Whenever my daughter encountered a dead animal as a small child the funeral was a very important time for her.
I remember my neighbour taking her to the park and she brought my daughter back with a dead pigeon, great I thought!!! We then had to bury the pigeon in our garden.
When her goldfish died we had to all dress in black and walk to the stream at the end of the road to see the goldfish off and say goodbye as he floated away.
My daughters middle name should be 'drama' but also it should be 'compassion'!
Things haven’t changed much. . .the other day I get a phone call from her as I was working on the weeks Sunday school lesson.
‘Mum, my friend is homeless they need to stay with us tonight, he has no where else to live and no money to get anywhere!’
Sadly, and embarrassingly my immediate response was absolutely NO!
I finished speaking feeling pushed and pressured by her drama and got back to writing. My lesson was all about Zacchaeus and how Jesus wants us to love the lost and lonely. . .
WHAM, I was convicted like a bolt by the Holy Spirit with how I had just dealt very badly with my daughter’s friend.
I felt such a hypocrite and went to god to say sorry. How could I have responded like that to my daughter and then write about Jesus’ heart for the lost?!?!
I went to god to work out my issues! In my defence my daughter does err on the side of drama and we often have to pull the drama out to see the truth of a situation. This happens almost daily and to be honest I’m weary of them. Because of my weariness my guard was up, and I responded very defensively.
After chatting with Father God, saying sorry and calming down I felt I came to a reasonable compromise. I called my daughter back and said this chap could come for supper and we would then pay for his train journey to another friends. I didn’t feel comfortable having a strange guy in the house overnight.
She was just about OK with this and I started to work on supper. As I did this I felt God download His thoughts to me about my daughter.
Do you remember star trek when they get beamed down to a planet and the light encases them in a tube as they go? It felt like that, like god was beaming down His thoughts for my daughter as I stood in the kitchen.
I really felt Father show me that my daughter is carrying a love for the lost and broken and that my husband and I need to stand with her, to guide and train that gift of compassion. Show her when it's ok to say no, show her what she can do to help and not be manipulated and so much more.
I was already aware of this to a degree, but this revelation gave me a new and powerful perspective.
I needed to see her dramas as an opportunity to train her compassionate heart, the gift God has given her. Not to see them as another exhausting battle to deal with.
I’m telling you this as an encouragement to partner with God as we parent our children. He sees what we can’t see and speaks hope and life into difficult situations to equip us further to pray and parent our children.
The other thing I feel is important here is letting our agendas and plans go. I really laid down my thoughts and came to Father God with an open heart. I also listened and honoured my daughters compassionate heart.
THEN god spoke and revealed His heart.
Joyce Meyer in her book ‘Overload’ talking about stress says;
‘…..when you place your faith in God it opens a door for Him to work.’
I really feel this is what happened that day for me and I know it can be the same for you.
I am praying for you in your situations that you will be able to go to God with your dramas and stresses and God will beam down His thoughts and revelation for your children.
Much love,
Sam x
P.S the friend never came. . . !