His Grace Is Enough

Do you ever leave bible study where you have put on the face of “godliness”, stop and look at your actions away from the group and think, what am I doing? Look at my relationships, they are strained. Look at my resources, I am not trusting God. Look at my time, I am managing it poorly. Look at my talents, I am wasting them on meaningless, godless endevours. My intentions are so good, especially when I’m here talking about God and his grace. How do I take that next step? How do I go beyond the talk and begin to walk with God?

I think the answer lies in our preparation. That time between stimulus and response. We need to be proactive and not reactive in all four areas: time, talent, resources, and relationships. We are wired to have habits, good and bad. How do we drop the bad habits and make them good? It’s far beyond my ability to change my bad habits on my own. It’s not natural, it’s supernatural. What do I mean by that? God has to be involved in changing our habits, our behavior. I have recently read an article about strengthening a marriage. The writer says to devote 15 hours of undivided attention to your spouse a week. My first reaction was “wow, that’s a lot”. Then I wondered how many hours that I should spend giving God my undivided attention. It takes 90 days to develop a habit? In the next 90 days I am going to develop the habit of spending time with God and my spouse. I’m going to develop the habit of reading and studying the bible. I am going to fill that area between stimulus and response with love. Who knows, maybe it will change not only my response but also my stimulus.

His grace is enough. It’s enough to cover my sin. It’s enough to make up for my imperfections. It’s enough to save my soul. What do I choose to do with that knowledge? I don’t choose to “give up”. I have heard people say that they don’t need to do anything else. They believe that Christ died for their sins and that’s enough. They are right. It is enough, but I want the peace, joy and understanding that comes from doing God’s will. I will not rely on my works to get me to heaven but I also will not stop working toward a better relationship with God. It takes work as any relationship does. It takes love. It takes compassion. It takes mercy. It takes sacrifice. God made us relational beings because He desires a relationship with us. Not just any relationship, but a fulfilled, nuturing, mutually advantageous relationship. It is from that relationship that we will learn to relate with other people. Afterall, how can we possibly have a fulfilling relationship between two imperfect people if we can’t manage to have a fulfilling relationship between one imperfect person and one perfect God?

Being The Person I Want My Child to Be

Having a child puts an extra burden on us as adults. As a parent, I have started to wonder what my daughter will be like when she grows up. How will she act as an adult, as a teenager, as a child? It frightens me knowing how I am and how I was. I want her to be better than me.

How can we expect our children to be better than we are? That puts unfair expectations on them, raising the bar to a level that we couldn’t meet ourselves. Still, it’s ultimately what we want. Rather than lowering the expectations, why don’t we try to meet that expectation ourselves? You want your child to be good with money? Maybe you should manage your money properly. You want your child to have healthy relationships? You should harvest your relationships and make them healthy. You want your child to have a good work ethic? You should be applying the qualities you want them to have into your own life. Easier said than done?

We must be partnering with God to achieve our goals. The bible gives us a perfect guide on how to live. Don’t miss understand me, it will not make us live perfectly “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. The bible does, however, have an answer for every situation you may face. Remember that your children are watching and learning from you. Shouldn’t you in turn be watching and learning from your heavenly father? My goal is not to be perfect, but to be the person that I want my children to be.