You Need To Wear Your Glasses!!!

Much of my adult life (not that I'm very old mind you) has been working to evaluate how I was raised and to over come what I believe to be the wrong ways that I was raised.  I believe that how we raise  our children directly impacts how our children will view God.  Scripture references God as Father and God as Mother.  The parent unit is crucial in developing a balanced view of the male role and the female role, father and mother and of our Creator.  In a perfect world, we would have a perfect image of who God is but unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world.  Marriages dissolve and children are left reeling in pain from the quake of divorce.  Parents abandon children leaving them head over heels in a flood of fear and distrust.  Mothers yell and scream and fathers hit (or visa versa or both) leaving children angry and confused.  These imperfect parents leave far from a perfect view of who God is, how He parents us and how He loves us.  My trials and tribulations leave my knees weak as I realize that I am so far from being the Christian that I ought to be, so distorted of a reflection of our Heavenly Abba Father.  God gives me dreams.  Over the years, God has shown me so much.  The view is clear and He is something far more than amazing and breath taking.  I've seen!  God has given me the prescription that I need to make my vision 20/20.  Why then do I still seem to have blurred and distorted sight?   How do I help my children see God when my own vision is so out of whack?

My oldest child has really bad vision.  Her ophthalmologist gave me a lens to look through to give me an idea of what she sees.  This lens was less than her vision but they didn't have one any stronger.  My goodness though!  This weaker example made me almost instantly sick!  So, she wears glasses now.  She doesn't like them though.  She's used to how she sees and wearing the glasses make her eyes feel funny.  It is a constant battle to get her to wear them and most days, I just don't even try anymore.  I know, bad mommy but it's an all day fight of her asking over and over if she can take them off and me saying, "no, you need to wear your glasses!"  Her wearing them may hopefully help correct some of this astigmatism and she may out grow it.  Just now, I had to explain to her that this will help make her eye balls stronger.

God gives us "glasses" through His word, through His Holy Spirit speaking to us, through dreams and visions.  All around us are "glasses" to help us see Him clearly.  We just have to choose to wear them.  If we don't, then we continue to walk around with blurred and distorted vision and never fully understanding Him and ultimately His calling on our lives.  What has God given you over the years to help you see better?  Do you even know where your "glasses" are?  Put them on and if you don't know if you have any or where they are, ask God to show you, again (because most likely, He's shown you already and probably several times at that, but you've missed it somewhere along the way).  I know I've got them but sometimes I loose them and other times I just forget to put them on.  It's tiring wearing glasses.  It strains our eyes to re-see.  So is wearing our spiritual glasses.  It can even hurt at times as we re-train our spirits and flesh to react to this world differently.  I don't like it : /  But, I know the end result will be worth it.  My physical eyes see 20/20.  It is so freeing!  So much more so when my spiritual eyes see 20/20.

Lord, forgive me for not using the tools you have given me.  My eyes are weak.  My flesh is weak.  My spirit is tired.  But, I put on my glasses and try again.  Thank you for your gift and thank you for your mercy and forgiveness and understanding that this journey is not easy at all.  Help me to remember to wear my glasses not just for my spiritual freedom but also for my children's.  You have given them to me for me to disciple in Jesus Christ and train them to grow up seeing Him in as true of a light as I possibly can.  I am so thankful though that despite my imperfections, you are still mighty and more than able to overcome my mistakes.  I just don't want them to struggle as painfully as I have.