Put Your Kids in the Basket

After getting some emails from a few people yesterday after I posted about stinkiness, I've decided to write about another "thought." Me and the Lord are working on some things right now so these posts are as much for my benefit as anyone else. I need to drill these concepts into my head and into my heart. Maybe if I blog about it, talk about and pray about it, eventually I'll get it. So while I'm working through some of this stuff I hope it helps you all too.

The kids and I spent the night with Pappy and Gammy last Friday night. My mother in law and I got up early Saturday morning and were talking about various issues in our lives. I mentioned how much easier it is to put ourselves in God's hands than to trust Him with our children and put them in His hands and leave them there. We talked for probably a good hour and I really poured my heart out to her. There are situations that may show up in the near future that in order for me to make it through them, I have to be willing to trust God with my children no matter what.
Fast forward to Sunday morning at church. I asked my father in law after church if he had listened in on our conversation Saturday morning. EVERY SINGLE BLESSED THING we talked about, he covered in his Mother's Day message Sunday morning. Seriously. Funny thing is that he wasn't even home Saturday when we talked and Gammy hadn't talked to him about it. How's that for the Lord answering some questions?

He referred to the story of Moses and his mother, Jochebed in Exodus chapter 2. The Pharaoh ordered that "every son that is born ye shall cast into the river." Jochebed hid her son for 3 months but then she could no longer hide him. At that point she laid her son in an ark of bulrushes and placed it in the RIVER. The river that held dangerous species like LIZARDS, snakes, crocodiles, alligators.....what kind of mother could do that? One who feared her son being thrown into the river by the evil Pharaoh with no chance at all to survive. She chose rather to place him in the river and trust God to watch over him. You know the story: when Pharaoh's daughter found the baby, Moses' sister asked her if she would like to have a Hebrew woman nurse him for her. Pharaoh's daughter accepted and Jochebed received her son back in her arms to nurture him until time to take him to the palace. During this time (the Bible doesn't say how long) Jochebed could instill in Moses the ways of God and plant that seed deep in his heart.
Can you imagine the pain Jochebed faced? Knowing that she gave her child up once to save him from death and then faced another departure when he moved to the palace with Pharaoh's daughter. How would Moses be raised? What kind of idol worship and sin would he be exposed to? Would he remember the things she had taught him and remain steadfast to the one true God? Or would he go the ways of the Egyptians and turn his back on God?
Hebrews 11:24-25 says this about the decision that Moses made:
By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

Wow! What a great job Jochebed did teaching Moses in that precious little span of time she had with him. She taught him the ways of the Lord and Moses didn't forget it when faced with making the choice between everything the world had to offer at his fingertips or suffering the afflictions of the people of God.

So.....makes me wonder about myself. What am I doing with the little span of time God has blessed me with? Will I sit and worry about what MIGHT happen or what evils my kids may be faced with? Or will I use this time to dedicate myself and my prayers to instilling the ways of God in my children? I can say that I'm scared of this or I'm scared that this will happen and what if, what if, what if until I've worried myself sick (literally) or I can choose to place my children in the basket. Place them in the hands of an able, trustworthy God that loves them more than I do.

Think about that: God loves our children MORE than we could ever love them. God didn't order us to worry and fret and try to find ways to work out every little detail of our children's lives. He simply asks us to take the time that He's given to us as parents and make it count. Teach them, pray with them, read the Bible with them, live the life in front of them....
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

:)