Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God…
The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
Deuteronomy 28: 1-2, 8 (ESV)
I want to be like her. In the most basic and important of ways, I want to be like her. And if it’s not asking too much, to have her precious smile and sparkle that fills her life, too.
You will too, when you know her.
She simply wants to please God. She loves Him. She talks about Him. She reads about Him. She talks to Him. She wants to do what He wants her to do.
And in a few weeks she will celebrate her ninth birthday. I wonder when that happened, and all of those moments in the life of our younger granddaughter, Ellie Kate, blew by?
And somewhere in the midst of that journey, Ellie Kate, like her older sister, began to know about God, and then, like her older sister, she, too, became His child as she asked Him into her life. And ever since, her desire to please Him has grown ways nothing short of delightful to watch.
She has her moments where it would seem to the casual observer who didn’t know her, that her heart every now and then might be a bit out-of-line. Like when she is short, maybe even a little abrupt, with her Gran (that’s me, and usually born out of simply taking for granted that her Gran will always be there for her).
But at any moment—even those which are slightly off-line—if you look within her heart, it remains in lockstep with what God wants her to do.
She wants to please Him. She wants to honor Him. She wants to do what He would smile upon. At her tender age, she is not always sure what that looks like. But her heart wants to please Him—and so she continues to need guidance from those whom He has entrusted to care for her.
She cares that others know that God loves them. She cares that others feel good about themselves. She cares that others feel included. She cares that others feel special. She wants to please and honor Him.
And because of the state of her heart, as it continues to develop under the Godly guidance, tutelage and example of her mom and dad, her sister, and others like us who love and adore her, the scripture above forecasts what she has to look forward to in her life—
A life full of God-appointed blessings that will come upon her and overtake her.
A life full of God-commanded blessings which will find her wherever she is with that precious heart of hers always seeking to obey, honor and please God. Her life will be one where God will command blessings upon her in all the days to come.
Her only focus to assure that—is to continue to seek to honor Him, to please Him, to do what is right, to seek to do her best, and to faithfully seek to obey Him in all she does. And when she may be tempted to stray or to do something contrary to what He would desire for whatever reason, she simply needs to stop, to turn away, and reset her heart toward pleasing God. In the valley moments of life as well as the mountaintop moments. When she does, God will see that He can trust her with both.
I want to be like her. In the most basic and important of ways, I want to be like her. And the smile and sparkle, too.
And the commanded blessings would be nice, too. Why not? Why not indeed?
What about you? Where is the focus of your heart today? What do you hope for and dream of in life? What are you struggling with in life? What tragedy has just hit? What news have you just learned—that has shaken you to the core? What are you seeking in life?
I suggest that we let the scripture above guide our next steps. So, instead of allowing our next steps to seek after whatever remedy, solution, dream or answer we think we need or would like—let them instead seek first after Him.
Seek first after the God who loves you. Seek first after the God who has and wants to bless you and bless me. Seek first after the God who “will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake.”
I want to be like my little granddaughter. Then, Scott, seek first the God whom she seeks to honor and please. And follow her example.
What about you?
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2013. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
