... AND sometimes 'not' doing something at the right time!
"Some pursue happiness, others create it."--Anonymous
"The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself."--Benjamin Franklin
"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."--Carlos Castenada
"You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself."--Ethel Barrymore
It never ceases to amaze how I can be so weak and full of mistakes and so well, frankly so immature. And yet, how God can be so strong and loving and be, well, so...God. And that in spite of all my mistakes, He continues to love me, forgive me and mold me to be the Masterpiece that He created. In fact, that He loves me as I am, faults and all. ALL of them. But like any good parent, He loves me SO much He knows I need to grow and mature, to experience the fullness of life. If I stayed a baby, I’d be missing the biggest piece of what life is all about: enjoying Him. So as the Potter, He is molding the clay. As the sculpture, He is chiseling away the excess, the sin--the things that keep me from this intimacy with Him.
Just try reading Hebrews 12. The WHOLE thing, but here’s a tidbit: Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ...Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
As far as all this goes, one of the biggest errors in loving I hear today: “I love them so I am going to let them do whatever they want, what’s it going to hurt”...that is surest way to show we don’t care. That, to me is like saying, “I don’t know the rules myself, how can I teach them to someone else.” It sounds like self-pity, as if we don’t know what’s right. "What poison is to food, self-pity is to life."--Oliver C. Wilson.
I heard it expressed this way once. Putting guidelines in a child’s life is like putting guardrails on a road. The surest point from point A to B is a straight line, but you can’t make them drive, you can only show them how to get there. Give them guardrails and they are more likely to get there safer, less “banged-up” and using less of the valuable resources we have available to us: mainly painful emotions; especially suffering and regret..."Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will--his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals."--Albert Schweitzer
Here’s a little last thought about what I have been contemplating. Maturity is "When you can sense your concern for others outweighing your concern for yourself."--Anonymous. To love our kids is to teach them to love: teaching one another to love unconditionally by how we love.
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