Back to School Milestones

This is a big year of change for my children.  My son is moving upstairs to the Upper School to start 6th grade, and my daughter is entering Rhetoric (high) school as a 9th grader.

Today was Meet the Teacher Day, which is like an orientation or prep day for the first day of school tomorrow. This day was quite different today from what it was like when our kids first started attending this school. When the kids were in the lower (elementary) school, they stayed close by my side as I introduced them to their new teachers. They gladly posed for lots of cute pictures in front of their new cubbie lockers, and I made full scrapbook layouts chronicling this special day. When they moved up to the upper school for 6th grade, they kept a few feet away from me throughout the orientation. My daughter would only allow a picture in front of her locker when no one else was looking, and my son refused pictures entirely.

This year is my daughter's first year in Rhetoric (high) school. As soon as we stepped out of the van today, she completely dissed me until it was time to return home. I took no pictures, introduced my kids to no one, and barely met any of their new teachers.

It's all good, though, because we relish new adventures, and I enjoy watching them embrace exciting changes on their own. If I were to consume myself with sentimental longings to keep them tiny, I might miss those moments that make them mighty.

Bring it on, middle school and high school!

Identity Confusion

I keep seeing all this news about identity struggles. People are so confused over how to define themselves in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, family connections, natural abilities, and life purpose, as if any of those attributes adequately define us. Our society has identity confusion alright, but that's because they fail to acknowledge the true source of their identity. The new social order seeks to deny we are first and foremost created beings, made in the image of God. As Paul David Tripp wrote: "You and I aren’t the authors of our own stories. We are God’s idea, we reflect his design, we exist for his purpose, and we have been commissioned to do his will. We didn’t think ourselves up, and we didn’t emerge by chance out of primordial soup." Every aspect of our being, including our gender, ethnicity, heritage and life experiences are all according to His will and purpose, not our own. As long as we reject this truth, we will never fully understand or find peace in who or whose we are.

Just as a cake cannot tell its baker it is a prime rib, a biological male cannot pronounce to his Creator that he is female, wave a surgical wand, and magically become a female. Similarly, Rachel Doležal cannot become African American simply through cosmetic pretending.

We can choose unbelief, rejecting God's design and plan for our lives, but our beliefs can't change our biology in the slightest or cause us to no longer be created beings who are ultimately accountable to our sovereign, true, loving, and good Creator. When we look to Him for our identity and purpose and accept His Lordship over our lives, the truth becomes clear, and we find perfect fulfillment in our identity as children of God.

Thoughts while Spinning on the Potter's Wheel

Do you ever feel like you are spinning around and around, never getting anywhere and pressed in on every side? I was thinking about how that feeling in life is a picture of clay on a potter's wheel when our life class teacher just happened to teach on Isaiah 64:8 this morning.

"But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand."

Whether the constant spinning in circles or striving but going nowhere is the result of our own stubborn independence and unwillingness to receive direction from God or because our loving Father is intentionally taking us through a season of profound change, God is still our sovereign potter who is in the process of molding us from a lump of clay into something beautiful, fashioned for a significant, eternal purpose. We get to choose whether we will resist His work in us and continue pretending we are in control while utterly lost and helpless, or we can rest in Him, finding perfect peace in His sovereignty, goodness, and love as we let Him have his perfect way with us.

Come for Help

It can be heartbreaking when your strong-willed, independent child refuses to come to you for help, no matter how long it takes that child to figure things out on her own and no matter how many mistakes he/she may make in the process. Why won't she let me help? But I have learned that when things get bad enough, that child will come to the parents she loves and trusts for help, and once she realizes how much easier and more enjoyable life is with you there to guide her, she keeps coming back day after day, grateful for the help and support.

That realization gives me a much greater appreciation for God's love for each of His children, for the trials in life that bring us to the end of ourselves and lead us back to Him, and for the joy our Abba has when we come to Him for help and guidance. It's hard to fathom how the God of the universe could take such delight in such sinful creatures fashioned out of dust, but He calls us His children, and I know it thrills this parent when an independent, strong-willed child comes to me for help at last.

While I can help my child with math, logic, science, civics, and issues of life I have navigated myself through the wisdom of hindsight and God's word, there is so much more that I cannot teach her, for she is gifted in so many ways I am definitely NOT. But God is not weak in any area. He possess ALL wisdom, ALL knowledge, ALL authority, ALL power. He is sovereign over all, and He is all we ever need.

All of us have at some point chosen our own path and stubbornly tried to do life our way, on our own strength, without seeking our heavenly Father's input or direction. And whenever we do, we eventually come to the end of ourselves, overwhelmed and utterly hopeless apart from Him. When/if we turn back to Him, He enthusiastically welcomes us, guides us, and lavishes His infinite love upon us. There is no greater joy or security than abiding in Him in the center of His will. We need only come to Him, trust Him, and receive.