My son is an early-bird. It doesn’t matter what time he goes to bed, he is almost always up no later than 6:30am. And here’s the even more amazing thing; he’s happy. He sings, he plays games, he reads. Because of this, he goes over with me to the gym in the mornings to get in some exercise before the day starts. When the weather is nice, we ride our bikes.
This morning, Ayden wanted to lead us home. I told him that was fine as long as we were always heading in the direction of home (he likes to take lots of circuitous routes). Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for an adventure, but this morning I had (and have) lots to do at work and needed to get ready. He agreed, but with the typical “7 year-old short term memory syndrome” it wasn’t long before we were twisting and turning in all sorts of directions except for the one that leads us home. I immediately became frustrated and said in a tone reflecting my emotions, “Ayden, daddy has to get home.“ I saw his head drop in disappointment as he began to turn us in the “right” direction.
No sooner did those words come out of my mouth that I wished I could have taken them back. I stopped Ayden and repented. In my mind, God impressed these words, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…” Exodus 34: 6. I knew in that moment that I needed to have patience. I knew that I needed to learn a lesson from my Father, who goes with me on all sorts of circuitous routes and is ever so patient with me; and tender, and gracious, and abounding in love and faithfulness. For you see, Ayden will see the Heavenly Father first through me. That is an incredible an humbling responsibility that can only happen by the grace of God. I needed His grace that morning, and I needed to change my attitude.
After that, it took us a little while to get home. We rounded a few extra bends in the road, stopped to take pictures of horses, and clocked how fast Ayden could go down the hill by Davis. And you know what, it was all good. My guess is, at the end of this day I am sure I will be far more pleased that I had an adventure with my son than I would be if I accomplished everything on my to do list.
So it is my prayer for you that today, you can have an adventure of some kind. Take a walk during your lunch break. Call your grandchildren on the phone. Skype your BFF who’s at work on the other side of the globe. Do something just because and see what you can learn about your Heavenly Father today. Remember, He came to give us LIFE and LIFE ABUNDANT. If you’re not experiencing that abundance, it’s not because of Him.
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