My youngest child taught me many things but one lesson in particular has come in handy with grandchildren. I was reminded of it when I read a piece of parenting advice recently. Summer days are long and older toddlers who have mostly given up napping need to be employed and exhausted daily or no one sleeps! It’s a good piece of advice to be sure, but my youngest, Jacob, taught me that busy work doesn’t work.
He loved to be working alongside me or his dad or granddads, but it had to be meaningful work. He wanted to be a part of something bigger, to serve a purpose beyond just keeping busy. It’s why moms chafe at doing dishes and laundry, especially silverware and socks, because it’s tedious and we’re going to need to do it again tomorrow. Why won’t the toilet bowl stay clean for longer than a week? The floors need sweeping and mopping almost daily if you have toddlers or pets, but who has time for that?
As we age, we’re told it’s good for us to keep busy. We need to keep our limbs agile and our minds sharp. I applaud my parents for staying active in their mid-seventies. They work harder than most people I know half their age and they are reaping many health benefits. They don’t so much have hobbies as projects. They live on property that must be maintained and they do most the work themselves. Sometimes they are enlisted to spearhead projects for my children that I don’t have the expertise to manage on my own. Granted, I could hire someone, but they employ skill sets as they work alongside me and my children that will be lost to the next generation if this sort of mentoring does not take place.
This past week, my parents and I spent the day with my daughter and granddaughter to size up a small project I had started the previous week. Amelia had a play area in the backyard that wanted ground cover, a fence, and some shade before her baby brother arrives. We put our heads together and tag-teamed the labor and something special happened. The project is finished but even more than that, we spent two entire days together, setting aside other things to serve one another in love. It’s the way things are intended to work in God’s kingdom. Jesus is our perfect example.
“But it was because of our rebellious deeds that he was pierced and because of our sins that he was crushed.
He endured the punishment that made us completely whole, and in his wounding we found our healing.
Like wayward sheep, we have all wandered astray. Each of us has turned from God’s paths and chosen our own way; even so, Yahweh laid the guilt of our every sin upon him.”
https://bible.com/bible/1849/isa.53.5-6.TPT
“He himself carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we would be dead to sin and live for righteousness.”
1 Peter 2:24 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1pe.2.24.TPT
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life.
And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to my ways.
For if you choose self-sacrifice and lose your lives for my glory, you will continually discover true life.
But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will forfeit what you try to keep.
For even if you were to gain all the wealth and power of this world—at the cost of your own life—what good would that be?
And what could be more valuable to you than your own soul?”
Matthew 16:24-26 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/mat.16.24-26.TPT
““What good does it do for you to say I am your Lord and Master if you don’t put into practice what I teach you?
Let me describe the one who truly follows me and does what I say:
He is like a man who chooses the right place to build a house and then lays a deep and secure foundation.
When the storms and floods rage against that house, it continues to stand strong and unshaken through the tempest, for he built it wisely on the right foundation.
But the one who has heard my teaching and does not obey it is like a man who builds a house without laying any foundation at all.
When the storms and floods rage against that house, it will immediately collapse and become a total loss.
Which of these two builders will you be?””
Luke 6:46-49 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/luk.6.46-49.TPT
“For sin’s meager wages is death, but God’s lavish gift is life eternal, found in your union with our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.”
Romans 6:23 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/rom.6.23.TPT
His plan is still best, and His invitation is still open.
Follow Me. (Matthew 4:19)
Abide in Me. (John 15;4-8)
“Now, since we are God’s coworkers, we beg you not to take God’s marvelous grace for granted, allowing it to have no effect on your lives.
For he says, I listened to you at the time of my favor. And the day when you needed salvation, I came to your aid.
So can’t you see? Now is the time to respond to his favor! Now is the day of salvation!”
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 TPT
A Fitting Reply 