Whenever one of them would go through a growth spurt between measurements I found it funny to watch them almost marvel over the now obvious evidence as they compared as the differences between the lines drawn.
Another of our enjoyments during the summer months was to compete with each other by using the garden. We would each hand pick our own tomato plants from the store and of course transplant them once home.
We would use the same bag of potting soil and the same water source as we then introduced them to their same common home.
Once finished planting we would make some petty wager as to which would produce the first blossom. Then it was whose would yield the most fruit.
It made the mutual results much more fun and at times also seemed to make some tomatoes taste much better than others.
Between each phase of growth some of the kids began to take notice of the subtle differences between their plants. One of my less disciplined children would always get upset because their plant hadn't kept pace with the others.
Having several kids I learned early on that instead of telling children what they were doing wrong in certain instances it proved to be more productive by asking them questions about the apparently NOT so obvious matters. <--- Now that's a brain twister!
It's times like these where comparative issues within life can draw close to one another yet only as each gets revealed to the individual.
I would pull this particular child aside and ask them, If you have done something wrong against this tomato plant, what would that be?
I would then ask them, "And now how is that wrong you've just acknowledged going to in turn affect not only the amount of fruit you had hoped your plant would produce, but also how does that then affect You'?
In these instances I too learned the importance of patience, but something of much more importance.
I've drawn the conclusion that when we as parents cease to somehow see our children as teachers, we've lost more than the voice of influence in that we've ceased to see ourselves as if transparent.
Meaning more than just being able to look (see) into ourselves, but to remain willing to see ourselves as if a spiritual being they will also see that's in transition to something greater in the eyes of God within each and every moment of passing time.
I learned about patience in how I handled (managed) the things I could see from my perspective which they couldn't.
My hope in the whole exercise?
That in the day their eyes are more fully opened they too will then begin to look as if the direction from which my own knowledge had been supplied as I raised them. It all feeds into the center of the "Who" the Lord desires for His own to be more likened to.
Talk about day to day restraints, but could that be the inability to consider what is evil in its entirety?
Prov 5:22-23
22 The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast.
He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
NIV
How different are people in everyday life if we were to compare things as if they DO simultaneously exist as if in their own (separate) realm?
People as a whole seem to delight (comfort) themselves within the thought of being complex individuals. Yet few are willing to investigate the "why" the word complex somehow attaches itself to our lives where we neatly file the things we continually choose to ignore.
There's a vein of thought which runs through the school of complexities in life where certain personalities pride themselves on the notion they are "Multi-taskers".
I was raised in a household where simple minded methodology was the rule of almost every day.
I was presented with the question early on by my father which asked, "Are you more comforted considering yourself the jack of all trades and or the person which master's nothing"?
The bible provides counsel to suit both of the above.
It is my opinion as if the underlying reason why many feel like a fish out of water at any given moment while trying to find the Joy of the Lord as their strength.
This type of mindset can never somehow see themselves as if an instrument that is in the grasp of the Lord.
Their reluctance in the form of a picture might be, "They can't seem to see themselves as if the "tasting spoon" in the hand of the Master chef in the kitchen of life.
1 John 4:17-18
In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him . There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
NIV
Rom 14:7-8
For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
NIV
Rom 8:28-29
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
NIV
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