In Broad Daylight

  They carefully selected, preyed, and executed robbery of our home in broad daylight. All of our neighbors were home at 1 o’clock in the afternoon on a Wednesday. Evil waited. As my adjoining backyard neighbors drove away, the gig was on. Opening the unlocked gate, the burglars jumped the block wall to access our property.   Breaking open a window, they entered to pillage the physical spaces we live and move in.   “We can’t tell our children. They’re too young and will be afraid.” I said to my husband. He reminded me, “We’re raising STRONG kids not safe ones. It would be reckless to not tell them.”  

A reckless Christian family is one where children are raised in the world but are not shown how to appropriate God’s power to live distinctively from the world’s way of thinking.  Kimmel, Tim (2005-05-17). Grace-Based Parenting (p. 117). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

  In my mind I was posturing to argue and persuade Him otherwise. I paused. And answered, “I will trust your leadership. I will believe who God says He is and what He says He will do.”  

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. – John 1:5

  Evil may assault the physical spaces of our lives but, in Christ, we are more than able to conquer the intrusion of evil in the Spiritual. Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:21-39).  

For in Him we live and move and have our being. – Acts 17:28a

  It may sound cliché or contrite, but truly our treasures are not in the possessions of this world (Matthew 6:20). I heard a quiet voice say to me, “Live this truth in front of your children.”   Whenever our initial impulse is to react in our flesh, the quiet whispers of the Spirit will remind you and me of whom Jesus is. We bless our children and grow them to better understand the everyday grace of God when we believe God in the tough stuff.