Purpose

I had a conversation with someone last week that has been sticking with me...I can't remember the exact phrasing but she said something like..."God has a purpose for our children's lives and it may or rather probably is different from our purpose for them."  Of course each of us know that our kids have a purpose here.  I don't think I have actually gotten what she said right, but something in the way she said it struck a chord with me and I have been turning it over in my mind ever since.


Could God's plan for my children and my plan (or what I think I'd like for them) be different?  I haven't really mulled that over before.  I want what's best for them or what I think is best for them and do I really think that God wouldn't have something far greater planned than what I can come up with?  Wow, I must think a lot of myself. How very arrogant of me to think that God wouldn't have a far better plan for them than I do.  Concerning Cooper, Jacob and Grey I would probably say "Go for it, God" whatever you have planned for them would certainly far surpass anything I could ever imagine. Again, I know how very arrogant of me, as if the God of the Universe would need any permission from me.  But then there's Sophie Kate...


Her purpose, her story, her lifesong if you will looks a lot different and that's where I think I know better.  When I think that I want the "best" for my kids it may be things like going to college, finding a career, falling in love with a Godly young woman/man, living a happy healthy comfortable life.  In fact God has not called any of us to any of those things except for the Godly spouse thing, He does desire that we not be unequally joined (i.e. a believer with a nonbeliever) but He has not called us to a happy healthy life.  He most certainly has not called us to live a comfortable life...in fact just the opposite.


He desires that we get out of our "comfort zones"  that instead of just being happy and content with the things and successes of this world that we actually have the joy of His love in us.  He wants us to seek and desire His purpose and plan for us, not because He has to use us to work out His plans but because He chooses to use us and work through us and that my friends is a gift and a privilege, until that plan and purpose starts to look different from our own, right?


That's where I'm at...I can say all the right things but do I really believe them?  His purpose for my baby girl looks really different from mine, like not even in the same universe and I really want to be consulted on this one b/c this just can't be right.  I have been challenged in my thinking this week...these children don't belong to me, they are not "mine."  God has entrusted me with their care and upbringing, which by the way scares me to death.  They belong to Him, they are His creation, His children and they have their own purpose separate from me...what, really?!?  


It is our responsibility to teach them and show them the ways and words of the Father.  It is our responsibility to encourage and support them as they seek the Father's purpose for their own lives even when that looks very different from what we had envisioned, again a bit scary.


This is just where I am and some real thoughts I've had about thinking I know better, challenging my prideful thoughts, changing my thinking to get in line with God's plan and purpose for me and my littles.


Jacob's life verse seems to fit in well here:  Jeremiah 29:11-13 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."


Oh yes, good stuff, if we will call on Him, pray and seek Him, He promises that we will find Him and He will listen.


Thanks for checking in on us.