All I could do was to cry with him!
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Collosians 3:15-17
“-Mummy I have tried, I am trying to be nice, fun and I’m trying to fit in, but I think they don’t like me. They ask everybody else to share snacks, but when I ask they say no. If I sit down next to someone they ask me to move.”
I could hear his voice cracking up, He looked into my eyes, and then he noticed my flood, streaming down my cheeks, he hugged me and started to cry. I did’t care, we sat around the same table as so many times before in this little Chinese restaurant not far from our home. It is actually cheeper for us to eat there than to have a healthy and nutritious meal at MC donald’s. The lovely owner brought the food, and she looked at us and I could tell she wanted to be apart of our hug.
I didn’t care that I couldn’t hold back to give him a smile for comfort. I didn’t have any word to say and I didn’t have the smile to offer. My heart was broken and I shared his pain. We looked at each other and we cried. I hugged him and he continued, -”I miss my friends, I miss they boys who love me for me. I know the weather sucks in Scotland, but I love my friends I have there, I miss my school too.”
I had noticed over the past weeks that Felix was tired and a bit low. I thought it had something to do with the bug his sister had had for a few weeks. But it wasn’t. He was struggling….
It is one thing, when you as one of the parents who made the decision once again move and leave the security and the people you love and care about behind for the new ahead. Because you know it is a decision made in heart and confirmed by words from the Highest one. So when you miss, when you doubt and when you are tired and blind you go back to the Highest one and you remember……
But when you see the same pain, doubts, hopelessness and loneliness in your kids heart, you question even more. It is at those times you realize that every prayer we have prayed, every dream we have dreamt and every step we take in life affects our children, often in good ways. Sometimes in painful ways. Without our faith and God’s grace in our lives, this would have been unbearable. Well it was unbearable, so we did what we have done over and over again, we focused on Jesus worlds….. ” come to me, you who is heavy with burdened”……!
So after our tears and pudding, the whole family began to proclaim God’s promises over our family and over our lives. It is a reality in our family that we have days when we miss, we long and we are in times very sad and upset. But in Jeremiah 29:11 we can proclaim word of life, word of hope and word of joy over every second of our lives.
” I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”
Even though I can feel their pain and it is so tough to share their tears. I refuse to see my children as victims, as children who will grow up without a foundation and lack of belonging. I am not planting seeds of rootlessness or letting them have a childhood without growing an identity. Because we are not alone in this boat. Someone said to us a few months ago, ” remember, when God tells people, parents to move, he calls the whole family. What ever childhood your children might have, living here or elsewhere, it is a part if their future calling.”
This morning when we were walking out the door, my beautiful boy, my beloved son looked at me…. Smiled and said. “-Mum today will be a good day, I can feel it!”
And believe me, it was nothing we said, it was nothing we did that made him more hopeful and happy this morning. No, only because we started to confess and proclaim the word of God, the word of life over us and into our situation the hope came back, the joy came back. There is power in his words, they defeat doubts, they defeat death and they give us hope and a good future.
God has an adventure, a perfect match for everybody in your family. Enjoy it with and without tears. When low times come, start to confess, start to proclaim the promises of the good life and the good future God has in his hand.
“I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. (Jeremiah 29:11)
All glory the the king of kings!
