Join me for 5 minute Friday. We write for 5 minutes (well, I do in between GO and STOP). Most of the time, I need to finish my tho’ts. After all, this is a blog. I’m not going to leave you hanging. Then we link our post to Gypsy Mama’s Five Minute Friday page. And the most important thing? We stop at the person before us (and any others we want) and leave an encouraging note!
GO
When I carried my children, I thought the skin would not stretch anymore as they grew…
But it did.
They enjoyed their cozy home inside.
They grew and matured…well, three did.
The pregnancy was a metaphor for the raising of these babes…
Raising them also stretched me…and their father.
How would we teach them to love GOD and others in ways we weren’t qualified to do?
How would they learn to do the right things when we were so poor at setting good examples?
How do you raise wise and healthy women in today’s world?
We discovered that was only one of the reasons GOD placed us in the Church.
Was it perfect?
Of course not. But neither were we!
Others who were older, wiser, different from us…
People who had different histories, perspectives, abilities…
GOD used them too…in their imperfections, to compliment the work He was doing on our children
To make them into His women.
Raising them stretched us all the time…to be the people GOD needed us to be.
To love each other when we wanted to do our own thing, focus on our own problems and struggles.
Now they are grown.
They are starting into their forties or are well into their thirties.
They have passed up the decade of the twenties!
The time is flying!
Our seventh grandchild was born this summer. STOP
Her oldest cousin on our side of the family tree is nine.
We are all stretching as we grow in grace.
There are times when we feel that we can’t stretch anymore…but it happens.
GOD enables us to grow to the challenge of learning to forgive, living in difficult circumstances, loving…
We learn to persevere…even when we didn’t think it was possible.
GOD is good.
In our weakness, He shows His strength.
When we come to the end of ourselves, we find His grace sufficient for our need.
We must come humbly to Him…our least favorite way of approaching anyone…
Even GOD.
It is difficult for us to come to Him admitting that we can’t do life
Especially the Christian life, without Him!
And so we continue to stretch…out toward others that make us uncomfortable,
Toward situations that we don’t like to be in or around.
Down in humble reliance on GOD…a position we naturally despise!
And one day, when the work GOD has for us is done,
We will move up to glory to be with Him!
We will be finished with living in the Land of the In-Between…
Between the Now and the Not Yet…
Between our Redemption that was final on the cross and our full Redemption experience in heaven!
Then, the stretching will be over! The Delivery will happen…
And there are no inductions because we are tired of the stretching!
_____
photo:© Maxim Loskutnikov – Fotolia.com
What a beautiful post. What a beautiful expression of what it is to birth them, raise them, let them go and what comes next. I am in the young adults stage of parenting. They are almost grown, but not quite yet. I do need to hear from the ones who have traveled further down this road than me. Visitor from Five Minute Friday.
thanks dawn:) glad you enjoyed it. i enjoyed browsing at your blog as well. at the stage where you are you learn to pray a LOT…if you didn’t before now.
Visiting from the Five Minute Friday. Such a beautiful depiction of motherhood!
thanks for stopping by Barbie:) i enjoyed peeking at your blog as well. thanks again for the compliment.