My Big Girl’s Big Struggle and God’s BIG Answer.
Ya’ll, I have the smartest, coolest kid in the world! (I’m not partial, I promise. LOL) But sometimes she wears me out with questions that I just can’t answer. So yesterday I broke down and took her to our children’s pastor. Her question was, “Mama, how do I know God’s real?” I had answered with every spiritual answer I knew how to give. I gave her examples of things in our world that show God’s majesty, power and to my way of thinking evidence that he exists and loves us. In our homeschooling studies yesterday, the story of Noah was our Bible reading for the day. My response to her was, “See God promised he would never flood the earth completely again and gave us the rainbow as physical proof.” Her response was, “Well, scientists say that the sun and rain make rainbows.” After a short phone call to the children’s minister, Josh, Mia and I discussed the fact that yes, sun and rain make rainbows, but God made the sun and the rain and the ability of those two things to make a rainbow. But my little detail driven progeny said, “But how do I KNOW that GOD made the rain and the sun.” Holy cow. This is some deep stuff. So we made the appointment to see Josh.
We spent almost an hour with Josh talking about what doubt is. Discussing the ways that we are able to see God. We looked at verse after verse about faith and trusting God. We discussed Billy Graham’s faith that God’s word is truth and God blessed Mr. Graham’s faithfulness by speaking through him to reach millions. Josh gave a specific example of a prayer request that God had answered for He and his wife Carrie. But in the end we told her that it really is about a choice to have faith.
We have continued to discuss faith and read scripture and God is so amazing. On Mia’s bible cover is Proverbs 3:5. ”Trust in the Lord with all your heart. . .” We then talked about the rest of verse 5 and 6 “and lean not on your own understand. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.” I explained to her that as humans we make mistakes and we often can’t trust just the things that we understand. We talked about the fact that God understands everything. We also read Psalm 139. I told her that God knew her and loved her even before she was formed.
The best part happened this morning though. This whole issue of hers has made me really look at my own beliefs and things that have happened in my own life that have shown me that He is real, He is awesome and that unbelievably . . . He loves me. Me. I have been reminded through my daughter’s questions how strong His love is for each one of us. What a blessing. This morning Mia and I were reading in Matthew 7: 7 – 8. The scripture there says, ” Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks will receive. He who searches will find. The door will be opened to the one who knocks.” (NIrV) I explained to Mia that God was very aware of her searching to know Him and that as long as her prayers were for things that God wanted for her, He would provide those things. We talked about the fact that she was searching for Him and the way to do that was through prayer and reading His word. I told her I fully expected Him to give her answers and she should too.
Here is the cool part. Her Dad has been on a business trip and hasn’t had the best of trips. He locked his keys in his truck, left his lights on and the battery died and then last night left the one crucial piece of equipment he needed to do his job in a restaurant. (The power cord for his computer.) So he called last night to tell me all of this. He wasn’t too happy to say the least. His plan was to try and find a computer store locally and buy a new power cord. So after reading the scripture in Matthew this morning, Mia and I decided to pray specifically that Barry would be able to find a store open early enough to buy a cord, that they would have one, and that he could make his last meeting on time. About twenty minutes after our prayer, Barry called. He found a store about 3 miles from his hotel room that had the cord and was open.
I wanted to shout!!! Mia and I talked about the fact that we had been praying for her Dad this entire trip. When he locked his keys in his truck there was someone there to open it (at no charge), when his battery was dead there was someone there to jump-start the truck and last, when he needed the power cord someone was open and had what he needed. After I had shown her, her Daddy’s struggles and God’s provisions for him, I asked her if she thought it might be possible that God was letting Daddy struggle a little so that SHE could see that God is real and that when we pray He hears and provides what we need. Her eyes got huge and began to sparkle and I could feel my heart begin to just fill up almost to bursting at seeing God’s Awesomeness revealed in her seeking answers about Him.
You know, I haven’t up to this point in my life, really struggled with doubt that God is real. My struggles have been with acknowledging His sovereignty over my life and giving Him the credit for my blessings and letting Him guide my life. It was so powerful to see my girl looking and really searching to find God and for me to see how in control He really is. If you are struggling with doubt email me. I don’t have all the answers but I have THE word and can point you to some scripture that might help.
Love My God and Love His Big Answers to our Big questions!
Recent Comments