To be like Christ

My wife had a significant conversation with my oldest son last night concerning some hard things that he is going through at school. She mentioned that what is happening, although temporarily relieved at this point, my continue. He wasn't too excited about the thought of that but he said that he would accept it because God was making him more like Jesus through the whole situation. I cannot tell you how thankful I am that God is impressing this into his little life. Here is a 5th grader who not only believes that there is a God, but that sees what is happening around him as this personal God actively shaping him into the only person He has ever been completely impressed with: His Son, Jesus Christ.

To have had that perspective when I was his age would have been a great gift indeed. If I could have seen the teasing, the rejection, the physics homework as a consistent invasion of the life I try to live without Him by the One who loved me more than I ever could imagine. The hope that this would have brought to me is incalculable. The lessons are getting harder for him and for me as we grow in faith. It is going to take more difficult situations to grow us into the mold that He is pressing us into. I am not sure what is next for us...health issues, joblessness, death...the list could go on and on. It will not always be apparent what He is trying to do in the midst of the trouble we will be facing in this life.

But, there is one thing that is for certain - God has seen it fit to save us from the consequences of our sin and He is continually pruning us to be ever more fruitful for Him. Thanks, Dad, for your loving watch over me and my family. Thank you for Your Son and the communicable attributes that You are seeking to place into our lives.

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