When Wes was born people told us a lot of things – over and over and over again it seemed – but one thing that I loved hearing was that we would get to see more of ourselves in him than we ever thought possible. It just seemed so cool to know that I had not only had the gift of housing his precious life in my body, nurturing and nourishing him all those 41.5 weeks, but that I would also have the gift of being able to see little bits of Nate and myself in him.
There are so many good things about my boy. He is kind, sweet, hilarious, incredibly smart, brave, loving and gentle (not to mention the cutest kid on the planet). But then there’s also his human nature which, unfortunately, looks a lot like mine. Right now we’re working on this little thing called obedience and I’m finding that it’s really hard for me to teach my little guy this important life lesson when I can’t seem to get a handle on it myself.
In Romans 6:16 it lays it out pretty clearly, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” We are all slaves to something, whether sin or obedience, and that is what determines where our life leads. More often than not I find myself slaving away for myself and to bring Heather the glory, which I can certainly attest leads to death. Turns out I make a pretty terrible god. But those (unfortunately) infrequent times that I’m a slave to obedience bring so much life and joy and righteousness, and I wonder WHY I don’t obey more often.
Then in the midst of it all we still have grace, and thank goodness for that because just like my little boy I am constantly learning. Growing. Moving. Hoping. And figuring out this thing called life, this thing called true relationship with God. Because past obeying just for the sake of obeying is obedience resulting from love and respect. This place is where I am hoping to find myself and be able to help lead my little guy to as well. We’re all a work in progress over here, but we are all so thankful for God’s unending love for our tender and desperate little hearts!
Also, how great is that bumpy pumpkin up there? I took a billion pictures of it and said, “BUMPY PUMPKIN!!!” over and over again while Wes climbed on other pumpkins and basically ignored his crazy mama 😉
you will. He will see that obedience in you as you GROW in Christ. Bumpy and all
I am so thankful for new mercies everyday. Loved this post!
Amen Summer!!!