Good Advice

The Princess and Helen, these two have been friends since kindergarten. These kinds of friendships are to be treasured. They have both already told each other that they will be standing up in each other's weddings! Tomorrow they are going out to dinner to celebrate the Princess's seventeenth birthday!

We have another picture just like this, but both of them have their eyes open! I loaded the wrong one!

I am just amazed when I settle down to spend some time with God and I read exactly what I needed to hear at that particular time. This happened again last night. The Princess and I were discussing different things, things that we don't quite agree on! Tomorrow she will be seventeen. I am still the Mom, she is still the child, but our relationship is definately changing. Not in a bad way at all, I would say we are changing from the mother/daughter relationship into a friendship. We were having one of those times when I am quite sure I know what is best for her, but it is not at all a situation where I have to tell her "I am the Mom and this is what you will do". Sometimes (most times) it is hard for me to keep my mouth shut and not tell my children what or how they should be handling their lives. I also realize as they are quickly becoming adults, I need to fix how I handle this! Are you still following all of this? I know many of you have already gone through these days!

I wanted to say all of that to show you how God used a devotion to help me last night.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars and the moon - all these are, and what a ministration they exert. So often we mar God's designed influence through us by our self-conscious effort to be consistent and useful. Jesus says that there is only one way to develop spiritually, and that is by concentration on God. "Do not bother about being of use to others; believe on Me" - pay attention to the Source, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. We cannot get at the springs of our natural life by common sense, and Jesus is teaching that growth in spiritual life does not depend on our watching it, but on concentration on our Father in heaven. Our heavenly Father knows the circumstances we are in, and if we keep concentrated on Him we will grow spiritually as the lilies.

The people who influence us most are not those who buttonhole us and talk to us, but those who live their lives like the stars in heaven and the lilies in the field, perfectly, simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold us.

If you want to be of use to God, get rightly related to Jesus Christ and He will make you of use unconsciously every minute you live.

~ Oswald Chambers in My Utmost For His Highest

Ever since the day our Princess was born, my prayer has been that I would be a godly example to my children. Oswald Chambers words really nailed what I was thinking about.