Get a Grip!
She skips down the aisle toward the worship leader sharing a Children’s Message. And he ASKS HER A QUESTION! Her parents are ‘white knuckling’ it!
Little kids have no filters and will gladly share whatever family ‘happenings’ come to mind regardless of the question that is being asked during a Children’s Message in a worship service. Parents can be left feeling totally out of control, without a grip (other than on the pew in front of you, white knuckling it to the dear end).
When I was a young mom, news reports or articles about tragedies involving children caused the wheels of my imagination to spin. What would I do? How would I react if this happened to our family? What could I do to prevent this from happening to our family? I wanted to have a good ‘grip’ on it all. I wanted to be able to control it all.
For many it doesn’t get easier when those babes and toddlers grow up, either. Will they finish high school? Get into college? Be financial independent of us? Or just be nice people?
Thankfully the Lord reminded me through His Word (and as a young mom it became my mantra to myself) that ‘they were His before they were mine’. The Lord tells Jeremiah (1:5), “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart. . .” and in Psalm 139:13 we read that God created our inmost being and knit us together in our mother’s womb. He knew us before our parents knew us!
As an adult, I confess I sometimes think friends (or my husband) should “get a grip”, judging their seeming inability to gain control of a situation or themselves. It’s funny (sad) how you tend to project onto others what you are actually struggling to deal with yourself. #sigh
But God has invited me to release my weak and ineffective ‘grip’ on my life and the lives of those I love and instead trustingly grip His hand for strength. Sara Young says in Jesus Calling’s August 23 inspiration, “When you release loved ones to Me, you are free to cling to my hand. As you entrust others into My care, I am free to shower blessings on them.” Psalm 63: 7-8 says, “Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.”
Even when it’s not a little child you feel unable to control, but yourself, the best solution is to grip the only hand that can truly help bring control (true peace and contentment) to your life - Jesus’. Gripping the salvation Jesus earned and offers to anyone who would believe in Him releases your white knuckled grip on all those temporal things and entrusts them to the One to Whom they truly belong!
