history lesson on the early nation of Israel. The history includes a recurring pattern:
1. A person (or group) is taken out of their comfort zone
2. The person either rebels and groans or the person radically grows
3. God then works a miracle either in spite of the groaner or through the grower

Examples of the groaners Stephen mentioned includes Joseph's brothers, Moses (at times), roaming Israelites in the desert, the Jewish leaders who killed Jesus.

Examples of the growers Stephen mentioned includes Abraham, Joseph, Moses (both groaner and grower).

As we wait on our children, I need to recognize two truths from this passage
1. God is sovereign over everything - this is an opportunity for me to see His glory
2. I can use this time to groan, or I can use this time to grow - this is an opportunity to become the man I long to be

I feel like recent weeks have been an amazing period of growth for me and a front row seat to see the glory of God. Unfortunately, this weekend I jumped into the groaner seat. And being one who doesn't like to have a pity party without guests, I took Natalie along for the ride :) Instead of continuing to grow in being the husband and follower of Christ I want to be, I decided to make me the center of my life. Luckily, I think I am getting out of the groaner seat now.

Waiting on our children and hoping I grow and see His glory!

By the way, God's humor in this...I wrote out a lot of this in my journal before typing. As I started typing, I threw on my Ipod. I put it on random song shuffle to randomly play songs from my 200 song collection. Songs played - Show Me Your glory (by Third Day) and I Saw What I Saw (by Sara Groves). Like how He does those "I told you so" kind of things.

4 comments:

mama becca said...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts here... such a great perspective and a lesson for me on groaning or growing. I think we all have our share of both... hopefully more on the growing side!
hang in there yall... we're praying for you!
becca

Shelly Roberts said...

Thanks for your comment, Natalie. Zip me a quick email so I have your address if you don't mind. Take Care, ~Shelly

Shelly Roberts said...

robertsfamily@mlgc.com

Clickin Mama J said...

Thanks so much for this post. It helped me quite a bit. I'm going to focus on growing this week and not groaning!