Romans 8 - YOU ARE HIS!

I’m sometimes critical of the fact that I, so often in my teachings and writing, use my kids to convey truths about God. Like maybe I’m not creative enough to employ as wide of variety of illustrations as many of the modern teachers and master story tellers of the faith do so well. But then I remember that God Himself chose to use His own Son to reveal to humanity virtually all we know about the character of God. So with that said… A few weeks back I decided to give my eight year old his first try at mowing the lawn. That day it took all the strength he could muster and half the day  to push that massive machine over [most of] our yard. Tall patches of grass stood as a testament that an able-bodied eight year old had mowed here. As proud as I was, there was a nagging temptation to go back over it all and make it look like it always looks when I do it myself. I managed to leave it be and even came to appreciate it’s imperfection over the next couple of days, being drawn to the reality that my son, who was once a tiny little peanut, is now cutting our grass. So proud! Now when the time came to cut it again, he and I grabbed some sidewalk chalk and sketched out a map of our yard on the driveway. I showed my boy how to carefully follow a pattern to fill the whole area with chalk and made the application with our yard and my desire to see it manicured completely. Over the next few cuts, I’ve seen four things in particular that have brought me true joy. 1.) I’ve seen my son’s heart to please me and likewise his drive to get better at what I’m teaching him. 2.) I’ve seen my lawn looking so much better than when he first cut it. His ability improves every time he get’s out there with the mower. 3.) I’ve seen a neighbor take a picture of him to hopefully inspire her eight year old to do the same. 4.) I still see minor imperfections/evidences that my grass has been cut by my young son which still makes me so proud! And this is God’s heart toward us today. He takes great joy as our desire to serve Him grows, as we work to improve our lives and our fruitfulness and as what He’s doing in us flow’s over to impact the lives of those around us. While we’re all our own worst critics, just remember that your Heavenly Father knows your heart, sees your effort and, despite your shortcomings, takes great pride in the real you because, above all, YOU ARE HIS!