I've learned what it's like to be a grandma. I became one for the first time September 11th.
I always learn in Adult Sunday School. Some might find this funny. I'm the teacher (the one who leads the discussion anyway), but in our discussions comes revelation often. There are so many reasons we are called to walk in faith in a church family. We sharpen each other spiritually and emotionally (in a good way). If your church doesn't feel like a family, either get involved and find that family connection or find a church body where it feels like a family to you. And it might not be the church where the rest of your biological/adopted family go. It might be a totally different church. You need to grow spiritually. The right church family will help in this.
I'm having one of those funny-feeling afternoons. I haven't had one of these for a long time. I didn't miss it. It's kind of like a feeling of dread or anxiety or yucky awkwardness. It causes me to want to hide, not to leave the house, to escape the feeling somehow. I can't though. It will go when it goes.
I've been thinking about growing in Jesus. John 15:5 says, "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant."
"Intimate and organic."
Doesn't that make you think? An organic growth is one that grows out naturally and with flexibility and creativity. It's not forced. It can't be made to happen.I want this kind of growth for me and my husband and every single one of my children (and my son-in-law and grandson and my future-daughter-in-law and whoever else joins our family). But, I can't force anyone to grow (even myself). As our children grow into adulthood we parents need to set boundaries and rules and gradually give them more and more freedom. But once they are adults our hands have to come off. We might not like their choices, but that is between them and God. God says our job as parents is over in the sense of structure and rules and guidance (unless they ask for it). We've gotta let Him work without trying to interfere (parents love to interfere). We have to let them make mistakes and let God help them sort it out. God tells us to trust Him with our adult children. We can pray. Those prayers will be answered.
Euguene H. Peterseon writes in his Message Bible Devotional, "Every movement we make in response to God has a ripple effect, touching family, neighbors, friends, community. Belief in God alters our language. Love of God affects our daily relationships. Hope in God enters into our work. Also their opposites -- unbelief, indifference, and despair. None of these movements and responses, beliefs and prayers, gestures and searches, can be confined to the soul. They spill out and make history."
Have you though that you are making history in how you respond or don't respond to God and His work in your life? You are. I am. Things are happening. Good things. Even when it looks like nothing is going on, God is at work.