The Stars of the Sky

Once I got the revelation that God was a single parent and knew exactly how to do this, things started changing...

I quickly realized that one of the reasons there are not many specific "how to's" on raising children in the Bible is because each of us is unique. Since we were designed by the most creative Person who ever has or ever will exist, that makes sense. I knew all along I needed to communicate with each of my children according to their personalities but, suddenly I realized I was free to be as creative as I could possibly be.

An example:

We enjoy camping during the fall and spring in Nueces Canyon here in Texas. One of the places we go is right beside the Nueces River. It is three miles from the nearest little town and ten or twelve miles from the nearest city. At night stars flood the sky.

We've set out at night and talked about how beautiful they are.  How much must God love us to make something so beautiful for us?

We've talked about how there are more then we are able to count. We've talked about how the better our scientific tools get the farther we can see - and we can't find where the stars end. Many of the stars we see are are tens or hundreds of times larger than our sun. Many of the stars we see are actually galaxies made up of billions of stars. And God created them all - with His Word.

The same God we pray to and who is intimately involved in out lives, is the same God who created all of these beautiful stars. With a close, family friend that powerful what could we possibly have to fear?

We've talked about how these stars are out there in total darkness but the darkness doesn't have any measurable effect on their light. And the book of Philippians says that we shine like stars in the middle of a dark world holding out the Word of Life.

We've talked about how some of these stars are billions of light years away. So, the light we are seeing was created billions of years ago. Yet, we are still able to see it. How amazing would it be to live a life that was still influencing people hundreds or even thousands of years after it was over?

God does this with "regular" people all the time. Abraham was "just" a business man. Joseph was "just" a slave and, eehw, a government bureaucrat. Peter was a fisherman. So was John. Martin Luther started out to be a lawyer. I tell them, "you're just as regular as anybody else. Why wouldn't God use you like that?"

I know most of this stuff goes in one ear and out the other. That just gives me an excuse to go camping more so I can tell them those things over and over! Peter wrote, "to keep telling you the same thing over and over doesn't bother me. You need it."

When I first turned to the Bible for direction on how to raise and train my children I was disappointed in how few specific instructions there were. Then I realized that raising children is not a science. It is an art. The methods and techniques are not timeless. The truths and principles are.

And every day life offers infinite themes for artistic improvisation.

That's my view from here.