A Post from Nik

Nik posted this blog on his myspace a couple days ago. He wanted me to share it with all of you.

The Heart of the Father.


So, my son Carter has been going through a phase at this 2 ½ year milestone in his life; this must be when "attitude" begins to take form in a human. Instructions such as: "Don't hit your brother; Don't run into the street; Time to get ready for bed; Time to go inside now; Don't jump off the couch; Don't use the coffee table as a giant drum; Listen to your mom…(just to name a few)" , are phrases he occasionally does not like to hear. When presented with a statement such as listed above, Carter has a choice on a reaction. It seems that lately, a common reaction is crying, falling on the ground, pounding the floor with his fists. He has even pounded the floor with his head and slapped himself in the face as a reaction or "statement" to discipline or being told not to do something. He has looked at me with the pouting face, and when I still tell him he can't do something, I have been called a "mean daddy".

Now I don't want you to get the wrong picture, this is not the way Carter acts all the time, and my purpose for this blog is not to paint a bad picture of my son, but to use as an example. As a father, my heart breaks when my son goes into a tantrum. My heart breaks when discipline is enforced.

I bring this up because lately my prayer time consists of prayers longing after Gods heart; to know his heart, and to please Him. I put into perspective Gods heart when I think of my heart for my son. That when I, as a son of God, in defiance hold onto things in this world instead of giving all to God like he asks, how much it breaks his heart that I am not living my potential, which is His fullness. That in my obedience, the Father is pleased, and in giving up of myself and my natural, sinful, human desires, I understand my purpose and I can run into my Fathers arms. That with his forgiveness, he makes me holy, and with his grace I am free. I see myself as my son. That when I tell God "No!!" out of love his heart breaks. And how he longs for us to simply say "yes". That by choosing to compromise and settle for the standards of the world it is the same as giving God the pouting face and saying "you're a mean daddy'. It's giving up our inheritance in His kingdom for a momentary pleasure this world daily offers us.

C.S. Lewis writes this in 1945 in the Preface of his book "The Great Divorce"

"I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A wrong sum can be put back, but only by going back till you find the error and going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, 'with backward mutters or dissevering power' – or else not. It is 'either – or'. If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell. I believe, to be sure, that any man who reaches Heaven will find that what he abandoned (even plucking out his own eye) here on Earth was precisely nothing."

In ending, my son brings me more joy than I could imagine; and knowing that joy it makes me excited to give that joy to my Father.

May God Bless You

Nik