Tuesday 11 November 2014

AIM pt 6: Where do children come from?



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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