of a child

There are so many things that go through my brain but the latest thing that has been peculating around up there is the idea of how we see God.

I was in church a few weeks ago and was able to sit next to a friend of mine that has the most beautiful baby boy. He is around 5 maybe 6 months old now. He is starting to use his legs and really enjoys standing on your lap holding tightly to your fingers. He is so beautiful, did I mention that???

Anyway, I was holding him through the service and even though he was on my lap and there was lots to be distracted by he had his eyes set on his mother. I mean not just looking at her every now and then no they were GLUED to her face. I would tickle him and say his name. He would quickly glance at me and look back at mom.

It made me think of how we view God.

Do we keep our gaze on him and not just every now and then but GLUED knowing that He is our source for life, for sustenance, for purpose, for identity, for fulfillment, etc. Do we realize that if that relationship is not strong and in tact then all other relationships will feel straign too? Do we only glance at the things that are trying so hard to to take our attention away from Him?

I have met a man that will one day become my husband. We love to spend time together and time seems to fly by now that we are together. I mean literally I can wake up on Monday and by the time I am going to bed it is Saturday night, or so it seems. We talk all the time about how we need to make time for personal, not together, things even cleaning the house. Time for friends, family but more importantly God time. Why is it so hard?? I heard a radio program that was a man discribing the process he went through with his wife when she had cheated on him and he felt like it was his fault. Interestingly enough, though I did not hear the end, he said something like this, "I had put her in my god spot. I wanted to do more to make her happy, do less to make her upset, do more for her, make sure there was never anything negative in her life. One day I had to acknowlege that I thought I would shrivel up and die without her and I was holding on so tight that she had to get away. " His point was that he had to come to a place where whatever she decided was her responsibility before God and that he needed to get God back in the rightful place in his life. The pressure was just too great and with nothing to worry about in life she had just done whatever she wanted thinking he would make things right, always as he always had done.

This is interesting to me, we need to love people but we HAVE to make sure they do not take our god spot no matter how great they are or you think they are. AND they have to walk through the challenges of life in order to learn to lean more heavely on God. We only learn through pain. Not hideous bad pain always but even if something pinches a bit that is when we take a closer look and make changes to avoid that pain in the future.

I encourage you, let's be little Michael with our eyes GLUED on the Father and reevaluate who we have in our God spot so that we can love people more effectively.