Today we are going to talk about making
babies. But don’t worry, we aren’t going
there. We are going to talk about the
mysteries of the gene pool; take two people’s genes, mix ‘em up and let’s see
what’s gonna’ pop out! Boy or girl,
strong willed, passive, fearful, shy, happy go lucky, outgoing. It’s a kinder surprise!
My husband and I would consider ourselves
to be “give it a go” kind of people. But
thanks to the mysteries of the gene pool and God’s sovereignty we have been
blessed with a girl who is very cautious and fearful. Whew! It’s
a challenge! Every time she learns a new
skill we go through the same phases: complete and utter terror, followed by
giving up at the smallest disappointment, followed by being told to try again,
followed by crying and drama, and repeat; until slowly, very slowly she learns
how to do it. We haven’t managed to
conquer bike riding yet though. Perhaps
when she’s 23 we’ll try it again…
All this drama has resulted in much sinful
behavior towards her manifesting as both of us getting very frustrated and
annoyed with her, telling her to get over herself and grumping at her etc. And if there’s one thing we have learned in
parenting our fearful child it’s that grumping and telling off don’t help
(surprise, surprise) but teaching her again and again about the objective she
is trying to conquer sure does help. The
more she learns about it, the less she fears it.
We had a bit of a crisis situation a year
back when she choked on some sushi. This
led to her being fearful of chewing and swallowing. So every meal we had to preach to her how
eating worked. How God made her body so
that the flaps that blocked her airways would close automatically when she
swallowed and if she took her time chewing and swallowing she would be OK. And we got back to normal eating… eventually.
But it still surprises us how many times we
have to preach to her this information for her to be comforted and strengthened
by it. It always takes a lot longer than
we think it will and so we see the natural implications for the Gospel. As some wise men have said “preach the Gospel to yourself everyday”; preach that objective, outside yourself truth to
yourself every day to reassure yourself that you need not fear whether God is
with you, or loves you; because though you are a desperate sinner He died for you and rose for you and rescued
you so you are safe and you are loved.
The best way to overcome our fear is not to
focus inwardly and try and squelch it with ‘Anthony Robbins power of positive
thinking, but to listen again and again to the good news which comes from outside
ourselves. Christian; you do not need to
fear choking because your esophagus flap closes your windpipe automatically
when you swallow. And you do not need to
fear God’s anger at you because Jesus has died for you, taking his Father’s anger
upon himself and setting you free from the law’s power to condemn you.
AIM pt 1: You will be saved through childbearing
AIM pt 2: I'm sorry, I just don't remember your name
AIM pt 3: In memory of summers past
AIM pt 4: Blowing the lid on Santa
AIM pt 5: Fireman Sam now does house visits
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