Bill often says something like this: My primary motive cannot be to please God because only my trust in him pleases him. Wow!  This flips some of my theology on it’s head.  I have spent 33 of my 38 years on this earth trying to please God.  After all I want God to be happy.  I remember thinking as a kid that when I would go to church or go on a mission trip of something that God must really be pleased in me.  I also remember that when I would smoke or use foul language or skip school that I was pretty sure God was displeased with me.  I spent a lot of time trying to bank good stuff in the God account so that it would cover the bad stuff I did and I would have a net positive.

Last night I couldn’t sleep and I was thinking about my girls.  Audrey is 10 and Emma is 8.  They are the absolute light of my life.  So I was thinking about this principle and about my girls and things sort of clicked for me.  I realized that I would always rather have my girl’s trust than I would like to have them working hard to try and please me.  And here’s why: as little people they are always going to do knuckle-headed stuff, and they are going to drive me crazy sometimes.  Of course they will make me happy a lot of times too.  But their behavior isn’t a constant. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s not.  But their trust in me can be a constant!  Regardless of how they act, they can always trust me.  And in trusting me, I can come along side them and we can sort out their behavior together.  So their trust in me is actually the key to helping them live out who they really are–amazing kids!

Beyond that, their trust in me indicates a deeper, more substantial and healthier relationship than one that is typified by them striving to make me happy.  If that’s all their going for then they are quickly going to get to a place of resentment because as humans, they can’t do the good and right thing all the time.  So there will be this constant up and down in our relationship that will wear them down until the point that they just give up and decide not to try any more.

If this isn’t a parallel to what I experience with God I don’t know what is!  If I strive to please God I will never hit the mark. There may be a thing I do here and there that makes him happy, but on the whole, because I am human, I am going to blow it and will have to deal with my perception of God’s displeasure in me.  After a  while I’ll just give up.  I know tons of Christians that have given up on their faith for this very reason.  It’s not that they deny that God exists, it just that they are tired of trying so hard so they give up.  And it is a source of deep sadness for many of them.  Makes this principle one that I want to shout from the rooftops because if we as Christians could internalize this principle we could stick with it, and more than that, we could glorify in it for our entire lives!

I could go on and on about this–a guess a little sleeplessness from time to time is a good thing. So in both my earthly relationships and in my heavenly one I want trust to reign.  I want to be trustworthy with Joanne and with my kids–I want to nurture that trust at every turn.  And I want to constantly remind myself that God is perfectly worthy of my trust too.  I want to come alongside my family as we face life’s challenges just as I know God comes along side me.  And the thing that makes it all work is trust.  I love that!

Filed under: PARENTING by toben