Dream without Boundaries

I was thinking today of how much I love my boys and couldn't help to think of how much God loves us. We tend to believe that God is this big, huge, hard to approach, unreachable, inaccessible, mean in character, thing in the sky; that only seeks to rain down lightening bolts of discipline and cruses the moment we step out of line. So not true!

Looks like I was cussing too much again!

His main character, his very make up, his true response is love. A love so deep and unfathomable that we cannot comprehend, a love so bold and precise we don't know how to receive it. His love for us is infinite and finite beyond human reasoning and definition. And that very love is alive and breathing in each and everyone of us.

He Love Us!
 

We have small glimpses of understanding of that grand love many times in our lives:

• The moment we round the corner and see our spouse dressed to their wedding nines! The tears I saw in his eyes when he saw me for the first time, told me without words that he would love me forever.    
• The moment when the doctor handed us your new born baby, sweet, innocent, and ours! I'll never forget my arms aching to hold each one of them to look into their quizzical eyes and say, "Hi, baby, I'm your mommy." --knowing at that moment I'd love him forever and he'd be forever mine. (And that feeling never wavered in intensity whether it was the 1st birth or the third --I was irrevocably tied with the bonds of love to those sweet little gifts forever --here and beyond the grave)
•  Each accomplishment my boys have made; from learning to walk to learning to walk with Jesus. No accomplishment went (or will go) unnoticed nor uncelebrated.

 I think of the call God has for each of us, simple yet the hardest thing we must daily do ---to believe! And not half heartedly but to believe without limits, to believe with the fullest imagination and the most grandest of dreams, believe with fearless confidence and adventurous faith, to believe boldly beyond embarrassment and shame, and to believe without ceasing!

The bible tells of a time when Jesus was in the fullness of His ministry here on earth; He went into His home town of Nazareth to heal, cast out demons, and perform the most miraculous miracles. However, the bible tells us that he couldn't because of their unbelief. Notice that it didn't say he wouldn't, it said he couldn't! Now I'm not saying He couldn't because he was weak or inferior, but healing and miracles require something of the receiver; they must receive it.

I cannot help but to think of the 'Scaredy Cat' stage each of my kids went through. They were so scared to go upstairs or in the basement without an adult or older sibling with them. They would be so terrified and no matter how much John and I rationalized, reassured, and reasoned with them, they would not believe us --limiting them from toys, games, books, an extra bathroom, ect....

My Shadow is gonna get me!!

Our belief in Christ is critical but equivalently as important is our belief in His ability to bless, heal, cast out, perform miracles, change us, make us new, take away, give, and His most tender and sincere "love like a hurricane", strong and unyielding love.

We train up our children to believe that nothing is impossible, and that they can do all things (through Christ and sheer determination). To dream and believe big! Nothing is beyond their grasp. We push them on when they start lagging, we redirect them when they veer of task or their path, we encourage them when they feel like a failure or they have truly failed, we tell them to never give up, never lose hope, and never ever stop believing no matter what the storms of life may bring. We speak words of life over them, we hope with anticipation sprinkled with a little anxiousness for their futures and their choices, we pray for them without ceasing.

This is a true reflection of our Father in heaven! Let us not miss out on a single blessings, let us not have one miracle avoid our attention because we do not believe. Believe big. Dream without boundaries. Hope with expectancy. And love so much and so deeply you'll redefine and change your family tree!

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

 So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.