Recently I was reflecting on the similarities that seem to depict my walk with Jesus and the correlation it shares with the way we raise our kids.
I don’t know if it really reflects a strictly scriptural view, but it seems to be a good analogy to paint what I have experienced.
When I first began my walk with God, He was visible every where and in everything that I could see. If I had a question or needed reassurance…BAM! He was Johnny on the spot answering my questions and meeting my need in ways that would be considered miraculous. But as I have walked further down the road with Him it has changed dramatically. He is more real and still very much in my life, more so than when my walk first began and the communion I share with Him is much, much deeper. But, my experiences stretch me a lot farther than they previously did and it seems that He demands that I face more of my life in a rawer form. I still experience His protection and intervention as described in the Bible… but what I have to go through seems less filtered and tests my limits of endurance… and from this I grow!
If you think about how children come into our lives it is much the same. When they are first born they are virtually attached to us at the hip. We are there to meet their every need and demand without hesitation and they are never out of our site, even for a second. As they grow stronger we begin to test their limits and encourage independence. When they first begin to walk we guide them by holding their hands and walking with them gradually letting go and then encouraging them to walk to us on their own, but always there to catch them when they fall. And we still rarely if ever let them out of our sight. As they continue to grow we allow them to experience more and more independence, even to the point of letting them make mistakes or fail, but we are still always there to catch them when they fall… and from this they grow! Then finally our children become adults… no matter how old and how mature they become, we still see them as our children… and still we're always there when they need us, and always there to catch them when they fall…just like our heavenly father does for us.
Well maybe not ‘just like” He does, but we do our best.
I don’t know if it really reflects a strictly scriptural view, but it seems to be a good analogy to paint what I have experienced.
When I first began my walk with God, He was visible every where and in everything that I could see. If I had a question or needed reassurance…BAM! He was Johnny on the spot answering my questions and meeting my need in ways that would be considered miraculous. But as I have walked further down the road with Him it has changed dramatically. He is more real and still very much in my life, more so than when my walk first began and the communion I share with Him is much, much deeper. But, my experiences stretch me a lot farther than they previously did and it seems that He demands that I face more of my life in a rawer form. I still experience His protection and intervention as described in the Bible… but what I have to go through seems less filtered and tests my limits of endurance… and from this I grow!
If you think about how children come into our lives it is much the same. When they are first born they are virtually attached to us at the hip. We are there to meet their every need and demand without hesitation and they are never out of our site, even for a second. As they grow stronger we begin to test their limits and encourage independence. When they first begin to walk we guide them by holding their hands and walking with them gradually letting go and then encouraging them to walk to us on their own, but always there to catch them when they fall. And we still rarely if ever let them out of our sight. As they continue to grow we allow them to experience more and more independence, even to the point of letting them make mistakes or fail, but we are still always there to catch them when they fall… and from this they grow! Then finally our children become adults… no matter how old and how mature they become, we still see them as our children… and still we're always there when they need us, and always there to catch them when they fall…just like our heavenly father does for us.
Well maybe not ‘just like” He does, but we do our best.
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