The other day my husband and kiddos were cleaning up the basement, arranging the toys, laying down a new (different) rug... They had taken a break for lunch and, afterward, my six-year-old daughter asked: "Are we going back down to finish now, Daddy?" "No," he answered. "I sprayed some Urine Control where the cats made a mess, so we need to wait awhile." My daughter's jaw dropped halfway through his explaination. I thought she seemed awfully shocked that her sweet kitties would do such a thing, but that wasn't it at all. "I'm in control?! I am?" her face was all lit up as my husband and I looked at each other in confusion. "URINE Control." he repeated. Her smile was consuming as she looked at me, wide-eyed, her eyebrows raised. Then it dawned on us what she heard and we cracked up! The dream of our strong-willed-child coming true! The promise of being the one in control!
You don't have to be a six-year-old, nor "strong-willed" to want to be the one in control. There is just something to our human nature that longs to be in control of whatever is going on around us. When Eve is being confronted by God for disobeying His Word (having taken control into her own hands) in the Garden she is given a curse. Genesis 3:16 "Your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you." or, according to the New Living Translation, "You will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you." Is it not still true today? When we are young and still at home under our parents, we dream of our future freedoms: What we will drive, who we will choose to marry, how we will decorate our home, maybe even how to raise our children. My daughter is merely six and already dreams of being the one in control. There are so many situations that we desire, yet, once we are in them, we find that we do not have the control that we imagined or we think we have more control than we really do. We make our plans without always considering everything and everyone else involved: My budget does not really have room for the car or house or furniture I dreamed of. My kids seem to have a free will of their own ~ how did that happen? This feeling of not being in control can lead to all kinds of stress induced bad habits, amoung other issues. We may even continue to dream of a time and place where we are the ones in control, but would that really be better?
My husband and I have been watching NBC's the BIGGEST LOOSER this season. There is one contestant that has been barely escaping elimination 3 weeks in a row now. Everyone, including her trainer, has been frustrated by her attitude of slacking and are wondering what her issue is. I think her somewhat off-hand comment sums it up pretty well, "I feel completely out of control here. I guess this is just my way of taking back some control of the situation." For most who apply to be on that show, I would think that they are so tired of the situation they are in that they are ready to allow someone else to be in control for awhile until they have been taught how to take control of it themselves in a healthful way. Control can be a difficult thing to give up, yet, as we are wisely diciplined (taught), we learn how to better self-discipline. My daughter will not be able to rule her own world until she is taught how that world works. Little by little, she will be given more freedom and, thus, more responsiblilities. The contestant on the BIGGEST LOOSER, as all of us at different times in our lives, may have to give up quite a bit of freedom and control right now but, as she grows and learns how to discipline herself in this area, she will be better equipt to take back that control a step at a time. However, we must remember, with control comes responsibility, which we may or may not be ready for.
Thankfully, we are not meant to ever gain full control over our lives. We are called, as Christians, to give our lives over to the Lord completely: Exodus 20:2-4 "I AM the LORD your God, who rescued you... You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind..." It is so easy to make ourselves and our "rights" our god. What we need is to trust. We are to look to Him as Father and Teacher but, unlike our daughter's relationship with us or a student's relationship with a trainer, we never outgrow or outlearn our need for His guidence. Romans 12:1-2 "And so, dear Brothers and Sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and Holy sacrifice - the kind He will find acceptable. This is truely the way to worship Him. Don't copy the behaviors or customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" (NLT). We are blessed in that we do have a Heavenly Father who loves and cares for us and can be trusted to guide and direct our lives. We do not have to bear the entire burden on our own. Yet, we face the temptation to fight what we know He desires for us, and often find in the end that our "kicking against the goads" merely keeps us from God's best for our lives for as long as we fight Him about it. The giving up of our control to someone else can be a scarey thing. It is easier if you are a child being raised by a loving parent who holds you back because of the dangers he sees or because you are not ready to handle it. How much moreso can we trust the Lord who loves us without measure and sees beyond the limits of our mortality. Though we long for a feeling of control, our greatest strength is shown in our ability to turn to Him saying, "You're in Control."
You don't have to be a six-year-old, nor "strong-willed" to want to be the one in control. There is just something to our human nature that longs to be in control of whatever is going on around us. When Eve is being confronted by God for disobeying His Word (having taken control into her own hands) in the Garden she is given a curse. Genesis 3:16 "Your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you." or, according to the New Living Translation, "You will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you." Is it not still true today? When we are young and still at home under our parents, we dream of our future freedoms: What we will drive, who we will choose to marry, how we will decorate our home, maybe even how to raise our children. My daughter is merely six and already dreams of being the one in control. There are so many situations that we desire, yet, once we are in them, we find that we do not have the control that we imagined or we think we have more control than we really do. We make our plans without always considering everything and everyone else involved: My budget does not really have room for the car or house or furniture I dreamed of. My kids seem to have a free will of their own ~ how did that happen? This feeling of not being in control can lead to all kinds of stress induced bad habits, amoung other issues. We may even continue to dream of a time and place where we are the ones in control, but would that really be better?
My husband and I have been watching NBC's the BIGGEST LOOSER this season. There is one contestant that has been barely escaping elimination 3 weeks in a row now. Everyone, including her trainer, has been frustrated by her attitude of slacking and are wondering what her issue is. I think her somewhat off-hand comment sums it up pretty well, "I feel completely out of control here. I guess this is just my way of taking back some control of the situation." For most who apply to be on that show, I would think that they are so tired of the situation they are in that they are ready to allow someone else to be in control for awhile until they have been taught how to take control of it themselves in a healthful way. Control can be a difficult thing to give up, yet, as we are wisely diciplined (taught), we learn how to better self-discipline. My daughter will not be able to rule her own world until she is taught how that world works. Little by little, she will be given more freedom and, thus, more responsiblilities. The contestant on the BIGGEST LOOSER, as all of us at different times in our lives, may have to give up quite a bit of freedom and control right now but, as she grows and learns how to discipline herself in this area, she will be better equipt to take back that control a step at a time. However, we must remember, with control comes responsibility, which we may or may not be ready for.
Thankfully, we are not meant to ever gain full control over our lives. We are called, as Christians, to give our lives over to the Lord completely: Exodus 20:2-4 "I AM the LORD your God, who rescued you... You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind..." It is so easy to make ourselves and our "rights" our god. What we need is to trust. We are to look to Him as Father and Teacher but, unlike our daughter's relationship with us or a student's relationship with a trainer, we never outgrow or outlearn our need for His guidence. Romans 12:1-2 "And so, dear Brothers and Sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and Holy sacrifice - the kind He will find acceptable. This is truely the way to worship Him. Don't copy the behaviors or customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" (NLT). We are blessed in that we do have a Heavenly Father who loves and cares for us and can be trusted to guide and direct our lives. We do not have to bear the entire burden on our own. Yet, we face the temptation to fight what we know He desires for us, and often find in the end that our "kicking against the goads" merely keeps us from God's best for our lives for as long as we fight Him about it. The giving up of our control to someone else can be a scarey thing. It is easier if you are a child being raised by a loving parent who holds you back because of the dangers he sees or because you are not ready to handle it. How much moreso can we trust the Lord who loves us without measure and sees beyond the limits of our mortality. Though we long for a feeling of control, our greatest strength is shown in our ability to turn to Him saying, "You're in Control."
