SPIT-UP


If you’ve been a parent one thing that you never forget, no matter how old your children are now, were those 5:00a.m., getting up with the rooster, feedings. Those little babies have a built-in alarm clock to let you know they are hungry. We pull them from their crib and sit down in a rocker and with one eye half way open give them what they want—their first meal of the day.

Now, at the end of the meal, you lift your child up and place him or her over your shoulder and gently rub or pat their back so they can burp and get all those air bubbles out of their little stomachs. Depending on how aggressive an eater your child was there tends to be a lot of air-swallowing taking place during those feedings. Sometimes they push off our shoulder looking intently into our eyes making us well-up with love for them only to be greeted with a good portion of the morning meal spit-up all over the two of you.  

Sometimes, I feel like I do the same thing to God. He has given me the greatest gift—Jesus, his son who died on the cross for me so I can have eternal life and live with purpose. In fact, God loves us so much that He calls us His children. That’s how John describes us in 1 John 3:1, where he says; “How very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” He wants us to live in step with His desires, a life that is pleasing to Him. 

1 John 3:3 says, “All who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.”

Because we are children of God, we should want to live a pure life as Jesus did—who is our example. But sometimes, I think we all spit up on God. He nurtures us, cares for us, delights in us and too often we simply pull away and throw it all right back in His face through our sin and disobedience.

When my children use to spit-up on me, my first response was to pull away, because honestly, it is disgusting and gross! After the event they usually were looking at me with eyes aglow and as wide-open as they can be and then a smile pops out and my heart just melted. So I’d smile back, clean them off and change their clothes, give them a big kiss, and do it all over again the next morning. That is what I believe God does with us. When we seek forgiveness He says, “You are already forgiven, my Son took your sin to the cross and nailed them there.” Then He picks us up in His arms, cleans us off and sends us out to try it again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 80-20 Rule

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. The Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule, states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.   Although this rule was first applied in Italy when Pareto was looking at the dispersal of wealth, it has since become a rule of thumb for many businesses.   It has been said that 20% of your workforce does 80% of the work, or 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.   I think this law comes into play in our lives as well.   Life is 20% what happens to you and 80% what you make of it. There are tons of stories about people who come out of difficult situations — gang life, in and out of jail, drug addiction, broken families, abuse – yet still seem to rise to the top.   And of course, there are many stories of those who have been given...
Read more

Control Yourself

When it comes to our life, we have nothing to say about our birth and little say about our death, but in between these two events most of the decisions are ours to be made. Are you letting life and circumstances control you, or are you controlling your own life and destiny with God’s help. Don't let life pass you by when you have the God-given ability to make things happen. I've heard it said: You can't control the length of your life, but you can control its use. You can't control your facial appearance, but you can control its expression. You can't control the weather, but you can control the moral atmosphere that surrounds you. You can't control the distance of your head above the ground, but you can control the height of the contents in your head. You can't control the other fellow's annoying faults, but you can see to it that you do not develop similar faults. Why worry about things you cannot cont...
Read more

Bounce Back

As a 7th grader in junior high school, I was devastated when I was cut from the starting 8th grade football team and sent to the second team.   I felt disappointed, embarrassed and dejected.   Latter that week, I spoke with my grandfather who passed on these words of wisdom, “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce back that matters.”   I took those words to heart. The Bible says in Proverbs 25:11, “Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket.” I valued his wise words and committed to doing my best for this second string team, instead of pouting and complaining over my sense of failure. I committed to working hard, giving my all to bounce back. It served me well as I entered high school and played on two state championship teams. I learned that day that what happens to me in life doesn’t count as much as how I react to those things.   I had a choice the day I was cut from the team—I could wallow in misery and quit the team, or I ...
Read more