Power Not Fear

School is back in session!  I miss my boys.  :(  I feel so blessed that our whole family gets to be together for the summer.  I know most families don't have that luxury.  It is such a great time for our family.  I especially love how Aidan and Ella get to bond more with their daddy, and how closely bonded they became over the summer.  They were thick as thieves, playing in their bedrooms every day.  Some days they were campers and hikers, some days they were orphans (living in a closet), some days Ella was the mommy and Aidan was the baby...they built a fort almost every day.  I love that they are making sweet memories that will bind them together throughout their lives.  I got really sad last week thinking about Aidan going back to school.  It just seems so odd for him to be somewhere else all day long.  He's my helper, and I miss him when he's not here.  Ella misses him too.  She cried when we dropped him off yesterday.  And for most of the day she kept saying, "I want him back."  Me too!  I know we'll get used to it, but it seems pretty awful to get used to someone not being here.  I'm missing Mark too.  I am so blessed to have the kind of husband that takes great care of me.  He kept things running smoothly at the house and helped me keep it "show ready" all summer...not an easy task when we're all here ALL day.  Mostly, I just miss having a grown up to talk to!

As I was processing all of these "going back to school" emotions last week, God laid something on my heart that has really changed the way I think about sending Aidan back to school.  I wanted to share it with you, maybe it will give you some insight too.  See, we had trouble with Aidan at the beginning of summer. He was getting a little bit of a smart mouth on him, and not always obeying the first time.  It was nothing terrible, but more than we were willing to accept from an 8 year old for sure!  But, as the summer progressed, he matured so much.  He turned back into the sweet, loving boy we adore.  He started helping out more without being asked.  He started treating his sister kindly and really having fun with her.  I feared that when school started again, we would lose all the progress we made over the summer.  I've also been discouraged lately about all the influences in the world that we have to protect him from...tv, movies, music...they all seem geared at making kids grow up too fast.  I was really struggling with this and fearful about it.  I was feeling overwhelmed.

Then God started speaking.  Isn't it funny how when God starts speaking all those feelings of being overwhelmed and afraid, just fade?  It started when I read a quote online somewhere (I will try to find who said it...but it escapes me at the moment).  It said, "I don't want my kids to just survive the world.  I want them to change it."  God whispered to my heart when I read that quote.  I spend a lot of time thinking about how to help my kids survive this world...watch out for this, don't do this, do this...and not nearly enough time teaching them how to change it.  And when I really started thinking about it, I realized that most Christians are not aware of the power we have available to us.  Why would we ever be worried about anything?  God really started dealing with me on this idea.  Protecting our kids and warning them about potential pitfalls is important.  After all, we have an enemy that prowls around like a lion, seeking someone to devour(1 Peter 5:8).  They need to realize that.  But we need to also teach them that this shouldn't make them feel afraid.  Because while the Bible does talk about what we need to watch out for, it spends a lot more time talking about what we should be doing...how we should be using God's power that lives inside us to change this world.  When I read my Bible, there are warnings there about what to be careful about, but there are also verses like this:

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  2 Cor. 10:3-5


and this one:
"Pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength."  Ephesians 1:18-19


and one of my favorites:
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7


I don't know a lot of Christians that live like they have a spirit of power.  I think the world has beat it out of us sometimes.  I want my kids to be different.  Because the other thing that God revealed to me was that if I teach them about that power...teach them how to tap into it...they'll be hooked.  And all that other stuff...the inappropriate music, the tv shows, the friends that try to lead them astray...they won't want anything to do with it.  Once you've felt just a little bit of that power...the power of really loving someone, the power of making a difference for someone, the power of overcoming fear and insecurity...you don't ever want to walk away from it.  I want my kids to be so busy doing what God has for them, that they have no time for anything this world may have to offer.  Then, they will be fulfilled.  Then, they will change the world.

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."  1 John 4:4