I just love when God uses my kids to teach me a lesson.
As our loving Father knows best what we need and when we need it and loves us so much as not to leave us where we're at but will use every opportunity to speak truth to souls.
So it was this morning...
My daughter had a cough and I asked her to come and take some medicine. As any good little girl does she came right in while I was pouring the medicine in the measuring cup and then it happened...
As I began to give her the medicine she backed up with hands up asking me to wait, wait!!!! She knew what was about to happen. The icky stuff - try as they may the manufactures just can't seem to make a good tasting medicine & if they have I haven't found it. Naturally we were in a rush to get going and this Momma was in no mood to fool around.
"Come on" I said, "hurry up and drink it down so it will help you". As we both took steps toward each other trying as hard as I could not to spill a drop - the medicine went down and then came the look on her face and the eh eh fake cough began as she choked down the medicine.
"Honey, I know you don't like it but it's good for you, it will make you better." Little did I know how God would use those same words on me just hours later.
I don't believe in coincidences - I like to call them God-incidences.
Remember he loves us so much to not leave us where we are at but grows us into the image of Christ. Yes! There is safety found in this fact.
As I began my work day a devotional email came in. The words on the screen were nice and uplifting and spoke of a gardener tending to some weeds. Okay, I thought that was nice and I went on with my day.
Later, I grabbed my daily devotional (Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) and the words on the page could have reached up and smacked me in the face. "I have promised to meet all your needs according to My glorious riches... I have planted Peace in the garden of your heart, where I live; but there are weeds growing there too: pride, worry, selfishness, unbelief. I am the Gardener, and I am working to rid your heart of those weeds." the reading goes on... "when you trust Me in the midst of trouble, Peace flourishes and weeds die away."
Then I did it! Just like my little girl, I felt the need to step back and put my hands up and say WAIT, WAIT!!!!! I found myself hearing the still small voice of God repeat the words I had said myself just hours before.
"Honey, I know you don't like it but it's good for you, it will make you better."
And yet, I found myself asking God the maker of Heaven & Earth to do His work gently on my heart as to not damage my soul. The one who laid the foundations of this earth, who created it and everything in it. Who am I? Like I need to tell God to be gentle with me. I thank God that He knows every hair on my head, He knows me intimately the best of anyone. He knows exactly what I need and when I need it. He just calls me to TRUST Him to do the work. How often do we find ourselves "tending" to our own needs?
John 15:1-5 says, "I am the true vine (Jesus), and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me (Jesus), and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
This is the importance of having a personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Staying connected to the vine is where we find our source. And because of that connection, that relationship, we will be even more fruitful because the Gardener will tend to us, prune us, & remove the weeds in us.
Lord, shine your light in the garden of our hearts and be the medicine for our souls!
