The Toddler In Me

may stephanie

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.—Matthew 6:33

All these things.  Life, family, shelter, food, clothing, dreams, activities, friends, and more.  Everything that is pure that our heart desires and that aligns with the will of God will be added to us after we seek God first.

I don’t know about you, dear friend, but  sometimes I am really good at focusing on the first part and other times I just gloss over the first part to get to the second part.  I can feel the difference in my heart, mind, even body.  When I get distracted by blessings, find myself suddenly close to a goal and start obsessing, when life suddenly gets interesting and active, I tend to forget that my focus, even then, is to be completely on God and His righteousness.

Do you ever do this?  Perhaps not :)  You might be more steadfast in spirit and mind than I am, less restless, less prone to wander.

But I am a child :D  I am a toddler who solemnly says “Yes, Daddy” when my Father says “Ok, now there is going to be a lot happening but I need you to pay attention to Me and hold My hand the whole time.”, but then wiggles and strains and pulls to hold every blessing in my hands and explore every new path I suddenly see.

And then the Lord, in His gentle mercy but perfect righteousness, has to bring me back to His face, make me focus on Him as blessings fade or are hidden from my sightline or I suddenly can’t accomplish what I could yesterday or colors in my mind just aren’t as bright.  He makes me calm, firmly but lovingly making me focus on Him, until the excited franticness of my human flesh stops wiggling and twisting to run ahead of or around Him.  I sit at His feet and my heart is filled and my soul is steadied.

I am getting better at always seeking Him for Him, not losing my focus when He turns oceans of tides in my favor. The more wonderful I see Him to be, the more I realize that my dreams and desires for accomplishments on earth are specks of dust compared to the glory of Him and the gift of His presence in my life.

Now, I am a practical gal.  I want the list of How To.  So how do we know if we are actually focusing on Him and not Him-as-a-means-to-our-fulfillment?

When we are perfectly content for something we want to fall through as long as it is the will of God that caused it to do so. 

When we trust God enough that, when something we want falls through, we rejoice as if it had succeeded because we trust His working in it, then we will know that we are putting Him first before our dreams and desires.

Let’s take a rejection letter of a book we have written as an example.  Our first reaction might be huge disappointment and doubt.  However, if we knew that the Lord had arranged that on purpose, would we still be disappointed?  Or would we be able to say “OH!  Ok, Lord.  No worries, I trust You.” and be perfectly content because we wanted His will so completely?  Do we trust the Lord so much that our ‘failures’ are as rejoiced as our successes because we know our every step is in His hands?

It could be that that was the wrong publisher and He is working out a different one.  It could be that the world needs those words 6 months later than we had planned.  It could be that writing the book was a gift to the Lord and the words for Him alone, or that there was growth in that book for us that He wanted us to walk through before the book we are actually to publish gets written.  In any case, we trust His timing completely, desiring His will so fully that our disappointments are actually embraced as movements of His will in our lives.  Let us remember:

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. Proverbs 9:21

Our prayer must always be “Your glory, Your will.  100% of the time.  Just give me You, and I will be perfectly content.”.  Then, when His blessings and mercies and “all these things” do flow into our lives, we will not lose sight of Him.:)

-Stephanie

3 responses to “The Toddler In Me

  1. Superb! Thank you for sharing.

    Be with me, Lord, I cannot live without Thee,
    I dare not try to take one step alone…

    His assurance in Isaiah 46:4:

    I will be your God throughout your lifetime-until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.

    Just be with me, my Father. Help me to be consciously aware of Your ever-abiding Presence. Nothing else matters.

    LikeLiked by 2 people

  2. I treasure His will, each and every day. Left to my own devices, I’m afraid that my life would look quite different. I have learned over time and looking back that even the things that I thought would crush me certainly did not and I am all the better for them. Not something you necessarily want to accept at the time, but eventually we all come to see His wisdom. Thanks for the reminder!

    LikeLiked by 1 person

  3. Hi Stephanie! Enjoyed your post today. You are so right about trusting God in all these things. I need to trust Him 100%! Sometimes it’s hard, but oh.. How wonderful is the deep relationship we have grown with Him!

    As I have pursued my path to publishing, I think God has been showing me that He’s in this journey with me, and that He is teaching me in the process. Keep writing for Him girl! HE is leading you.

    LikeLiked by 1 person

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