We are less than a week away from another Christmas. The tragedy of the Connecticut is weighing on our hearts, because of the innocence that was taken from these families and friends. It will forever change these individuals lives. For the last few days I have been thinking a lot about Mary and the birth of Christ. I have been thinking about the evil that occurs everyday, all day long that we ignore. I have been thinking about the beautiful blessings of children, and how God sees us.I have been thinking that as adults what our children see in us they imitate and carry into their lives.
What is so sad about this is that God has to allow such violence for us to come to him. It seems to be the only way his children will follow him. The brutality and death of his son had to been done for us to see. He never wanted that for us, but it seems to be the only way as a society that we can give up our dependence on ourselves and go to him. Murder has been in our hearts since the beginning; Cain murdered his brother Abel for being good.
People are going to go wild about gun control now, but yet will not think about adults that abuse children physically and sexually everyday. I grew up surrounded by children that's parents or someone they knew did mass horrors to them everyday. This was my reality as a child that I knew that others could commit such evil everyday. On Friday I remembered a little girl that had become a part of our life that my mom had cared for over the years. I picked her up from her counselor and while we were driving back to her foster home we drove past her old apartment. She said "my mom used to beat me with a phone cord there, because my dad had left her." Her mother only beat her, not her other children, because the man she loved had left her. That is the reality of our world whether we want to face that or not. Christians turn their eyes away from this. That is a failing to him, and he sees us do it.
I have been thinking about Mary. She would have been a teenage girl, and very poor. Years of studying her culture would have told this. Our society - the United States - would tell her to have an abortion because of circumstance. Of course those that are reading this may say "oh, no she is going to be political." Abortion is not politics it is murder of a child. Legally in this country millions of children are murdered every year, and we allow it to happen. We allow murder of innocents everyday. My friends that are Christians that are pro-choice could you really tell Mary to her face that she doesn't have to the bear the responsibility of Jesus, and have the child because of circumstance?
People of her time may have thought she had sex with someone that was not Joseph and got herself pregnant. They may have even thought she was raped. That is the irony that as Christians that are pro-choice they never think about Mary. I would start re-evaluating your relationship with your Savior. She was redeemed in the eyes man by his resurrection. She could of thrown it back in people's faces and said "how much do you trust God?" My son gave his life for yours and overcame death through the resurrection. I kind of wish she had said that to them, but God favored her for humble spirit.
Someone told me once that they didn't understand why I would have a child knowing that my MS could be worse after the child was born. They basically were implying why would you be selfish and have a child knowing that you may not be able to care for the baby. The answer was I trusted God more than a disease or circumstance. No other reason. Over the years individuals have implied that I am selfish when it comes to my sons. I would say you are wrong, and you need to look at yourself before you throw stones. I get bored with that game.
As their mother I am to protect them from damage done to their hearts because of the world. I can't always do it, but I can tell them why that person was wrong. I can tell them that people do things that are hurtful, because they think you should look a certain way, be a certain way and act certain way. I have to tell them that Christians will even use God to make them feel guilty for not being like them. That is the reality of our world.
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My sons are not perfect, and they are still learning that they will be told no. They are still learning that they have failings and there will be a consequence. They are learning to become men of courage, strength, kindness, love and humility. That if they damage another person they are damaging God. They have choices in this life to live fully in Christ, or how the world says to live. As a parent if we promote evil our children will do the same. God watches his children do such evil and then we wonder why he is losing his patience.
As a parent I know that if I have envy, greed, materialism, pride, selfishness, and every other sin in my heart and do those things my sons will see that and do the same. The sad part is they will think they are right, and not wrong. That is the reality of a parent. If we ignore those things about ourselves, and do them that is what they will learn. Adult children are a reflection of their parents unless they change and break they cycle with God helping them do it. If we train our children not to face the truths, trials and suffering in their lives they will run every time it gets hard to find a quick fix. If we are not teaching our children the simple truths of Christ than God will allow violence to happen because it is the only thing that we seem to understand that is wrong.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been sick. God actually gave me a desire of my heart that I needed. A break to be with him all the time without interference. I needed to refocus my life back towards my husband and children. That is what he has commanded me to do with my life no matter how hard is is. Anything that I do outside of them for another is because I love God, and someone else may need that right now. If tells me not do it and then I shouldn't do it. I have been studying the story of Mary and Martha. A very simple story. Martha ran around the home preparing like a crazy woman with Jesus sitting in her home. Her sister did nothing except sit with him, talk with him, listen to him and love him. Martha confronted Jesus about this and he told her Mary made the right choice. Martha is us. We argue that our way is better than his. We should all pray to become Mary.
We are about to start 2013 and I pray as a nation that we return God to his rightful place in our lives; as the head of our homes. That his truth is the way no matter how offensive it is to our way of life. I pray that adults will see that our children are a reflection of our examples. We are a nation that is being told by the governing authorities that their way is right and not God's. I am still shocked by a generation that were raised by depression era parents to believe they were owed more than what they deserved, and then they trained my generation that way. Break the cycle. Have the courage to say wrong is wrong, and God is right. We are a Godless nation pretending to be a Christian nation, and we are training our children to do that. It is time for us to take responsibility for our actions. All of us. We must relent to God, and tell him we need help. He always wins, and it is a losing battle for us whether want to admit that, or not. Read the book of Revelations - HE WINS.
“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,[a] it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:5-6
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-10
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, Hebrews 10:26
having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people." 1 Timothy 3:5
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb[a] of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. Ecclesiastes 11:5
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