Tag Archives: kids

Does God Make Deals?

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yellow finchA few weeks ago I was able to visit my daughter in Southern California. In the course of my stay, she showed me a contract one her boys, seven years old, had written between the two of them. It read:

Nathaniel’s Deal

Tamara,

Nathaniel will like to make deal with you- if he go to school he gets large chips and soda.

It was signed,

Nathaniel and Tamara

Some of the things my daughter has to deal with at this home for abused kids is beyond belief. But every once in a while, she comes across a cute situation that makes it worthwhile, like a contract made by a seven year old.

We do the same things with God, but I wonder if they’re ‘cute’ to Him. We get in a bind, go through a tough time, and in hopes of getting out of our ‘tight’ spot, we cut a deal with God. We say things like, “I’ll do this if you will do that” or “I promise I’ll do this, if you don’t do that.”

If God doesn’t come through the way we’ve outlined in our deal, we feel we’re not doing things right, God doesn’t like us, or maybe we even missed the miraculous moment.

God isn’t like that. God is a God of mercy and grace. He does things out of love, for our good and not to frustrate us.

Sometimes, God just wants us to use our brains. That is, after all, why He gave us common sense. Sometimes, decisions are easy enough, if we use that common sense, but we don’t like the options so we seek a better way – or what we think is a better way, according to our desires anyhow.

For the last year, I’ve wanted to attend a writer’s conference that is coming up. For my birthday, I ended up with almost enough, but because my husband has been unemployed for over a year and I am on disability, I believed that the best use for good stewardship was to pay off some of my medical bills. So I did. But first, I cut a deal with God.

I told Him that I’d do the right thing – I wanted to – but if at all possible, could He provide a way to go and if not – that would be okay.

What makes it be okay when you want something so bad but if you don’t get it – it really is okay? Because we have a sovereign God that can do anything. If it’s His will for us to be somewhere at a certain time, He’ll get us there. However, if it’s His will for us to stay put, then we will do as He leads and not try to manipulate the situation to suit our needs wants. And we know that whatever we allow Him to do, it is for our good and it is His best for us, just as He promised in His word.

So, come what may, I am content and at peace for whatever He chooses. Until then, I think I’ll join Nathaniel and have a large chips and a soda.

The Noises Little Boys Make

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Hgreg-sherri-7ere’s one that’s just for fun, inspired by my granddaughter…

Ah – The Noises Little Boys Make
Copyright September 17, 2009
Please contact the author for reuse permission

Sneezes and hiccups, boogers, and farts
When they’re finished with one the other another one starts.
It’s a natural reaction for silly little boys
To pick a booger then eat it, to fart and make noise.

Little girls? A bit different
And quite modest with such affairs
They’d rather keep noises quiet
Than attract such unpleasant stares.

Daughters are taught to be little ladies,
Be polite, say thank you and please
Daddies think it rather amusing
To let boys burp and ‘cut cheese’.

What would we do without little angels
Who pick their nose, burp here, and fart there -
Just when you think you’ve trained them so well
They belch loud, as if they don’t care.

But little boys must learn early on
That little girls like boys who are tame -
not a young man who makes rude noises
And thinks good manners are stupid and lame.

And little girls must learn a few truths as well
About little boys who grow up to be men
Sometimes they just can’t help it at all,
When they make silly noises, over and over again.

He’s Holding On As I’m Letting Go

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dsc013451I wrote this a few years ago when I had just taken my daughter to college for the second year. I just found out it was published last month. If you’re struggling with the empty next syndrome, or just miss your kids, I hope this encourages you.

You can read it here or below:

He’s Holding On, As I’m Letting Go

by Sherri Woodbridge

“For I know the plans
I have for you,’
declares the Lord,
‘plans to prosper
you and not to harm
you, plans to give
you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11

Last year, about this time, I took my daughter over 1.000 miles away to college. It was about nine-thirty and the ceremonies for new students were just ending; it was time for me to get in the car and get going. I took her face in my hands, with tears in my eyes, and let her go, with this:

“The verse God gave me for you is Jeremiah 29:11… ‘He knows the plans He has for you – plans to prosper you and to give you hope and a future. Plans that you will not be harmed. Seek Him and you’ll find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart.’ And now, He has taught me that if I don’t let go, then He doesn’t have all of you. So, I’m letting go.” And after many hugs and tears, I left.

Trying to get out of Los Angeles afforded many distractions to the moment, but after about an hour or so, traffic died down and life was returning to a slower pace. I turned on the radio and a new release was playing on the Christian radio station.

And then the tears came full force.

“This is what it means,
to be held,
how it feels
when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.’

Now I knew that my daughter hadn’t been torn from me, but it felt like it. It felt like I was not going to survive. I felt like I had a huge, empty hole in my heart and I couldn’t breathe; an emptiness like I had never known. How could I let her go? She had become my best friend. And I just let her go?

And so I cried some more. On that dark and quiet stretch of highway there was really nothing else to do at one o’clock in the morning. I listened to more of the song in between sobs.

“This is what it means,
to be loved,
and to know
that the promise was
when everything fell,
We’d be held.”

And that’s when I knew I’d be okay.

God promised that in the dark times, He’d hold me and I knew he would because He always did. I drove on and cried some more anyhow. It’s a year later and I just drove my daughter back down to school again. We unloaded the car in less than half the time as last year. After a day and a half of unpacking boxes, Togo’s sandwiches, thrift stores and Targets, it was time for the dreaded good-bye.

I told her I’d continue to pray the same prayer for her that God had given me. We hugged and I let her go… again. I walked away and headed towards the car. I didn’t look back. I didn’t want her to see the tears streaming down my face that my sunglasses could no longer hide. I got on the highway, the same one as the year before. After getting past the congested areas, I turned the radio on.

‘This is what it means
to be held,
and to know
that the promise was
when everything fell,
We’d be held.’

I cried again.

This year, however, as I listened to that song again, so intricately planned by God to play right at that moment, I cried out of thankfulness to God. I cried because He has been so faithful and has always held me in the dark times of missing my ‘little girl.’ This year it was tears of joy that wet my cheeks. I have had the the privilege of seeing just how faithful God has truly been this past year.

He is there when we are lonely and alone. When we are down and discouraged. He is there fighting for us when it feels we have no fight left. He is there to hold us when everyone fails us; and everything around us falls. He is always there and if we believe that He is, then that must mean we are… always being held.

Sherri is a freelancer and novelist and lives in the Northwest. She’s a mother of three, pet owner of two, wife of one, and grandma to the greatest little toddler in the world.