Tuesday, January 21, 2014

NO MINE!


Dear Lord Jesus.

Please help me.

I have an almost two year old who has recently entered the "No Mine!" stage.

I have no idea where she got this phrase, it must have been picked up at the gym or church nursery. But oh.my.word. Since she learned it, I have heard it no less than 100 times a day.

Ok. Maybe I am exaggerating a little.

When I go to help her get dressed: "No mine mama!" as she rips the clothes out of my hands.
As her little cousin is trying to read a book and she tears it out of her hands: "No mine!"
As she is loading up her "purse" with various household items (including my cell phone, bra, and a pair of dad's underwear) and I come to inspect: "No mine!"

 It goes on and on with this little independent woman. Goodness me. I wasn't ready for this!

As I was smiling and thinking about my sweet baby girl and her most recent exclamation of "No Mine!" this morning, I found myself wondering if perhaps in my own life I do the same thing?

Are there areas of my life that God is asking me to surrender to him, change, or give up and I am clinging to them and (figuratively) saying "No Mine!"?

Guilty as charged. 

See, I am a bit of a Type A control freak, master planner and list maker, with a hint of OCD (self diagnosed of course) thrown in for good measure.

I like to make my own plans and lists and check them off. I like things to go the way I expected, so its all nice and neat and comfortable. I love routine and knowing what to expect.

I hold on to worry, stress, and anxiety regarding certain situations or people in my life instead of releasing them to a God who is big enough to take care of it.

Living this way isn't part of God's plan for me.

Because my plans don't always align with his plans. God isn't limited to the way I think or see a certain situation.

This is a good thing!

Isaiah 55:8-11 (MSG)
“I don’t think the way you think.
    The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
        God’s Decree.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
    so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
    and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
    and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
    producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
    not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
    they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.




This quote from Francis Chan's book Crazy Love has stuck with me since the moment I read it. 

 I do trust that God is big and powerful enough to take care of every detail of my life. Its just living that out in my every day life is often difficult for me.

The challenge for me is to live this way. To surrender all my worries and cares onto Him and stop trying to be the one in control.

To stop saying "No Mine!" to God.

To trust that when I cast all my cares and worries on him that he will work every detail of my life  together for good (Romans 8:28, 1 Peter 5:7).

There are three things I am resolving to do more of in order to let go of some of these things I am clinging to:

1. Keeping His promises right in front of me- Writing a verse or two on a notecard and keeping it in places where I can see it often has been a really helpful tool for me.
2. Staying in the word- I have slipped up recently and become not so regular with my quiet time. Our church just started a new reading plan to read through the New Testament this year and I am on board!
3. Forming my worried thoughts into prayers- Many times my thought life is the culprit behind worry and stress. I have found if I stop and make those thoughts a conversation with God, I am left feeling much more at peace.

I pray these suggestions are helpful to you as well friends, so that we can all live out the abundant life that God designed us to live!

Please share any practices you incorporate into your own lives as to how to release control and live worry free in the comments. I would love to hear them!

2 comments:

  1. Such a nice post :) we went through the no mine stage too, it will try the nerves of even the most patient among us! I find negotiating with a pre schooler sometimes works best with choices like "would you like to have this or this in the purse" and usually the one that works best is "would you like the purse or gummy bears" haha.

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