Divine Re-Design on My Heart

 

A mom’s day is full of choices: menu choices, time management choices, dealing with our children and teen choices – but the greatest choice of all is to Choose Love on days when those we love the most are difficult to love.  Days come when as a mom, I just did not feel the love oozing from inside.  There are days when I have prayed, “Show me how to love.” Being a mom is not a job for the faint-hearted, especially when you want to be the mom your children need you to be. As a result, sometimes those love choices do not create the warm, snuggly love-feeling we want from our children, but those love choices need to be made. Sometimes, God needs to come in and, like Candance Olson on HGTV, do a love makeover in our hearts and in our behavior, too.  Especially, when our hearts seem worn out, like a couch jumped on once too often. Hebrews 11 gave me a little Divine Re-Design advice I’m going to try over the weekend. I thought I’d share it with you.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and angels,
but have not love,
I have become sounding brass or a tinkling symbol.” 

When I speak to my children, Father, let them hear the love in my heart for them, whether it is a rebuke or an encouragement

“And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing. “ 

Oh, Father, do not let me lose faith in the promises you have for my children when they do not heed a mother’s advise.  Let Faith come out of my mouth, Faith Founded in Love – not a feeling, but a choice

“And if I dole out all my goods, and
if I deliver my body that I may boast
but have not love, nothing I am profited.”  

My time and energy are my goods – and with that time and energy,  I cook foods I hope nurture the heart and mind, when I do laundry, when I help with homework, when I volunteer, when I pray, when I chauffeur to their dream-building activities 

Give me a generous heart that does not tally the costs 

just loves 

 ”Love is long suffering,
love is kind,
it is not jealous,
love does not boast,
it is not inflated. “ 

Let my tongue speak kindly to my children.  Let me appreciate where I am Lord because that is where you sent me.  Let me find contentment and peace in your time, your plan, your now for my life
 

“It is not discourteous,
it is not selfish,
it is not irritable,
it does not enumerate the evil.
It does not rejoice over the wrong, but rejoices in the truth” 

Let me be courteous with my children.
 When challenging moments come and pull me a thousand ways, let the Joy of the Lord be what comes out of my mouth.  When my children miss it and sometimes miss it a lot, do not let me keep count, give me that special gift that lets me put those things behind me.  And, oh, Father, let me rejoice in YOUR Truth, no matter how hard it is to hear. Thank you for always showing me what to do with TRUTH when it is uncomfortable.  And in the midst of all this, let me choose to Love

 

“It covers all things,
it has faith for all things,
it hopes in all things,
it endures in all things.” 

 

Dear Father, sometimes I think that baby love builds our faith, hope and endurance, strengthening us for the teenage years.  Faith, Hope and Love are all about, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).  Choosing to love is like a sweet, rich soil full of nutrients covering struggling roots until those roots are strong enough to handle the storms, the droughts, the freezing cold. Love in Faith.  Love in Hope.  Endure through Love 

“Love never falls in ruins;
but whether prophecies, they will be abolished; or
tongues, they will cease; or
knowledge, it will be superseded.” 

A lot of things can happen between birth to boys to men, but no matter the actions, no matter the words, no matter the thoughtlessness, let my love for each son remain, maybe a little battered, maybe a little bruised, but complete, whole and faithful

“For we know in part and we prophecy in part.

But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will be superseded.

When I was an infant,
I spoke as an infant,
I reckoned as an infant;
when I became [an adult],
I abolished the things of the infant.” 

 

It is not all about me God anymore. Help me to love my sons more than myself – and that means not giving in to my feelings, my temper, my being first in line. Give me the strength to lead, to control my temper, to speak clearly.  Let me speak to the Hope and not the moment.  Let me work to the goal and not the immediate challenge. Let me not demand immediate sustenance but everlasting life through Jesus Christ.

“For now we see through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know as also I was fully known.” 

 

You know the answers,  father.  You know the plan for each of my sons.  You know the choices they will face, the struggles they will have, the temptations that will reach for them.  You also know how you have equipped them for each struggle, each challenge, each choice.  I need to rest in you, like after a hard day of gardening, sit under a shade tree with a glass of cool, refreshing lemonade and be at peace.  Today is just today – Today I just need to trust in you. – and choose love

“But now remains
faith hope and love,

these three;

but the greatest of these is love.”
(1 Cor 13: 1-13)

I have Faith in God’s plan for my family.  I stand on that hope.  However, each is a choice.  Sometimes it is easier to walk in faith and stand on hope than to choose love -  

Faith and Hope are things we wrestle with, communicating with a God who loves us unconditionally. 

Love is something we choose to give to people around us when they do not act like they love us unconditionally – they might say hurtful words, do hurtful things- and that’s why Love is the most important.  Faith and Hope wrapped in love can change lives. 

  

 

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