Live Like Jesus

February 17, 2018

1 John 4:17 (NLT)

And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgement, but we can face him with confidence because we LIVE LIKE JESUS here in this world.

James 1:22 (NLT)

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

These are the two verses that God had me meditating on this morning.

What a place to be on a dreary Saturday morning. A lot has been on my heart lately. So much that I am pondering every day. I think God has me in a tough place right now to teach me that I need to rely on him all the more.

I am watching my adult children or almost adult children struggle with all the decisions that come about from starting to move away from me as a parent. The relationships are changing and that is a very hard road to travel. Finding that balance between being a parent and being able to tell your child what to do and expecting that child to obey and being in more an advisory role and your child having that right to not follow your advice.

My desire for them is always to live like Jesus. To do what the Bible commands them. To always follow the path that God is leading them on. The reality is though that in a 19-year old and almost 18 year old my job is now to advise and to talk and discuss and help them navigate these decisions on their own. That is my job as a parent. To prepare my children to live without me.

I know that I will never stop helping my children. I will always be there for them just like my mom and dad are for me. Being a parent never stops but the relationship changes and that is where I am right now.

Just the other night William and I were driving around. He has been struggling with some medical issues lately and he has been trying to figure out the purpose of his pain in the path God has been leading him on. It has caused him to do a lot of searching and praying. He was driving and we were talking. He drove right past our house and we just kept driving for another 20 minutes. We were able to have a hard discussion about God’s will in suffering and praying for healing but also being ready to accept if God never heals him. Those are difficult things to talk about for anyone, but I am praising the Lord that I have the kind of relationship with him that we are able to have talks like this.

I always want to be able to have those moments with my children.

Alex and I go about once a week and talk about life and ideas for his new book. That is how I connect with him. Over writing. William and I connect over theater. Each child is different and it took me while to realize that finding each child’s bent and making the effort to meet each child there is worth all the time it takes. For Nathan, that is football. Sam has recently discovered a love of books and we have connected over that.

My desire and prayer for my children has always been 3 John 1:4.

I have no greater joy than to ear that my children are walking in truth.

When I read passages like I did this morning it always makes me examine my own heart.

Are my children seeing me live like Jesus?

Are they seeing me be obedient to what the Bible has commanded us to do?

Going back to my word for the year – UNRIVALED.

That question that I read in December just keeps coming to my mind – Can others look at my life and see God’s heart, alive and unrivaled, in me?

That is what it comes down to. We can homeschool our kids or send them to a private Christian school. We can go to every church service. We can make sure that they have all the knowledge they need to function as adults. We can prepare them in every way possible. We can spend thousands of dollars making sure that they have the skills they need to be adults.

But, if we have not lived out our own walks with Christ before their eyes, it does not matter. We will lose them. They must see us walk the ups and downs of this life clinging to God. They must see us reading our Bibles. They must see our struggles with sin and see us confess and repent. It is not the churches job to train our children in how to walk with God. That has always been the job of the family. It is my job as my children’s mother to show them how I walk with God. Then I pray for them and keep pointing them back to God. Encourage them to read the Bible and fellowship with other strong believer. Then pray some more and never stop.

I have hit my knees more in the past year or so as Alex and now William have moved to adulthood. I have always prayed for my children but having adult children has made me do so like never before.

I know that the decision to walk with God is their own. You better believe that I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that they see me encourage them to walk victoriously with Him on their own. I need them to see me live like Jesus.

This has all caused me to examine my own life and see what I need to change so that there is more of Christ and less of me. The result of that is the more time I spend with Him, the more I desire to spend with him. I have found that I am spending less time on my phone because my desire is to learn more about Him. For me, having a stack of books written by strong Christian authors helps me fight the temptation to just spend my time on worthless pursuits. I also find that listening to music that is encouraging is something that helps draw me to Christ more.

It is a simple give and take and replacing those things that are worthless with things that honor God.

I have been dwelling on Psalm 27 lately. There are two verses that the Lord has really been bringing to my mind again and again.

⁴ The one thing I ask of the Lord—
    the thing I seek most—
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
    delighting in the Lord’s perfections
    and meditating in his Temple.
⁵ For he will conceal me there when troubles come;
    he will hide me in his sanctuary.
    He will place me out of reach on a high rock.

Oh, for this to be my utmost desire. To have my children see that my one and only desire to be with the Lord. That He is what I seek the most.

I want my children to see me seeking after Christ. I want them to see me meditating on Him and delighting in Him. I want them to see the joy I have in following after Christ. I want them to see that when I am struggling I run to Him and only to Him and that He is the one who gives me the strength to go on amidst the pain and struggle. He may not deliver us from the struggle, but He carries us through and never leaves our sides.

These are the things that I want my adult children to see in my life. This is the best thing that I can teach them. If I teach them all the knowledge in the world and yet fail to show them how to follow Christ, I have failed. I want them to always see me follow after Christ and desire Him above all other things in my life.