Trust Me, My Child
By Norma Miller
January 1, 2012
This morning, I learned a simple, but also valuable lesson. Have you ever noticed how God uses our children to show us the kind of mess we ourselves are? Yeah, I thought so!
This morning's lesson all began with my little girl waking up at 4:45. She cried and cried and cried, and I could not comfort her. I think all moms (and dads too) find this to be quite frustrating.
My husband is traveling again (his business takes him out of town on a frequent basis), so there is no backup, and I happen to have a sore neck and shoulder right now. I finally figured out that she has an earache.
So, you know how it goes...you rock and rock and rock, and finally they drop off to sleep. Then you gently lay them down, only to have them wake right back up. This is repeated several times.
In the meantime your mind travels to other grievances in your life, things that have been frustrating you or hurting you, or are simply unhandy. You get more frustrated. You try to hush the baby. Meanwhile, it is time for the other children to get ready for school. They have needs too, or are grouchy from being awakened by a crying baby too early in the morning. You get the idea, I'm sure!
By the time the older children are off to school, mama is tired, her shoulders and neck are REALLY sore, and baby is still waking up every time she gets laid down. Mama wants to shower, eat, give her shoulders a break, but baby says, 'Nothing doing'!
Now, I doubt any of you get to this point, but, much to her shame, this mama, got a little rough and told her little one to quit it and go to sleep. Immediately I repented.
As I was praying, God reminded me of how often He tells me He knows I am uncomfortable with some of my circumstances, and how some of them have been hurting me, but that He wants me to rest and let Him take care of things, just as I want my baby to rest, knowing Mama is nearby and will take good care of her. I felt thoroughly chastened by that reminder.
But yet another aspect comes to my mind...my baby normally quiets in my arms...and I remember the countless times God as my Father welcomes me into His loving embrace and I refuse, or continue to fight and wrestle, thinking He is somehow causing all the pain, similar to a baby who does not understand that Mama is not hurting her, and wiggling and fighting only makes the pain worse. Sigh! How patient our Father is with us!
So my new challenge for today is to simply rest in God's arms, knowing He is so very capable of caring for me...much more capable even than I am of caring for my own children because He is not limited the way we are. He sees and knows all things. Let's trust Him.
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