Kid Kaboom!

It has been a long day. I am tired. I pull into the driveway, kill the engine, turn off the lights. My head is hurting, my stomach wants to lash out like the ocean lashes at the sandy shore mid-thunderstorm. I crave the comfort of home, familiar scents and sights. I climb the stairs for the second time time, open the door, turn on the light, unload the bags (I forgot I was carrying) on the counter. Go get my son from the car and head to the bedroom. We lay down with a book and read. Well, I read and he rests. My daughter comes in, the middle one with curly hair, "can you read me ONE story mommy?" She snuggles in next to me to listen to 'Chester the Brave'. Normally I wouldnt oblige this late at night, but something about her voice compels me to say yes. She is quiet and still through the entire book, and if you know my Tater you know what a rarity that is. She thinks for a minute as we snuggle the pages read and the book put away.

"You know what I'm thinking?" She looks up at me.

"No, what?" I smile a bit, remembering broken sentences and mispronounciations.

"I'm thinking I could be brave and try the monkey bars myself."

"You know what," I say, "I bet you could too, because you are a very brave BIG girl." I emphasize big; its something we are working on.

"And Im thinking I love you very very very much... and snuggles and hugs too." She curls up tighter and closes her eyes, content her need has been met. I listen as her breaths even out and she drifts into ddreamland

God has changed me. There was a time when I would have brushed my children aside, just too tired to give one more inch. My children remind me daily in tangible ways about the love of my heavenly Father. 

As I stroked the curls out of her face, I thought how Yahweh delights in meeting our needs just as I am overjoyed to fill my daughter's need for quality time and affection. He delights in us spending time with Him. He lavishes us with His love. He longs for usto curl up in His lap with the best book ever written and say, "Will you read me just ONE story, please?" Oh how much joy He would find in snuggling with us, listening to our hearts as we share our secret fears and promise to try to be brave. Imagine the excitement on our Abba's face as we say "You know, I think I will try those monkey bars again." Now I realize our lives are filled with more dangerous and sometimes terrifying things than monkey bars, but to a child that is a humongous fear, just like our fears seem humongous, even insurmountable, to us. But just as my daughter shared with me, and took inspiration from the story I read to her, so you can share your deepest fears with your heavenly Father and take inspiration and direction from His Word.

I marvel at how just the right amount of encouragement at the right moment can help a child overcome a fear, just as I am amazed at how Big our God is, and yet how loving and personal. He desires a relationship with us. He wants to hear our concerns, our struggles, our fears, not so He can fix and remove them (though I wouldn't count that out either), but because He wants us to trust Him and seek out relationship with Him. God loves to love us, but we have to be in a place of reception. We have to come to Him and say, "Hey dad, you got a minute? I need to talk..." And I guarantee when we dothat, our Abba will take the time to listen and tell us the very story we need to hear, and He is a much better storyteller than I ever will be ;)