Let me set the scene for you: It’s a school morning at the Thompson house. For many of you reading this, that one sentence is enough to strike fear and frustration into your hearts…not that it is the Thompson house, but that it is a school morning. Somehow our kids go to sleep each night and wake up forgetting how to eat, dress, brush their teeth, and or move with any sense of urgency.
My primary morning emotion is frustration.
This morning was no more frustrating than many other mornings, merely as frustrating which is about three times more frustrating that I want it to be or think it should be. Seriously, who doesn’t want to brush their teeth in the morning–but I digress. Mornings are not always fun for anyone and this morning was not fun for me as I sat frustrated with the various odd or outright disobedient behaviors from my four kids.
Somehow, in the midst of the frustration, we were actually ahead of schedule and my seven year old offered to go get her Bible from her room and read our family memory verse (pictured above). And there, at the kitchen table, God used my seven year old daughter to drive home a point from his word that I have seriously overlooked.
Aubrey read, “You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord our God who fights for you,” and in that moment I realized that I have missed an application of that verse to my family. I’m fighting to get my kids to dress, brush their teeth, eat, and get out the door, but I have neglected to remember that our God loves them even more. He is fighting with them and for them for their good.
God is fighting with and for our children for their good.
His gospel fights against their sinful nature to redeem them. His power fights against the forces of hell that would kill them. He fights with them and he fights for them–just as he does for me.
I’ve spent so much time fighting with my kids this morning and yet I’ve spent precious little on my face crying out to the God who loves them even more than I do. My greatest desire for them and their greatest need is not minty fresh breath but new hearts. Try as I may, I cannot save them, I cannot change their hearts, it is the Lord our God who fights for me on that front.
I have responsibilities as a parent, just as you do, but parent do not forget as I have that when God fights for us, it is not only against the forces of evil that may assail against us, he is fighting for us for our kids and our families. Tomorrow morning I doubt that the kids will spring out of bed and race to the kitchen dressed and ready to go. In fact, I doubt that I will make it to school drop off without being frustrated, but I will look upon my frustration with a new perspective in the morning.
