Journey of the Heart

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WHY DID GOD PUT ME IN THIS FAMILY?

Life is an Adventure – with a Sting in the Tail!

Welcome to Kindergarten!!!

 

It’s how you respond that counts!!

“Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

 

When God chose for you to be born into your family He “set you up” for the chance to go to the top of the mountain, into the Holy of Holies and into the heights of human experience.

He did that by carefully choosing your mum and dad, brothers and sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins.

He also did that by choosing a wilderness for you to go through and giving you some tough times, then throwing in some high points – to see how you respond.

He dumped some garbage onto you and sprinkled some gold-dust as well.

 

And then He watched what you did with it all.

He gave you time, even patient when you messed it up – not giving you what you deserve as soon as you deserve it, but waiting and watching to see what your heart will do in response to all the good, the bad and the ugly of your life.

 

He did all that, as your “Kindergarten”.

 

If you flunk kindergarten you get stuck in the sandpit for the rest of your life, fighting with the other kids for the broken fire-truck and sun-bleached plastic spade.

If you flunk kindergarten you get to go back week after week and year after year to the same old squabbles, insecurities, petty jealousies, empty dreams, play acting, hurtful words and treadmill existence.

If you flunk kindergarten you get to carry a bunch of enslaving reactions and attitudes for the rest of your life.

Even when you grow old you will still be salve to the same childish struggles which trapped you in your childhood.

 

But if you succeed in kindergarten you move up to the next grade. You get to face some tougher challenges and more meaningful issues, which lead you to even more challenging situations where you can do much more decisive things which impact far beyond the sandpit. In time you may even stand on the mountain and God and see what God sees. You may hear His voice and feel His heartbeat about things that are yet generations away. You may change the course of nations and impact multitudes who don’t know your name.

 

How few ever rise above the first ridge! They tangle their tread with the cords of their selfish heart – snared by a mouth pouring venom from their beating chest. Rage and unforgiveness, outrage and intolerance, pride and indignation swirl churning in a stew of surging shame.

 

They trudge back to the sand-pit,

dirty shirted children,

bogged in a mire they cannot comprehend.

Fierce in their rebellion,

demanding explanation,

they jeer or cower or trudge on to their appointed end.

They raise a laugh and titter

and scramble for the glitter

of things that have no value, save to a vanquished soul.

They remonstrate and make demand

while others come and rake the sand,

and all this nonsense doesn’t make them whole.

 

So, is it any wonder

the world is torn asunder

and very few achieve the heights for which their life was born?

Very few have seen the light

that leads them through the darkest night

into the dazzling brilliance of the dawn.

So where are you upon this way;

in the sand-pit to this day?

Or have you found God’s Grace and made a start?

The road is very close at hand,

it starts with one foot in the sand,

for it’s a journey made within your heart.

 

Be diligent to keep your heart

from wrong reactions which then start

to poison all you have and all you are.

Forgive and trust and pass on grace,

to those around you in this race,

and you are sure to your journey high and far.

God bless you as you make a choice

to trust in God and then rejoice

in all that He has done for you and me.

God bless you as you trust Him still

and go His way each day until

you compass all that is your destiny.

 

Welcome to the Graduation!

Transform the Parent

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During a planning session last week my wife, Susan, caught a statement I made and made a Quote of it. What I said was, “TRANSFORM THE PARENT AND YOU TRANSFORM THE PARENTING!”

Many parents buy our materials or attend our programs hoping to gain some added trick, or key to dealing with their child. The more problems parents face the more ready they are to attend courses, visit websites, read books, etc.

Yet the answer is rarely found in some clever way of handling children. The key is actually found in a transformation process within the parent. The issue is not so much about the “doing” of parenting but the “being”.

Consider such instructions from the Bible as Paul’s directive to the church at Ephesus.

“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

Being “tender-hearted” is not a matter of learning how to do nice things for people. It involves the being of each person – the way they really are, not just the way they act.

The same is true in parenting. A good parent is not someone who has learned a bunch of psychological tricks to use on their child, or a set of strict rules which will work well. A good parent is one who has the right heart toward their child and who carries a level of internal commitment to God and their family, prompting them to make wise choices and create good outcomes.

So, when we “transform” the parent, the automatic result is that the parenting is transformed too. If we make the parent more caring, more loving or more humble, those changes will be reflected in the way they interact with their child.

The most important place to be transformed is the “heart”. The heart is the “heart of the matter”. The way we respond from our heart dictates everything else. If we have a proud heart, or our heart carries jealousy, anger, shame, selfishness, or any such thing, our whole being and the words we speak will reflect it.

Parents, I encourage and challenge you to open your heart to God. Ask Him to reveal to you what is in your heart that needs to be changed. Ask Him to change your heart. Ask Him to give you a heart that is not hard like stone, but is tender and sensitive to Him and others. Your heart is the part of you God is most concerned about.

Take careful note of what God wants to happen to every parent. God prompted one of His prophets to speak about something very important to God – that the “heart” of parents would turn toward their children and that the heart of the children would turn to the parents.

“And he will turn the heart of the fathers to their children and the heart of the children to their fathers, or I will come and curse the earth.” Malachi 4:6.

Do you want to transform your parenting? Then make it your aim to have a transformed heart!