The Cray Cray Love of Parents and God

I’m watching you, moms and dads. You’re the ones who continue to post photos and videos of your child or children receiving awards for their intellectual achievements and athletic abilities (even though some of you admitted that your child’s team never won a game – they still received an award). You are the ones standing on your tippy toes, on the floor at the front of the crowd, capturing it all on video or camera. You are leaning in and shushing anyone around you who is taking away from their moment on the stage. Your child crosses the stage to receive their diploma or award and your hands are waving wildly and you are screaming out their name with pride and joy.

You don’t give up and you don’t even consider yourself looking a little cray cray. Your eyes are locked on your child and there is nothing that will stand in your way. You are so crazy proud and crazy in love with this child – you just can’t help yourself.

And if you think you have an indescribable love for your kids -- it no way compares to how wild God is for us. He is on the front row and if He had a camera, He’d be taking pictures and videos of you, too. Here’s why I know that’s true. God is among us. He’s everywhere, but right here close to us. Don’t miss it. He wrote all about His love in His Holy Word and His wild display of affection for us is written there -- living and active. "He appeared to me saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness, I have drawn you. (Jeremiah 31:3) He’s eager to be near to us when we believe no one else wants to be. (Psalm 34:18) He draws near to us and sticks with us as we go through our day.

Jesus’ love looks crazy. What did people say of Jesus as he showed crazy love and said He was God? “He’s crazy, a maniac -- out of his head completely. Why bother listening to him?” (John 10:20) He was so crazy that He gave up His own life for you and me. Jesus’ crazy love is still after you and me. It doesn’t care about mess-ups and our past. His love is way beyond you moms and dads who are so crazy in love with your kiddos. He is waving at you, desiring you and moving with you throughout your day of joys and sorrows, comforts and discomforts, acceptance and rejection, wins and defeats.

Your kids may get a little embarrassed with your audacious display of affection and may even look away thinking “Maybe if I don’t look at them, no one will know I’m with them!” But, DON’T be embarrassed as God’s kids. Let’s embrace His crazy love and not look the other way. Let’s embrace His pursuit and His affection. Jesus is crazy about you. Just know that. Receive that. Sit in that. Dwell in that. Bathe in that – and receive His indescribable, unrelenting, reckless, crazy love.

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine.
I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.

I Met My Best Friend at Summer Camp

A dear friend from Tulsa was in Frisco a few days while her 11-year old son attended a Christian summer camp here in our area. I invited her over for lunch and we talked about the wonderful perks and blessings of our children having these wonderful times of fun and focused attention on God and His incredible love for His children.

Oh, how I loved the summertime -- not just because school was out, but it meant Vacation Bible School and attending a summer overnight camp. That brings back such precious memories of craft time, Kool-Aid and cookies, games, campfires, learning to swim, competitions, early morning Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, singing songs while waiting for the dining hall to open up like "Here we stand like birds in the wilderness -- waiting for something to eat!", making new friends, feeling a little homesick AND making the most important decision of my life.

At eight years old, I attended Straight Arrow Camp at Lake Texoma, and by a campfire, my little heart heard the message of Jesus' love that changed my life forever. I had heard that message before, but my tenderized heart (probably because of the intimacy and sweetness of the moments), I really, really understood that God loved me so much. I opened my heart to Him and that began my journey of faith that has sustained me to this day. It was tough being away from home those five days, but it was pivotal in my young life and so much so, that when I hear about the sacrifices parents make for their kids to go to VBS or be involved in a summer camp program or take a missions trip, it stirs my heart.

I witnessed those special times with my own children and grandchildren. I know the investment of time in VBS, church camps, and missions trips were strategically important in their faith journeys. Yes, we take our children to church; we make sure they are in Sunday School and youth programs, but, speaking on a personal level, there's just something about the freedom from school and other activities to dive into a concentrated time of hearing about God's love and His promises during these summer months.

Thank you, camp counselors, VBS teachers, and volunteers and for those who step it up a notch by taking kids on missions trips that open their eyes to the blessings of what they have, as well as the joy it is to bless others with God's love. Thank you for investing in our lives. You made all the difference in mine. I met my BEST FRIEND, Christ Jesus, at summer camp. And I grew to love Him more each time you shared about Him in a story or a play or a song or a hug. I am a life that was changed forever because of caring, loving and giving servants like you.

Train Up a Child in the Ways He Should Go

My husband and I grew up as “church” kids. Our parents ensured that we were in church every time the doors opened – Sunday School, Sunday morning and night services, Wednesday night service, Thursday night youth services, and when an evangelist came into town, church was every night of the week. Back in those early years, we learned every Bible story, every hymn and chorus (and the actions), and memorized a lot of scriptures. As children, it was so sweet to know God. Our needs were met, and our wants were provided for, and pressures only came with a big test or exam, or disappointment in a friend.

Even in those early years, we learned what it was to call upon the God of those Bible stories, scriptures and songs to be our "help". And, the older we got, the more we discovered, that all of those years of “child training” established us in life. In fact, we carried those same principles on, and into our children, who are leading their own children by that example.

Now, I realize that our faith was built upon those principles – for example – the same God that kept Daniel in the lion’s den and the three Hebrew boys in the firey furnace, that helped David slay the giant, that opened the Red Sea for Moses, and more than all that, the same God that gave us His only Son who went about doing good, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, died on a rugged cross, was buried and rose from the dead....is the same God who loves us and desires to perform His good works in us today!

That’s what our Moms and Dads really gave us -- they were instilling in us the fiber, the fortitude, the tenacity, the unwavering faith and strength to draw from, and to know that our God loves us unceasingly, and that when the going gets tough and pressures seem insurmountable, we have a confidence in knowing, God is able and willing to meet our every need. We know our hope and trust was, and always will be, in the One whose steadfast love never ceases and His faithfulness will always carry us through. I sure hope these words impress you enough to train your children and grandchildren in the ways they should go. I promise you...it is worth the effort!