Monday, May 24, 2010

Coming Alongside, and, A Visit

There are 2,300 or so new miles on our trusty Suburban (thank God for a trusty, roomy truck!), and we are back home in Texas. Oh, there is much going on...but, first I've been eager to share some thoughts about Jesus for a few weeks now, so here goes:

While reading Shepherding a while back, I was struck by a point he made in regards to the way we relate to our children. He reminds readers that we must not be aloof from the little ones, disconnecting ourselves from them because we are older, wiser, and perhaps better at hiding our imperfections than they are.

We must always remember the example that God set in sending Christ. Did God remain in His heaven, leaving us here to know only a distant, impersonal relationship with Himself? No, He came to earth as a human, in the form of Jesus Christ. In doing so, He further revealed His own character and will to us earth-dwellers. He came and lived among us, among sinners...He taught, and healed, and loved, and died.

Tripp emphasized that we do well to follow God the Father's example in our relationships with our children: God remained our absolute authority and Father while at the same time "coming down to our level" as a Friend and fellow human. How desperately my children need to know me as both their "boss" and also as a sister-person who is struggling against sin and temptation exactly as they are.

Not long after reading this in Shepherding, God confirmed the merit of its wisdom by His own good Word. I was reading in Matthew 11. Its familiar words took on new and beautiful meaning (don't His Words tend to do that, as we read and reread them throughout our lives as believers?).

See Matthew 11:28-30 [Jesus said,] Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

God made me think about how a yoke is always borne by two creatures, not by one. Jesus said, take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. Jesus is ready to walk by our side as we journey through life here...He does not stand aloof, He does not even stand just nearby, but rather, He is ready to share the yoke with us, beside us. Beside me.

I need to ponder and pray over these truths much more. I want to learn to come to Jesus, as He's called me to in my weariness and take His yoke upon me. I'm a long way from fully understanding all this and putting it into good, faithful practice (with His power and mercy and help). I want to learn, and out of the overflow of what I gain from walking closer to Jesus, I hope to come alongside my little ones more constantly, humbly, consistently...

Lord, let me know what it means to choose to walk beside You, enjoying Your presence and the sharing of that easy yoke. And, oh, help me to come along side my daughters as a fellow human-sinner, and to know them both as Parent and as Growing Christian.

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Last week, my girls and I took a little day trip to see my dear friend Christian, also known as ModGirl in the blog world. This was a rare and precious opportunity to spend face to face time with my faithful friend and sister-of-the-heart, as she put it in her post. Oh, and I shamelessly imitated her choice to use black and white to show the day....

(EG kindly took this photo of us. I cropped it a bit, but didn't she do a great job?)

Our friendship predates our marriages. We both worked at the same company, but in different buildings, as young twenty-somethings. My boss had me run things over to the other building on occasion and at some point, Christian and I struck up conversations, soon discovering that we were both believers in Jesus. I look back at that work environment as one that was extremely dark spiritually, so what a gift to be given a new friend while there who also loved the Lord. We had lunch together now and then, but our friendship has been mostly email-maintained for these....11 or so years. Only back then, and for a few months at that, have we ever lived in the same city. God has preserved and protected and grown our relationship through all the ups and downs, relocations, births, and changes that have come with life. He is good, so good.


Christian got down and helped the children with their building work. I pretty much stayed on the couch (smile). Two of our combined seven children are not in this photo...let's see...who's missing? Oh, yes - her newest, Baby Sister, and my current youngest, CA, are not pictured.


It's hard for us mama's to get in photos with our children. I thought this one was very sweet....

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And one more thing: to see more of the fun my girls had with Gramma (BB's mom), you can look here.

6 comments:

  1. Oh, I love your photos... they came out much better than mine, which were all blurry. The one of Baby Sister and me made my heart sing, I have so few of the two of us together. I have even less of you and me together!

    And your thoughts on the yoke, I needed those today. Thank you for sharing.

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  2. I'm glad you like. I will email you the photos!

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  3. I keep coming back to look and smile. I'm so thankful for our wonderful day together.

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  4. Sounds like bliss. So glad you've once found each other and can keep finding again.

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  5. I've been thinking about that passage in Matthew, too. I appreciate your take-away on it and how you're applying it to your kids as well. What God's been teaching me through those verses is how to rest. I love how The Message paraphrases it: "learn the unforced rhythms of grace." And, the last part of those verses ties into what you said about Jesus coming alongside, "Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

    Glad you had a good trip. We leave Thurs!!

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  6. Oh, so jealous you girls got to meet up. I love Christian ... some day I want to meet her :) Love her heart and happy to find you here, too! :)

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