Mighty Powerful

Photographs cannot capture the height, depth and breadth of nature. The most beautiful sunset in all the world put on photopaper is just another sunset. Breathtaking snow-peaked mountains are made small. The photographs we took of the waterfalls we saw last week are the same: they are NOTHING compared to standing next to the real thing, hearing the noise and sensing the power of the furiously pounding water. It was truly something to behold.

As I was standing there with my oldest nearby I said, "It's so powerful! Whenever I see things like this it reminds me of how powerful God is. You know?"
"Uh huh," was his uninterested response.
"How crazy would it be to be inside that waterfall-or underneath it! I mean, it could hurt you really bad because it is so powerful."
"Yeah!" he said with excitement (stuff like that fuels my boys). "It could probably KILL YOU!"
I echoed his enthusiasm with a resounding,"Oh TOTALLY!" And then, "This waterfall may be powerful but its NOTHING compared to the power of God. God made it and to Him it is just a drop. It does not even come close to God's power!"
"Well I better not mess around with God, then."
"Seriously! You got that right. That's what the Bible means when it says we should fear the Lord. Its not that we should be afraid like He's a monster or something its that we need to realize just how big and powerful and mighty God is..."

I wanted to continue with the theology lesson but determined in my heart that we would need to return to another waterfall in a future spring. There is so much more to consider! There is so much more to understand, like how God has the great power to crush but in that great power He has great control and patience. OH! If my boys (or I!!) could grasp just a sliver of what this waterfall represents it could revolutionize everything we did and thought.


You just don't want to mess around with the Almighty.

Yes, No, or Wait

In our intergeneration Sunday School class we are studying prayer. A couple of weeks ago we were concentrating on how God can answer our prayers: Using a stop signal, we have learned that God answers in one of three ways: Yes, wait, or no (green, yellow, or red, respectively). On this day, we were asked to share with the group a time when God answered a prayer with a "no," so I shared briefly about when I was in High School and really liked a guy and asked God to let me marry him. And He said "no." The adults in the class gave a knowing smile and nod (presumably because many of them had very similar experiences).

That was two weeks ago. Last night at bedtime, Jackson asked me to tell that story again. So I did and let me tell you, it got us talking about some great things: about how sad I was at the time to not get the answer I wanted, but how thankful I am now that I got a much, MUCH better husband instead. They asked questions about "the other guy" and why he was not good, which drove us into a conversation about what a godly spouse acts like, and how important it is to be that and look for that. Davis asked "how did you know it was God, and not your own head giving you the answer?" And that, of course, opened up the conversation to talk about how reading the Bible gives you so much information about what God wants for your life and what he is telling you.

Initially I did not want to make this conversation very long and so I made the story very simple - just a couple of sentences. And I am glad I kept it simple, but I am now very encouraged to share my history with the kids (as age-appropriate - but sooner than I would have expected) as a way to help them form the world view the Lord wants them to have.

So, if you have skeletons in your closet, be thankful. They will be great material for real-life examples for your kids to explore the character of God and what God desires for his children. Don't be afraid to pull the curtain of authenticity open for your kids to witness!