Who's the Boss???

A very good friend of mine gave me a book called "The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart for Eternity" shortly after I had Little R.  The book is written by Sally Clarkson and focuses on a Biblical perspective of motherhood.  I have been trying to read a few pages of the book each day, and God used something that I read today to really catch my attention:

As it is, after eighteen years of learning the truth of living sacrificially, I have found that embracing God's call to motherhood once and for all has brought me great peace.  Instead of seeing fusses and messes as irritations in my day, for instance, I am more likely to see them as opportunities to train my children to be peacemakers and to learn to be responsible for their own messes.  Instead of resenting the interruptions in my schedule, I am more likely to accept them as divine appointments.  (p. 54)


These few sentences really got me thinking about how I view the unexpected things in my day.  By nature, I am a very scheduled person.  I like a schedule, and I like to stick to it.  Having a baby has definitely challenged this nature in me as babies seem to be the most unpredictable, sweet, little things under the sun!  Needless to say, sometimes I view the unexpected things in my day as annoyances; after all, they do not fit into my neat, little, scheduled plan.  The more I have pondered this nature that I have, the more I realize that it is all a power struggle with the Lord.  It really comes down to who is in control.  I like to be in control....to make my schedule, to plan things out.  I like to be the author and "write my own story" of my life.  If I embrace the view that God is the author of my life instead of myself, which clearly He is (Hebrews 12), and that everything I have is a gift from Him and ultimately belongs to Him, then I am much more likely to embrace the unexpected.  I mean, let's face it, we are NOTHING apart from Him.  This life that we have is a gift from Him, and who are we to determine what God's gift entails.

 I am certainly challenged today to live in the freedom that He is in complete control, even of those annoying, unexpected things that pop up!  After all,  I would much rather a Sovereign God who sees the big picture write the story of my life than little, old me with my tainted tunnel vision.  What freedom there is in knowing that we don't have to be in charge!!!