Faith created

We are learning the 'fruit of the spirit.' Count three fruits three times: love, joy peace. patience, kindness, goodness. faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We pray for these fruits. Ask the Spirit to give us kindness towards one another. To bring us happy hearts, his joy. To give self-control when we feel none.

source

I'm stuck on these gifts. How they can all be faked, learned behavior, masquerading as heart change, hiding the hypocrite inside. All, except faithfulness.

We can't fake faithfulness, not for long anyway.

Life is built to challenge our faith, that the one who is faking it will be revealed and the one bearing true fruit will be pruned.

In that realization, I find a terrifying, freeing parenting truth. No earthly thing creates faithfulness.

I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things.
But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. Jeremiah 2:7

How can I bless my children more than God blessed his? How can I give them more, train them more, cite example upon example of God's goodness more than God himself did?

But my people have change their glory for that which does not profit. Jeremiah 2:11

Earthly blessings do not produce faithfulness. No amount of blessed rituals or sacred family practices. I cannot create faith.

Nor can I force it.

In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction. Jeremiah 2:30

How can I discipline more effectively than God? How can I hope to correct my children perfectly, justly, lovingly, in proportion, faithfully at all times?

Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. Jeremiah 2:23

Discipline, even Godly discipline doesn't force faith.

Terrifying. This human momma wants control, wants results, wants a formula. Blessing + discipline = faithful children. Isn't that in Proverbs somewhere? Do it right, and they have to respond.

No. It isn't. And how many times have I watched parents 'do it right' before the eyes of unrepentant children.

Terrifying.

And freeing.

Because I won't do it right. I don't do it right. I will never balance blessing and discipline. I will never parent so diligently. I am frail and weak and prone to wander myself. How can I teach anything else to my children?

And freeing because the book doesn't end with chapter 2 {how horrifying if it did}.

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:33,34, emphasis mine

He sets his word in place, in hearts made fertile to grow and bear much fruit.

To guarantee that this new covenant will not fail, Christ takes the initiative to create the faith and secure the faithfulness of his people. ~~John Piper 

Faithfulness isn't about training, but covenant. Promise from God through Jesus that he will change our hearts. Create in us a new person that longs for him, that blooms with faith.

His steadfast love completes what all the parenting in the world fails to achieve. Create faithfulness in his children. Amen.

On Cleaning out my Grandparent's Apartment

My grandparents' home tells of six continents of world travel - Pakistan, New Guinea, Kenya, Chile, Switzerland, India {the full list warrants its own post}. And from all these places, the accompanying souvenirs. Items that I love for their craftsmanship, made by artists in villages who took precious time to create beauty amongst hostility. A collection of eye-catching pieces, almost lost to the next amazing eye-catching piece.

They used it all.  Sugar bowls and jewelry cases and pencil holders. No piece was so 'precious' that it must remain wrapped in tissue paper, ferreted away in a drawer where no one could see it. Chips happened. Cracks and glue. Just life. All this functional art used, seen, touched every day. The craftsmen might be more pleased to see it cracked and loved, then wrapped and saved and never enjoyed. The art isn't intended to last forever. It is intended to bring joy and beauty every day.

I see myself in their home. Where my esthetic originated. Grandmother's pendants. Granddad's African mammal art. Inlayed wood trays. Not just me - big one's obsession with elephants and giraffes is genetic. We just have Kenya in our blood, handed down through my great grandfather who wanted more than anything to see Africa. I'm the fourth generation to make the pilgrimage to the grasslands. Scraped by on mac n' cheese for a year in college to save for the trip. I had to go. And I had to go back as soon as the plane lifted from the Kenyan tarmac.

{Child memories are funny things. Of all the pieces in my grandparents' bedroom, the piece I remember: Figment, the Imaginary Dragon - a stuffed toy from Epcot. Why did my child brain latch onto that? It still sits in their bedroom. I laugh.}

My most valued treasure from my grandparents - Grandmother's Bible. That Bible sits with my mom's and mine. A legacy of faith - the plumb line of my family. This is what I want to carry home for my girls. This is what lasts. Afternoons spent on vinyl deck chairs practicing the 23rd Psalm and the catechism with Grandmother. Her faith taught to this younger woman to be carried on for generations. One day, I hope big one and small one add their Bibles to the pile and thank the Lord for generations of His grace.

Never mind bank accounts and collections, net worth. Faith is the inheritance, the only inheritance that lasts.

Thank you Lord for your faithfulness throughout generations. You do not forget your people. You do not leave them hopeless and alone. You uphold us with your righteous right hand and grace our grandchildren. Praise the Lord!

The Great Race

How dark must Saturday have felt? All hope wrongfully buried deep in a cave, hidden behind an immovable boulder. Waiting for another traitor to lead soldiers and pharisees to arrest key followers. Wondering if they were about to face a false trial, hidden behind closed doors. Or would they be left alone? No direction, no leader, no jobs, no family, no Jesus. No wonder the disciples hid in despair.

They'd seen Lazarus walk out of a tomb. But Jesus was there to call him. What happens when Jesus is the one in the tomb? When the untouchable teacher who calms raging waves is so completely beaten? He didn't even defend himself. As if he had determined his death before they even arrested him.

In light of the despair of that Saturday long ago, our teachable story is one to combat the dark days, a story of great hope, taken from Hebrews 12:1-3:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary or lose heart.

Team Work

The Great Race

This is the story from God's word. All around us, a race {run with your arms} is being run. A very long race over steep hills and low valleys. It's a race that God designed for all of his people to run. Sometimes, on the steep hills, the runners get so tired that they want to quit. But God has given them a special power {flex muscles} so that they can keep running. This power is called faith. And faith grows unbreakably strong when runners run together.

To make sure that no runner is ever left alone, God gave his special people stories of other faithful people. Like Abraham and Moses, who risked everything they cared about to obey God. They trusted God's big promise to send Jesus as their deliverer. When we think about other people's faith, it makes our faith stronger.

Even better, we have the story of Jesus. The only way people could walk and talk with God again was if perfect Jesus accepted all the punishment for their sin. Jesus only thought about how wonderful this reunion would be, like a shepherd's party after finding his lost lamb. He focused on that celebration as he was punished for everyone else. When we think about Jesus' faith, it makes our faith stronger.

With our super power of faith, strengthened by other people, we can run hard and finish the long race {throw arms out}. At the finish line is a huge party with all of the other faithful runners. The party never ends, as we celebrate the race with Jesus. This is the end of the story.

If you use the stories, please tell me about it.