Tag: <span>lessons</span>


Pammy, our four-year-old, had volunteered to wash the dinner dishes.  She performed the task swimmingly, all right, in a sink billowing with suds.  But in the process she disproved the validity of claims made by manufacturers of a certain dish detergent.  It takes more than suds to get dishes clean!

Washing dishes in one thing, and something I don’t mind.  But re-washing is something else, and I found myself waiting for her to go off to bed before I undertook the task.  I did not want to let her know at her tender age that her “help” is not really as much as she thinks it is. (How much easier just to go ahead and do the dishes myself in the first place!)

When I was a child I remember being told that dishwater is great for healing minor cuts and scratches on the hands.  I’ve discovered since then that dish water is great for other things too.  In fact, there’s nothing like it for giving a mother time to think, to analyze situations and feelings.

It wasn’t only re-washing dishes that bothered me.  Remaking the children’s beds, re-picking up after they had put away their playthings, to re-hanging their clothes straight and evenly on the hangers.  It was all much the same and all somewhat annoying, though I realized how necessary this learning process is for young children. Perfection is a long road and takes a heap of practice and experience.

My hands still busy in the dishpan, I was asking the Lord to help me overcome this bit of annoyance, or impatience, when an enlightening but sobering thought came to mind.

Isn’t this process much like what the Lord has been doing for me ever since I first accepted Him as my Savior?

Hasn’t He umpteen times had to intervene and redo my efforts at living the Christian life according to His pattern?

I thought of a mountain of failures behind me. Every single one. He has forgiven me Every time  I have fallen…, He has lifted me up again and has whispered encouragement for another try.

Dishes done, I went to my Bible.  Verse after verse spoke of God’s patience, forgiveness, long suffering.  I found nothing to indicate that my failings ever tempt Him to give up on me and take things out of my hands so He can do them right without me!

These days re-washing dishes, or re-making beds, or whatever I find myself redoing after my children no longer serves to aggravate me.  Rather, these tasks have come to be my moments of re dedication.

For they always remind me now of what my Lord is daily doing for me in so many ways!

“You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you; hear my prayer, O Lord, listen to me cry for mercy.  In the day of all my trouble I will call to you for you will answer me” (Psalm 86:5-7 NIV).

by Muriel Hanson
Used by Permission

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Further Reading

• Learning To Fail and Succeed in God – by Daniel Forster

Getting Life Back on Track by Marvin Kehler

Lifelong Learners –  by Suzanne Benner


thoughts by Muriel Hanson Thoughts by Women

God blessed my husband and me with four boys.   I confess there were days, when I questioned whether it was a blessing or not. Boys are loud, physical, and boisterous.  They love to climb on furniture, use sticks for weapons and beat up their brothers.

But, I have to say, I love them!   Because what you see is what you get.  They tell it like it is.  They get mad and then they’re over it.  They will pick on their baby brother and then if anyone else tries to pick on them they will defend them “to the death”.

Boys know how to play.  They design huge elaborate games and they’re never bored if they have another one around.  And they have given me a storehouse full of great stories and memories!

My boys taught me so many things – how to not take myself so seriously, how to live every moment to the fullest and to love life.

God also used them in my life to teach me things about Him.

I remember one day hearing screaming coming from our back hallway (never a good sound).  I knew it was my youngest, Logan, he was about 18 months old.  I ran to where the sound was coming from and saw him with a beat red face crying and yelling for all his might.  My oldest, Wes, who was around 10 at the time, was blocking Logan from going down our back stairway.  He looked up at me, with this pleading look on his face and said, “Mom, he wants to go down the steps and I can’t let him because he’ll fall and get hurt!
And in that moment, God gave me a snapshot of how I am with Him . . .

I make my plans.

I make my plans, sometimes offering the token prayer but really never considering Him or seeking where He wants me to go and then I pursue those plans with all my heart.  And when I’m thwarted I throw a temper tantrum because I don’t get my way, never realizing that it is the Hand of God protecting me from harm.

Jeremiah 29:11 says,

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Do I believe that?

Why do I question that God doesn’t have my best interest at heart when he laid down His life for me?

What about you?  Do you ever get angry or frustrated because God isn’t giving you what you want?

Are you mad because He isn’t giving you what you think you need?

But what we WANT isn’t always what we NEED!

In some distorted way, many of us feel that God owes us.  That if we’re living our lives to please Him, He should give us what we want and when we don’t get it, we get mad and throw a fit.  And sometimes, we even walk away!  But what we want isn’t always what we need.  And God is not in the business of making us comfortable.  He is about molding and shaping us to be more like Him.

God is not in the business of making us comfortable!

Teach us to . . . Trust you, LORD with all our heart;
      to not depend on our own understanding.
 But seek your will in all we do,
      and you will show us which path to take.  Proverbs 3:5-6

By Kristi Huseby
Used by Permission

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Further Reading

•   A Mother’s Promise to God

   Did I Hear You Correctly Lord? – My dreams were too small for God

•  Salvation Explained


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thoughts by Kristi Huseby Thoughts by Women