faithwriters: my lady

My lady has been good to me.

She has fed me, and fed me well! She has always believed in me. She has strengthened me. She has given me the opportunity to be better than I ever thought that I could be on my own. We’ve laughed together, and we’ve cried together. Most importantly, we have always loved each other through good times and bad.

But something has happened lately. She has given in to gluttony, and she’s gotten fat…   I mean really fat. She has given in to greed, and has created a lifestyle for herself that she cannot (nor can I) afford. She has become prideful and resentful. She feels entitled, and becomes angry when she doesn’t get her way. She has become unpleasant to be around. So much anger. So much hate. So much self-destruction. 

I’m not sure how we got here. I can make assumptions and even accusations, but that doesn’t make her any better. In fact it only drives a wedge between us. It breaks my heart to see her like this. I want to see her better. I want to see her restored. I miss her.

So what do I do? I do what a man of God should do. I pray over her, even when she doesn’t know it. I read the Word over her, even when she doesn’t want it. I bless her and treat her like a queen, even though she may not deserve it. It is these actions that help to bring restoration to a brokenness that is almost beyond repair. I must to humble myself and serve her and gently nurse her wounds. I cannot let my pride get in the way of restoring her to her former beauty.

There is faith. There is hope. There is love. But the greatest of these is love. I believe that there is hope for restoration, as long as there is love. I know that she will get better, as long as I love her.

Oh, my lady… my country… my United States of America… please God, help her to recover from her pain. Restore her and heal her. And help me to love her even when it is hard to do. This is my prayer.

 

Note: This post was entered into the The Writer’s Challenge (Topic: “The USA,” Intermediate level) at FaithWriters.com.
Update: This entry received the “Highly Commended” recognition in the FaithWriters challenge…

faithwriters: broken

I don’t ever remember crying so hard before, and have not since then. As a laid there on the floor crying uncontrollably, I knew that my life would never be the same. I was just broken beyond what I thought that I could handle, and I had no idea how I would ever gain some sort of normalcy.

I had just put my 17-month old son down for a nap, and walked into the kitchen to get something to eat for the first time that day. I almost didn’t realize that it was mid-afternoon already. How does time slip away so fast? When I opened the cabinet, I saw a box of snacks that said “approved for use with Diabetics” on its side panel. Just seeing those words made something click inside me, and I instantly fell to the floor weeping. 

Just a few days before that, my son had been diagnosed with Diabetes. It wasn’t the too-much-cake kind, and it wasn’t something that he could “grow out of.” He was going to have to get insulin injections for the rest of his life. And without the new regimen of diet and shots, he could suffer countless other heath problems, or even die.

At that moment my job as his father became much more complex. I didn’t know how I would ever handle it all. I was having a hard enough time trying to figure out how to discipline him without turning him against me. I knew that I needed to maintain a friendly relationship with him, but now I was the guy that had to stick him for his insulin shots several times each day.

That was a few years ago. Today he is five years old, and doing well. We still pray every day for his healing, and we also try our hardest to keep his blood sugar levels under control. We also join the Walk To Cure Diabetes every year, and each year our team gets larger and we raise more money to help find a cure for everyone with this condition. Most importantly, I learned a few things about being a father through all of this.

Prayer is the single most important thing that I can do as a dad. I have often wondered if I would pray so hard for him if he didn’t have Diabetes. Through it all, it is the fervent prayer that has helped us more than anything else. But I’ve also learned that he deserves every bit as much my passionate prayers even if he didn’t have it.

Because Diabetes requires our non-stop, 24/7 attention, I have also learned to think more beyond myself. Prior to all of this, my focus was still primarily on how things affected me. Caring for a diabetic really requires that you die to yourself, and focus on the one that needs your care. Now I look to his needs over my own for other areas of his life, not just his diabetic care.

I also learned to rely on strength from the Holy Spirit. Giving my child regular injections, and pricking his fingers 8-10 times each day is not an easy task, especially when it hurts him and makes him cry. I have had to find strength that I didn’t have, and trust my God that one day we wouldn’t have to do this anymore.

When it comes to being a father, I was just going through the motions before. Now, I have learned much about being the type of father that God has called me to be. I am far from being perfect at it, but He knows that I give it my best every day. I have also discovered much more about how God must feel about us, and am starting to understand the impact of Jesus laying down His life for us. Amen.

 

Note: Written for weekly writing contest [Father (as in paternal parent, not God)] at http://www.faithwriters.com/.

legacy

I am a young man. Well, relatively young… My first (and only) child just turned five years old, and through him I have really discovered the joy of being a parent. I glory in watching him learn and figure things out on his own. Just the other day I had the opportunity to watch him explore his creative side, and it excited me to see the “creations” that he was starting to come up with. So far in my life, there has really been no greater joy than seeing life through the eyes of a growing child.

One day he is going to grow up and have his own kids. I can already start to imagine what it would be like to watch him experience the same things that I am experiencing now. I hope and pray that everything that I’ve taught (and will teach) him results in a fruitful life, and then lessons that he can turn around and sow into his children. Watching the passing of this knowledge from generation to generation makes me think of one word that describes this impact… legacy.

Through my son, and eventually to my grandchildren, I have to opportunity to pass on a legacy. Parts of me, and what God is doing in my life, get to live on long after I am gone. This makes me realize that the magnitude of what I do today is much bigger than I am. Literally everything that I sow into my child could eventually manifest itself in my grandchildren and beyond.

This idea also makes me think of how it applies in a spiritual sense. When I help lead someone to the Lord, they essentially become my “spiritual child”. Then as they eventually lead others to the Lord, I start to see my spiritual family grow.

Considering the impact of legacy in our natural families, I also need to evaluate what I do as a spiritual grandparent. Am I sowing into my “children” and “grandchildren”? What wisdom do they need me to impart to them in order to ensure that my spiritual legacy lives on.

I have a dear friend that I had the pleasure of leading to the Lord, and the greatest times of growth for him happened when we would regularly sit and talk about the Bible and how it applies to our lives. Those were great times of growth for him, as he was able to start making sense of his newly found faith. Just as I do with my son, I had the pleasure of watching this man explore and discover his spiritual side. It brought me great joy to see how he began to process this information, and creatively apply it to his own life.

Now I see him leading other people to the Lord, and touching other people’s lives. In him I see a little bit of me when he is finding his own “spiritual sons”. I see the impact of my legacy manifesting in his life. Realizing that my actions go much further than I can reach on my own makes me realize again just how important my job as a “spiritual grandfather” is.

When I consider the Great Commission that tells us to “go, make disciples,” I realize that this means that I am to sow into other people’s lives in order to create a legacy. Jesus did it with the disciples, and then He told them to turn around and create some “spiritual grandchildren” for Him. We to have a responsibility to not only become spiritual parents, but also to extend our reach and legacy as grandparents.

So, I challenge you to go… be fruitful and multiply!

 

 

Note: Written for weekly writing contest [Grandparent(s)] at http://www.faithwriters.com/.

faithwriters: coming back new

I must have asked myself if I was sure about this somewhere around a million times. Am I actually going to go through with this? Why do I need to do this anyway? Isn’t my salvation enough?

After my salvation experience about a year and a half earlier, I did notice some great changes in my life. However there was always the sense that I could always go back to my old way of life if this Christianity thing turned out to not be what I thought it was. After all, I was a liar with an immoral heart and a hypocrite. I never did open myself up completely to those close to me. I was a Christian now, but wondered why I still struggled with things. I even started serving as a helper with the youth group, and often found myself talking to young men telling them that they shouldn’t be doing the very things that I know that I struggled with in my own mind and heart.

I was told that the water baptism was about a bunch of different things, and it all made sense. But most importantly my Jesus told us to do it, and to me that was enough. However, I still struggled with the idea of going through with it. Now I understand why. I didn’t want to let go of the past. I enjoyed my past. I had fun, and if I were to do this whole baptism thing, then I knew that it was done.

I don’t know about everyone else, but to me the act of water baptism was about laying it all down. I had to take the old me and lay it all down before Christ and let Him know that all of the good ole “fun” stuff is not what I wanted out of life anymore. I wanted Him. I was dying to the world that day, and quite frankly, that scared me. I didn’t truly know what life would be like on “the other side” for me. That’s the next thing…

The “new” life. For me water baptism is also about a “resurrection,” just like my Jesus did. After He beat death and rose from the grave, I always imagine that he came back greater and stronger and even more confident. I doubt that the Son of God lacked in these areas to begin with, but the other side of resurrection had to be pretty special. And, that’s where I was about to go. I didn’t know what to expect, but I did know that it had to be a special place.

Finally, it was all too public. Why did we have to do it at a public beach? In front of all of those people? Now I know why. I needed my life to make a statement to the world. I had to make the statement that I was leaving it, and coming back different. People had to see me go down, and come back up.

So the day came, and I walked out into that water and waited for my turn. I was excited, but still unsure. When my turn came, with a pastor on each side of me praying, they laid me back into the water. There I was, completely submersed. I know that I was only down there for a second or two, but it also seemed like an eternity. As the water swirled over my face I remember opening my eyes and looking up. I saw the sun shining down through the water on me, and I remember thinking that God was out there somewhere smiling over me.

When I came back up, I came back up as the “new” me. All I could do was to stretch my hands up to the sky and praise His Name. And as I looked up to the sky, I was suddenly reminded of how cloudy it was outside that day. Then I just smiled, and took my first step forward knowing that God had smiled upon me that day, and that my life would never be the same again. Amen.

 

Note: Written for weekly writing contest [Christian Baptism] at www.faithwriters.com.

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