Get out of the Way!

The more my children grow, the more I realize that motherhood demands an elusive balance between helping the Lord without hindering his plans. In the book Faith Shaped Kids, Bill Hybels, best-selling author and pastor of the famed Willow Creek Community Church, tells a story that brilliantly portrays this delicate balance. I am humbled each time I read this sweet account and realize that the little things I say and do may have a GIANT impact on the shaping of my children’s lives.  May we all be as wise as the dear teacher in Hybels’ memory…

Bill’s second grade teacher was reading aloud a story about the young boy Samuel hearing the voice of God. Bill remembers: 

 I’m sitting in the class, listening to the teacher talk about how God can speak to people. And the other kids are throwing paper wads and fooling around. But m y heart is beating fast because I’m sitting there thinking, I can identify with that, because I think I have felt God speak to me.

I had a sense, even at that age when I was about to do something wrong, it was as if God would speak to me and say, ‘Oh, Bill, you don’t want to do that.’ Or sometimes I felt Him telling me to do something right. We had some physically challenged children at our school. Sometimes the other kids would gang up on them. I can remember very clearly God saying, ‘You stand up for these disabled kids. You stand in the way. Take a beating if you have to. Don’t ever let somebody mistreat someone who is hurting that way.’


So I was thinking about all of this and all of the other kids filed out for recess, but I stayed behind. Very timidly, I walked up to the teacher’s desk and asked, ‘Do you think God still talks to little boys today?’ It was a very vulnerable question. I think back on it and realize that if she had mishandled that situation, the whole trajectory of my life could have changed.

She said, ‘Billy, I think God does speak to little boys. And I think God would even speak to you if you kept your heart open…’”

The teacher shared with Bill a simple poem and encouraged him to memorize it. Hybels has reviewed the poem “thousands of times” throughout his Christian life.

Hybels concludes: “The foundational stone of my spiritual life was laid that day. I started believing that God would talk to me throughout my day”

I’ve been beginning each day with a paraphrase of one wise mama’s words: Lord, if I’m getting in the way of what you want to do in my children’s lives, then MOVE ME out of the way. And if I am missing the small part you have created me to play TODAY- the word I need to speak, the thing I need to do, the truth I need to proclaim-then MOVE ME into action.  I’m leaving my feet firmly placed on the YOU, Lord; for You are IMMOVEABLE. You are my Rock.

Today’s Treasure:  A well-timed word is like apples of gold in settings of silver.  -Proverbs 25:11