by Rebecca Ashbrook Carrell
The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out, "Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
—Exodus 34:6 NLT
April 16th, 2015, marks a birthday for my daughter and an anniversary for me. Caitlyn will be nine-years-old. I will have been a mother for exactly nine years and nine months.
As I have watched both of my children grow through the years, a thought has played on repeat in my mind: I had no idea how much power I had over my mother and father.
It’s true. My children hold the power of my very well-being in their small hands; my heart is stretched out and woven through their little fingers. A goofy grin or tear-stained face can change my mood in an instant.
Some of the brightest mountain-top moments over the past nine years are framed as a “first:” first word, first crawl or the first day of school.
Recently I thought about Caitlyn’s first steps.
We were at a family gathering, celebrating the April and May birthdays. That’s when my daughter—who’s never met an audience she didn’t love—chose to make her walking debut.
The family was sitting in a circle around the living room and Caitlyn had all eyes on her. So far she had done nothing more than stand-and-release. Pull herself up with a walker, let go, wobble a bit, and grab back on to the toy.
Suddenly, she got brave.
With her Daddy on the other side of the room, she looked his direction and broke into a heart-melting grin. “Come on, Caitlyn! Come to Daddy,” my husband coaxed.
“Da!” she exclaimed, and off she went. She toddled three, four, five steps in a row and promptly fell back on her ruffled behind.
Cheers and shouts erupted from the group, and her “Da,” no longer able to stand still, rushed to his daughter, scooped her in his arms and tossed her into the air.
“That’s my girl!” Mike laughed, “That’s my girl! Daddy is so proud!”
Research definitively shows that when children are raised in a loving, supportive environment, when their needs are met and they feel secure, they thrive.
So it is with your Heavenly Father.
Can you image what my daughter and son would be like if, instead of cheering on their efforts, we berated their lack of success?
What parent gets angry at a child as they are learning to walk and run?
Recently my son, Nick, learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. It was a bumpy process, and not without both blood and bruises. He would try, fall down, and cry. Mike or I would run to his side, kiss the boo-boo, speak words of encouragement, and the cycle would repeat itself.
Never at any time did we get frustrated. Not once did we make him feel incapable.
Instead, with time, effort and tenderness, we prodded him along until finally, he did it on his own.
Now he rides that bike like he’s been doing it all his life.
Friend, do you know that when you mess up, your Father is not the scary dad at the soccer game? He is not the angry parent, cracking the whip, demanding that you get it right.
Your Heavenly Father is the One who meets you in your mess, whispers words of grace, and prods you to persevere. “Try again,” He urges, “and again, and again, and again!”
If you have walked with the Lord for some time you may know the difference between salvation and sanctification. Salvation happens in an instant; the very moment you come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ—a faith that understands your sin nature and desperate need for a savior—that is the moment you are ushered into the Kingdom.
You are adopted. You are sealed. You are never getting out.
That is salvation.
Salvation is instantaneous.
Sanctification is the process of becoming more like Christ.
Sanctification is a process.
Allow me to repeat.
Sanctification is a process.
You are not going to wake up one day and have no interest in sin.
God knows that.
You are not going to get to a place where you never make mistakes.
God expects you to make mistakes.
You will struggle to tell the truth, to stay in the lines, and to speak in love. Some days you’ll stumble into sin and other days you’ll dive right in.
That’s why you need a Savior.
I have no misgivings about my children. They will blow it. They will fail. They will mess things up.
Lucky for them, their behavior has nothing to do with my love for them. I don’t love them because of what they do and don’t do. I don’t love them more when they hit a home run or less when they strike out. They don’t receive any more affection for an “A” than they do an “F,” because their performance has no bearing on my love for them.
Their “success” and my love are two distinct entities that occupy different galaxies.
And so it is with your Heavenly Father.
What does this mean for you? It means that you can relax. You can rest. You can turn off the spiritual treadmill. God is not hovering over you waiting for you to mess up, so He can let you have it.
No.
God is living in you, going before you and protectively surrounding you so He can lift you up when you fall.
In Him, you have everything you could ever need to thrive.
Oceans of mercy. Rivers of compassion. A love that spans eternity.
Root yourself deep in the soil of His Word. Drink deeply from the Living Water. Feast on the Bread of Life.
Flourish under the light of His love.
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.—Micah 7:18-19 NIV
Rebecca Ashbrook Carrell is a Christ follower, a wife to Mike, mother to Caitlyn and Nick, and a morning show co-host on Christian station 90.9 KCBI in Dallas/Fort Worth. Rebecca started her radio career in country music in 1998. In 2009, after a long bout with depression and anxiety, Rebecca redirected her life and answered God’s call to ministry. One day, while asking God what He wanted her to do with her life, He gave her three words: Love, Serve, Shine! The words quickly became her life’s mission: to love others the way Christ loves us, to serve others as Christ did when He washed the disciples’ feet, and to shine His light for the world to see. She founded LSS (Love, Serve, Shine!) Ministries, and speaks and teaches at churches and conferences region-wide. Today, her passion is to see women fall in love with Jesus and step into the abundant life He promises. Find out more about LSS Ministries at LoveServeShine.com.
