Have you ever had a “morning” with
your kids? The kind where you don’t know
whether to pull them back in the car at drop off and hug them tight or throw up
a peace sign as your tires squeal out of the school parking lot? We had one of those mornings not long
ago. Everything that my daughter put on
“bothered” her. Nevermind, that 12 hours
earlier I had her try it on to avoid this scene and all clothing was fine but,
12 hours later she is tired and so now nothing feels right. My son was more interested in loving on the
dog than putting pants on and unfortunately, pants are a required piece of
their uniform.
We finally got in the car and
started the trek to school. I was
feeling sad and wanting to set a new tone for the morning before drop off but
one of the kids had forgot their watch so they were still upset. We passed the local water park that we go to
in the summer and my son looked over to see that is had been torn up for
renovations. He was upset and asked why
they had done that and would we be able to go again. I explained that they were making repairs to
get it ready for the summer and he said, “But it looks ruined!”. I tried to explain and related it to
renovations we had done on our home. I
said, “Do you remember when our kitchen and bathrooms were all torn up? It looked ruined. Everything was removed and all that was left
was not pretty and was messy. But, they
had to do that in order to make it beautiful.”
The words were no sooner out of my mouth than God whispered… “That is
what I am doing. It looks messy but I am
building beautiful character into them and you”.
As I thought about the Truth that
He is at work in us and removing the old, sinful parts is messy but He is
faithful to build us into something beautiful for Him I was brought to
tears. If you have ever lived in a house
being renovated it is just plain awful.
It is messy, inconvenient, and hard.
You may get to know new neighbors because the contractor forgot to hook
up your only working toilet before he left for the evening. You will have to get used to sharing your
space with others. You will live in the
dust and debris that comes with demolition.
That is how our sanctification is as well. You may have to step out of your comfort
zone, obey the Holy Spirit that lives in you, and be among the mess. But the great reward of allowing God to come
in and do His work in you is beautiful sanctification.
I need this in myself. I need His Spirit to tear down the dry wall
of my sinful nature and replace it with His character. It is also so encouraging to me as a
mother. Raising children is wonderful
but working to develop Godly character in them can be difficult. We work really hard and don’t see the fruit
immediately. That morning I felt like
God was telling me that it is okay that it is hard, it’s supposed to be. It’s okay that we are not perfect and
sanitized, we will be messy emotionally and even spiritually while He works in
us. It is okay for it not to be
comfortable, He has more in store.
Sometimes things have to be torn up
and look messy before they can be made beautiful. We can trust in His process and yield to His
teaching.
“being
confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Phil1:6
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