God Waits Patiently

I thought it apt for the first day of Advent - a season traditionally about waiting - when at church this morning Helen spoke about how God waits patiently. It was part of a series on the characteristics of God and the series just brought us to God’s patience today but this really struck me both because of the season and because of how it spoke personally to me.

Among many verses Helen quoted 2 Peter 3:9:

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”

God is patient with his people. When we sin he could respond with anger but actually ‘he is slow to anger’ and bears with us patiently. Yes God’s timing is impeccable. He came to this earth at the right time, he will come again at the right time and he comes to us to meet our needs just at the right time - whatever we may say.

Patience is rare. We get so wound up when things don’t go fast enough or when we are driving and another driver cuts in front of us forcing us to slow down. We now live at such a pace that we cannot wait for the sort of “slow food” that was common a century or more ago. Helen gave the illustration that someone might even say “hurry up” to the microwave. By the way you might be interested Helen that there is a trend to recapture that idea of slow food. You can find out about slow food movement here and here.

God isn’t like us. His patience is unlimited. It is his nature to calmly endure delay without complaining; to wait with calmness and endurance. But amazingly as Christians we can actually be carriers of God’s patience to others – just as we can carry many of his other characteristics such as his mercy and grace to others. One memorable point was that the fact we are told in Colossians 3:12 to clothe ourselves with, amongst other things, patience indicates that it must be in our wardrobe. I also liked the little insight that we get impatient when we see a lack, a lack of time, a lack of ability, a lack of power but God doesn’t lack anything - yes of course - and with God neither do we.

So when people try our patience – as our children often do – it is to see if our patience is any good. At first it might not be but don’t be afraid they will keep giving you opportunities to develop it!

This really spoke to me not just because I am reading about advent in my own devotions but also because I becoming aware just how impatient I have sometimes been and sense that God is beginning to build this character strength in me.

Thanks for that word Helen.

Should I smack my little girl?

One of the most helpful inputs that I have had in my parenting has been the positive parenting classes that I did through my local Sure Start. They have a great emphasis on rewarding good behaviour rather than punishing bad behaviour, though we did discuss some suggested sanctions that may sometimes be necessary. Such techniques like you may have seen on TV, in for example Supernanny, have proved to be very effective. So I have always tried to avoid physical punishment in the disciplining my little daughter.

Recently I have been looking at the few verses about parenting in Proverbs and have come to the conclusion that they need some careful hermeneutics. In particular I am not convinced that we can take the verses that speak of a ‘rod of correction’ as a command that to use corporal punishment. Perhaps the ‘rod of correction’ is, as my NIV study Bible says ‘a figure of speech for discipline of any kind’. Could these verses simply be observations of the dire consequences of lack of any discipline?

I can understand that some see nothing wrong with smacking their children and use such verses to support it and see it as a good thing. Perhaps those that oppose smacking need to realise that what such Christians are proposing is using smacking as a consistent and restrained sanction and would utterly condemn losing your temper with your child. Nevertheless I would need to see something a lot clearer in the Bible before I would be convinced that smacking my little girl would be a good thing.

What do you think?

My Little Daughter Callie

On Saturday I will be 47 and next week Callie will be six.

For many years I never expected to have a child nor had any desire to have one. In my late thirties I was very content being single and was rapidly coming to the conclusion that God wanted me to stay that way. But then I met Nettes and it wasn't long before Callie was born. God gave me Callie even though I didn’t ask for her. I never expected her to bring me such joy.

Callie also teaches me so much. I am learning to appreciate all my own parents did for me. Being a dad gives me glimpses of what it means that God is our father. And I am still learning how to communicate with Callie at her stage of development. I often say ‘Do you want to…?’ rather than just tell her to do things expecting her to do them ‘because I say so’. I expect her to think things through herself too much. I talk to her like she’s sixteen and easily forget that she isn’t even six yet.

I feel so privileged that God has entrusted her to me.

Scrolls In The Desert

During the week our church meets in each others homes. As the groups are arranged at present Nettes & I are in a group with all the other parents. This gives us a chance to discuss parenting issues. Last Thursday we organised an evening that we called ‘Scrolls in the Desert’. We had a number of conversation starters partly buried on a tray of sand. The scrolls included a Bible study plan and a page from a parenting course and there were a few books too. We had a really good discussion to what extent our experience of parenting was like a desert or an oasis as people pulled items out of the sand. The dining table was our oasis for the evening where nibbles, cheese, wine, beer and juices were available for refreshment. Interestingly the juices were hardly touched!