What happened??!!? I only dozed for a minute!!!!

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity.  School is finally back in and summer vacation has, once again, passed.  I am thankful to say everyone survived intact. There were no broken bones, no major lacerations (if you don't count Mumble's trip to the ER with the 4 inch thorn embedded in his forearm. he was in Wyoming, not in my care at the time so I don't count it! It's my blog, I get to make the rules!) There were no fires set, no cars wrecked, no hearts broken and we didn't even get tossed out of the pool this year.  All in all, I say it was a pretty good summer.  So now, for the first time in about 12 years I don't have a kid in middle school.  I have 3 in high school and a second grader which still makes for some insanity.  Lately, it's been the kind of  "why is my house so crowded and why is everyone calling me Mom" kind of insanity.  There's marching band and youth band, chili cook-offs (I won 2nd place, thank you very much!), women's events, youth events, sewing class, prayer group and all around teenage drama!  I have no idea how these creatures inhabiting my home morphed into these big, hairy beasts from my beautiful little baby boys!

I have good memories of those times when my boys were all small.  When I brought Monkey Boy home from the hospital I had a newborn, a 1yr old, a 2yr old and a 5yr old all to myself.  There were days when I thought if I have to make one more pbj or fix one more sippy cup, or change one more diaper or.........  Okay, that's enough, you get the picture!  I do have some fond memories of those times though.  It can't be verified that what I remember actually happened and is not just side effects of the medication, but I think of them fondly nonetheless.  We had trips to the park and story time, snuggles on the couch with cartoons and laughs at the appearance of the tickle monster.  One of their favorite games we would play was the standard hide and seek. I have admit to occasionally encouraging them to hide under a blanket on the couch and then I would be unable to "find" them till the fell asleep while hiding.  Hey! don't judge I was outnumbered!

I will never forget how cute they were with their pudgy little hands over their eyes while they informed me that I could no longer see them.  In their toddler brains they figured if they couldn't see me, then I couldn't see them.  As I was spending some time wandering down the paths of yesteryear's sleepless nights of frustration  joys, I couldn't help but see a parallel between those cute little toddlers and our walk with the Lord.  How many times have we placed both our hands over our spiritual eyes and announced to the Lord "you can't see me!"?   I've got news for you, guys, we can't actually hide from God.

 How many times has the Lord been patient with us as we played spiritual peek-a-boo?  Lets get real with the Lord, ladies.  We can't hide things from Him, he already knows what's there and has decided to love us anyway!  We don't have to try to cover over our wounds, our scars, those less than perfect things in our life, like a child covering her eyes.  Many times the Lord, like a patient parent, will allow us to believe we are successful in our attempts to keep things from Him.  He knows when we will be ready to let him deal with what's underneath.  He never asks a question he doesn't already know the answer to, so if we would be unable to give him the right answer he waits and works with us until we are ready to surrender these areas when he asks for them. 

This week my focus will be on putting my hands down and uncovering my eyes before the Lord. I will continue to come to him just as I am, warts and all, because he knows all about me anyway.  It's in honesty and authenticity that we come boldly before his throne of grace.  If we are busy pretending we have it all together, then why would we need the faith that he would accept us with open arms?  We would simply rest on our "all together-ness" to get us there. 

So raise your hands, women of God, but not to cover your eyes, but to lift, open handed to Him to give Him praise and receive from Him grace, peace, mercy and love. 

Until next time, I'll be here looking at baby pictures and remembering the days of diapers, potty training, no sleep, no privacy and no way I would have traded a single minute!

Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor