Friday, August 12, 2022
           (click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Children of the Heavenly Father
Receive the word of God, not as the word of men, but, as it truly is, the word of God.
I sometimes repent of my first-born son status, which entitles me to whatever I want, or so it seems. That’s not true. When I watch others, especially children, take advantage of their position I realize how often I do the same thing.
In my conversations with God I bring this up. God’s patience leads Her response. She waits for me to finish. She agrees that I can be far too quick to take advantage of situations or of other people. But God never seems to be in a hurry to discipline me. Consequences will do that. And when she reminds me that I’m not in charge of anything, and I don’t know what is best, and that I won’t wither away if I don’t get my way right now, I believe her utterly.
I watch Andi, who was the baby of our own three children, parent her two boys. She listens to them, she gives them great space to find their own timing and their own way, and she tells them what she wants. When they don’t listen, or act on what she wants, she says it again. Sometimes she raises her voice. But always I recognize her patience and her love under whatever words she uses.
I am less patient and more firm, and sometimes I think my love for friends and family gets obscured. It’s when they have gone that I feel remorse, when what I said or did begins to sound harsh in my ears.
Listened
I listened for what God wanted me to know,
and I heard, “Yes.”
Only yes. Always yes.
Yes to what I hope to do.
Yes to my very existence this moment.
Yes to my humanness, pettiness, generosity and smile.
Yes to whatever questions I have and yes to my answers.
Yes to how my presence affects the world,
to how I complete it and to how I make it broken.
And then I heard a bit more.
“Say yes to the rest of the world with me.” – Clarence Heller
God’s business is the joy of the whole earth. God’s “yes” is for every one of us. Austin’s metropolitan area grew 84% in twenty years to 2,295,303. Every person in shouting distance is invited to say “YES!”
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Howard Beale’s invitation in the movie Network for us to all yell out our windows is so tempting. And when we do it together, it feels like something big and good is going to happen.
But it doesn’t.
Not the way it does when a bunch of us say, “YES!” And I don’t think we even need to yell.
We went swimming and had pizza with Mike and Diane, Miles and Jasper yesterday. I watched Diane and Mike say “yes” often to all of us. I noticed how comfortable we all felt. I realized I can learn a lot of about “yes,”, inside myself and in how I speak. Yes, I can. Yes, we can. Yes. Yes.
Barack had at least one word very right.
(Ezekiel 16, Isaiah 12, 1 Thessalonians 2, Matthew 19)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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