Lessons Learned

 By Carl Kimbro, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 2/17/21



Nothing strikes fear in my wife and my hearts more than a long drive on a family road trip. It's not the long hours that drives the fear. It's knowing that as soon as those seat belts click into place those well-mannered children will turn into wild, uncivilized maniacs. "Are we there yet?” "She's touching me!" If patience is a virtue, these are the times when I am virtue-less.

I like to think that I grow wiser with age, and after adopting our grandchildren, it would be easier the second time around, but Cheryl and I found we still need wisdom and help. Our granddaughters have been through a lot – abandonment at one and three years old, parents in prison, and the recent death of their mom whom they had not seen or heard from in five years. With her death, died their dream of reuniting with her.

Our experience raising kids did not prepare us for this, and we knew we couldn’t do it alone. We had to admit we needed help, and we had to be willing to share our struggles with leaders and others in Celebration Place and Celebrate Recovery. They blessed us and the girls in many ways. Encouragement for the girls, and extra love and compassion for them. The girls in turn responded by talking about their sorrow and pain. It brought them the comfort and peace they needed so badly. Cheryl and I were also blessed by prayers and a place to share our own pain. As a result, there are two major truths we were reminded of and want to share.

Encourage your children's innocence and willingness to trust that God answers prayer.

Jesus said in Matthew 18:3:

 

"Except you become like little children, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven”

 

Children believe God hears their prayers, and they pray expecting an answer. What seems a coincidence to us, they easily accept as answered prayer. This unwavering faith may weaken as they grow up and are influenced by the world, but we can, through our words and actions, encourage this trust and keep it alive in their hearts as they grow and mature. We can also learn from them and pray with childlike faith and expect an answer.    

Do not let anger overshadow your love for your child.

It's easy to be less loving when you are angry. Choose your words carefully. We can say things that are hurtful. It's when they are misbehaving and when we have disciplined them for their actions that they need our love and forgiveness the most. It's true for us as children of God as well. God set the example for us. Psalm 103:12 says:

 

"As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us"

 

The distance between the east and west is a distance unmeasurable. God forgives us and casts our sins far away. Once forgiven, His righteous anger dissipates, and He remembers the sin no more. It does not say He never disciplines us. It says He does not remain angry with us forever. So too should we be with our children. Discipline is needed, but forgive and forget the sin. Through this they will learn how to forgive and love unconditionally.   

These seem so simple, yet they are not. 

Lessons we learn have to be practiced, even the second time around. And I will get plenty of practice time. I just need to remember God loves me and is patient with me. Let that peace of mind guide you in raising your children. 

Click HERE to listen to "East to West" by Casting Crowns


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why do we introduce ourselves?

One of the things that might confuse a newcomer coming into this great ministry is the way we introduce our self and do so every time we meet in a Step Group and/or Open discussion group. The question that often comes up is; “Why in the world would we have to introduce our self every time we come together? I mean, we all know each other don’t we? We all know what the other is struggling with right? So why should I have to state my main issue I am dealing with? These are all logical questions and I think the below content from Tina at Saddleback might help shed some light on this. As you may already know, in our small groups we ask our Leaders to introduce themselves with this statement: “Hi my name is _______; I am a believer who struggles with________.” We ask our leaders to keep it short; to stick to one or two primary areas of recovery. We ask them not to state a host of recovery issues and character defects, etc… especially because we do not run recovery specific groups for cha...
Read more

12 Days Of CR Christmas

Image
One of our great leader Monica rewrote the lyrics to this old Christmas song to tie into the 12 steps. We had a lot of fun singing it and love that it keeps the focus on the 12 steps thru Christmas. Great job Monica! On the first day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the notion it’s not about me; On the second day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the third day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fourth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my inventory, will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fifth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me On the sixth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, desire to be humble, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the ...
Read more

Guidelines are there for a reason

Anyone who has participated in a Step Study or a small group through Celebrate Recovery has heard the five small-group guidelines. They’re supposed to be read aloud before each meeting starts, just to remind everyone or to inform any newcomers. Most of the guidelines are obvious and make perfect sense on the first reading. Anonymity is vital and as people who are submitting to God as our Higher Power, we should realize that we are in no more a position to “fix” each other than we are to “fix” ourselves. There’s one guideline that puzzled and even annoyed me at first, that pesky no. 2. “There is NO cross talk. Cross talk is when two individuals engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person is free to express his or her feelings without interruptions.” At first I really didn’t understand the guideline. “Did they seriously need to tell us not to talk to each other while someone was sharing?,” was my thought. But as the guideline was explained further, I better understood. We ar...
Read more