God's Hugs

Good morning all.  A day like today would be a good reason to change the reason we call home the Treasure Coast.  The weather is our treasure today and the ocean is bringing a soft, yet steady wind across the beaches.  It is so beautiful!  Today my blog time will be devoted to the most precious part of a parent’s heart; children. I cannot speak for all of you so I can only example my experiences.

The Viet Nam War (crisis) deprived my son and daughter of their father before they even had time to know him.  A sweet home-town Christian boy left us and returned a man that no one understood.  All of the wisdom in the world could never prepare families for these tumultuous times.  Well it wasn’t long before he chose his own path to walk and it did not include his family, so life began again the way it first began; just the three of us.  Some of you can relate to this and sadly, too many of you.  We were scrutinized, criticized and passed over by an older generation who simply wanted everything to remain the same.  How could it?  There have been generations of single moms rearing their children alone, yet this time we were treated like we were diseased.  Yep.  A lot of forgiveness has come down the pike and a lot of that same, torture of being different came with it.

Now, let’s stop and think about this.  The children grew up without the best of both worlds and found their way through life the same way we did, but in a different age of technology.  Are you still with me?  Many parents of the sixties and seventies have managed to retain the devout Christian beliefs without interference in a world created for them.  Today parents and their children are being forced to deal with the world our ancestors left behind. 

I think about this a lot because our ancestors, the puritans, were building a world free of all of the things that were causing chaos in other parts of the world.  As time rolled along the sixties generation ushered in the unbelievable world of technology, the one that seemed to take this country by surprise.  Not our governments or military, but to us it was wowing.  I remember when we had to decide to go back to school and learn this new operation of offices or get left behind...  Since then this generation has played the extreme highway game of keeping up with the technical industry.  I remember selling a rather gaudy diamond bracelet to purchase a single strand of pearls and two computers!  How small the world suddenly became and war was on television twenty-four hours per day in vivid color.

Let me not go too far off my course and forget the crux of this visitation.  The parents now have young pre-teens, teens, and young adults to keep up with.  The basic rules of life are changing and that is my great concern with our present generation.  How do parents keep the basics yet live with all of the changes?  Grandparents help, church helps some, extended families reach out more often, the neighborhoods they live in pay closer attention and perhaps the most important is continual encouragement within those basic boundaries.  Choices do create consequences. They always have and always will.  Choose wisely is far more, than just a bumper sticker.  When our ability to grow older and understand the present generation, occurs, if it ever occurs for some of us, then we will relax.  We can throw away the stress pills, laugh louder, smile more often, and enjoy the wonderful people in our lives.  Judgement of others is not a new concept!  From the puritans to the pulpits of today, judgements seem to be steady and continuing. 

Please let us not confuse judgements of living in our world with judgements of faith.  We judge the distance we in a car travel at a particular speed and give the person in the car in front of us plenty of room to make judgements also.  Our faith, the Christian faith that is, will always suffer scrutiny yet we have to remain stable in our faith and not judge others for their disagreement.  Now we come to the purpose of this visit today.

We are not the Holy Spirit and we are not capable of controlling other people or circumstances that are not ours to have.  We can push open every door that we think will work for us but until God’s perfection is applied in the pressure of the push it will not come to fruition. 

Now, I take a deep breath, have a sip of coffee, and relax.  God is in control.  Wow!!!! I keep losing sight of that fact.  My children and grandchildren are my greatest reminders.  When those days of Viet Nam separated our family, I gave up.  I gave my children and everything I had to God.  I told him that I could not fix it, deal with it or even imagine in my mind a way to work all of our problems out.  He took them and gave me a hug.  Well you may find this amusing but it is not when the night is long and you have no idea what is going on with a child or grandchild, so you cannot sleep for mentally trying to fix it.  That is right.  As Christians and as parents we think we can fix it!!!!  All of it!!!  That is when a trip to the carpet with open arms, and face down, I allow God to remind me that he has not given me control and he never will.  That is freedom to know that he is in charge.  I can relax and sleep and work and dream and be happy.  How about you?  Do you need a hug? Sit up from lying on the carpet and wrap your arms around yourself while God’s spirit encloses you in his arms.  That my friend; is a God hug.

Now let’s ask God and our children and grandchildren to forgive us for thinking we had control of God’s decisions.  We can be there and we can love with all of our hearts but we cannot make all of those decisions.  We have to keep trusting them to back away if the door is not opening with God’s force of perfection, and embrace the beautifulness of watching God take us to joyous reunions that we could never provide ourselves; on the carpet.

My friend sent me an email message about Mom’s.  Thank you.  We are truly blessed.  Will life be easy?  No.  Will decisions be difficult? Yes.  Are we in it alone? Never!  Are our children alone? Never!  We can change the consequences of our present actions by choosing well.  We can practice patience, and still hold onto the basics while we live in a world of continual change.

My motto:

·         Remember where you came from.  God created you.

·         Remember who you are.  God’s child with all of his benefits, and never ending hugs.

·         Remember where you are going.  Back to God!

Now everything else is the stuff that life gives us and we give to life.  Always remember to get your God hug!  Don’t have to always ask a friend, since God is the perfect parent.