Not last resort!
I got an unexpected phone call from my friend one day about her daughter’s miscarriage. She was crying and ask me why God would do this to her daughter? I asked her why she wanted to blame God for this. God is the bringer of joy and happiness, not pain and sorrow. Is your daughter in any danger? No, everything is fine and she will be able to have more children, she informed me. That is something to be thankful for, I reminder her.
It has always amazed me how people who never darken the door of a church are so quick to blame God for everything that goes wrong in their life. I wonder how many of them even considered to pray before they made a life changing decision, like changing jobs, moving to a new city, or getting married. They just plunge in head first, then blame God for everything that goes wrong. One of the hardest things I have ever done is pray that God would give me the strength to deal with the imminent death of my mother, not for healing, but for his will in her life, and mine. I didn’t blame God for my mother’s stroke, or for her passing, but I did thank him for giving her a long and happy life.
The first thing we should do every morning is open our day with prayer, asking for guidance and protection. Thank him every time you sit down to a meal, get into your car, or put your children on a school bus. Pray for the bus driver, and protection for all the children on the bus. The Bible tell us that; ‘For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.’ And that is just one more thing you should be thankful for.
Praying is not a grandstand play in life, prayer is communication with God. Just have a reverent conversation with him. Not just when you think you are going to die in a plane crash, or while driving on icy roads, praying as a last resort. Get to know him on a personal level and let him know the real you, (not that he doesn’t already), but show that you are willing to let your guard down and be vulnerable . Your life will not be perfect if you do this, it does not give you a Hail Mary pass! It will help you handle anything the world can possibly throw at you. And in this day and age, we can use all the help we can get!
As parents we need to teach our children how to pray and have a close relationship with God, by being the example. Let your children hear you, see you, walk, talk and thank God each and every day. Take Him your problems, your victories, your joys, and your sorrows. Trust me, HE can handle it all and then some.
We as authors sometimes borrow a cliché to bring home a point. One of my pet peeves is hearing people say, THANK GOD, when it bears no meaning for them, using it as a cliché. I wonder if God is ever waiting for them to state what they are thankful for?
Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods;
Joshua 24:15
I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.
Psalms 119:30
Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.
I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight.
Psalms 119:173
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Ephesians 1:4