I have often times sung the song-- or joked about singing the song "On a day like this", but today I am singing "This is the day that the Lord has made", even a stormy, rainy day like today. You are God and You know what I need. You have blessed me with so much. Today in school, we were studying Abraham's experience in obedience and faith. I was reading to Ollie about the way God told him to move from Ur to a new land. Abraham did not complain or ask God why or argue with God. (I was using this type of obedience to explain why I teach her how to obey with out complaint. She often asks me when she will be able to hear Your voice and I tell her that when she learns to here mine then she will begin to understand and be ready to hear Yours.) As we read the story, she learned that Abraham was blessed with a son because he obeyed. I was telling her about how God had blessed us when we moved just like Abraham. God told us to leave our home at the CEC, but did not tell us yet where to go. Once we obeyed, He pointed us to our new home and blessed us with Ollie and the Turkey. Ollie got really big bright eyes when I told her this.
I love the significance of Abraham in my life.
A cute thing that she picked up on in the story of Abraham is the fact that You promised to bless all the earth through his family line. I explained to her that a family line is passed down from father to son... I explained to her about names and how my name changed when I married her daddy. I also explained how her uncle T, still had his last name the same as Poppy, and aunt R had a name change too.
She looked at me with sad eyes and told me she wanted to marry Phillip, but she didn't want a Hart in her name. She wanted to stay Ollie ** &&. She said Phillip could take her name if he wanted to. My little femiNazi (JOKE).
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I think I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you here. At 30, I still don't always hear my mother with the respect, honor, and love that I should, but I don't think that bars me from hearing God (except at the time when I'm being hard-hearted. Later, He and mom both forgive me). I teach my boy (age 4), that to hear God, he needs to ask to be spoken to, and listen. I tell him that Jesus LOVED for children to come close to Him to hear what He had to say, and He still does. So just like those children could hear Him, kids today can too, if they'll just get close and listen. I may be reading you wrong (please, feel free to correct my impression), but telling a child that they'll be ready to hear and understand God when they learn to hear and understand their earthly parents makes it sound like their understanding God is conditional to a human relationship. Since His fatherhood supercedes every other relationship, I'm a little cautious of that.
ReplyDeleteTana, you are exactly right. When she asks me this, she is asking a hard question for me to answer. She wants to hear His voice like she hears with her ears. I have a very hard time explaining to her that hearing that still small voice is not in her ears. I see your point about the conditional relationship this implies-- thanks, I never thought of it that way. I was just searching for the simple answer. What I was trying to convey to her is the need to be able to hear her conscience (me when I'm not around-- sort of) to think about what she is doing as if someone were telling her the right thing to do. It is so hard for me to put this into an explanation on her level. I like the way you teach it-- I will steal your words! :)
ReplyDeleteThe way this topic is taught to kids (from 18 months up) at our church is this: When the kids are talking to Jesus, they're instructed to ask for simple things like a color. Ask Jesus to show you a color, and ask Him to help you know what that means. Often, the kids will come back with, "I saw yellow (to pick a random color) because Jesus is happy when we sing to Him." or The teacher will ask the kids to ask Jesus to give them a word or a picture. The kids will, after asking and listening quietly for a few minutes, describe what they saw in their imaginations. Jesus showed me a bird taking care of her babies, because that's how God takes care of us, for example. Or a lot of times, "Jesus said He loves me." A lot of it is easily things they've learned at church and at home, but it's true, and it's usually not things they've been discussing right then. Is it God speaking to them? I say boldly yes, because Jesus loves children and loves for them to come to Him. Sean and I have had a couple of very sweet (and surprising to me) moments- like when he announced in the car that he had a song for Jesus that Jesus gave him, and proceeded to sing, "Jesus I love You, You're my best friend." One night when we were praying, we said amen, and I hugged him and said, "Jesus loves you SO much," and he was quiet for a minute and then said, "Him says Him love you so much, too, mommy." I don't think he's hearing voices loud and clear like he hears me, but if he says he does I won't shut him down. He is learning to listen with his heart and his imagination, though. I don't think it's imaginary, because God gave him that imagination. Why would He use it to show Sean (and the rest of us) the things He wants us to see?
ReplyDelete(sorry, another epic comment, but I'm passionate about this)
Thanks Tana. I am going to post a note that Ollie wrote on Sunday during the sermon. I had to beg her to let me keep it. You will love it. I never actually thought about it being her interaction with God, but it is right on and even right on with some things in my life right now.
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