He Came to Me

A few weeks ago our family was on a short vacation at the Red Sea (perks of overseas life!). We had a wonderful time. However, going on vacation with four smallish children has it’s downsides. Aside from the unbelievable amount of floaties and hats and sunscreens and diving rings and goggles and flippers, etc that we find ourselves hauling between the Sea and the pool and back again… and aside from the fact that we still have to help some of them to get food at the buffet three meals a day…and aside from the fact that two aren’t swimmers yet and need to be watched with eagle eyes… and aside from the fact that someone can throw their back out throwing the kids in the pool (ahem)… and aside from many other facts that I will now stop listing…

There is the sleep deprivation.

Oh my.

They just get plain tuckered out from so much fun and late bedtimes. I mean, how to you tell your kids ‘no’ when they want to go up on stage and do The Chicken Dance and Soco Soco Bochi Bochi with 50 other kids with a man in a giant penguin outfit every night, even if it’s past their bedtime?! It’s just part of the fun.

Buuuuut by the second or third day sometimes we have a larger than usual amount of attitudes and tempers.

My boy H was struggling with this one day in particular.  From his perspective, nothing was going his way and he felt nobody cared. He lashed out at several of us for silly reasons and it was hard to talk him down.

But.

As we returned to our room at the end of the day, as he felt another burst of anger coming on, he didn’t give over to it that time. Instead he came to me. He nearly RAN to me.

“Mama! I don’t like how I’m throwing so many fits and I don’t even want to, but I don’t know how to stop!”

And I melted into a pile of mush right then and there.

He saw his brokenness. And he knew of his need for help.

And he CAME TO ME.

My heart was full of compassion for him as we sat down on his bed. I told him that getting enough rest is important (cause, well… there is the practical as well as the spiritual!). And then we talked about what went wrong and how to make it right.

We brought to the bedside, in turn, each family member whom H had hurt with his outbursts. H asked each to forgive Him and each quickly offered forgiveness.

And so then, relationships were righted.

Then I led him in a prayer of confession to God. Because he also needed God’s forgiveness. He gladly prayed this prayer and God gave him immediate relief in his spirit when he finished.

We hugged, and I probably cried because my boy is just so precious and I’m so amazed by the little man he’s growing to be and I’m blessed beyond words to call him my own. May God continue to grow in him and all my children the knowledge of their need of God, and in the knowledge of how to make things right with God and man when they mess up.

Because we all mess up. And isn’t how H responded to his temptation to sin EXACTLY how how God wants us to respond also? To run to our father and confess “I’m messing up and I want to stop but I need your help!”

This is what we should all do.

“If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Because God is just waiting for us to ask Him for help. We can all run to HIM. He, too, will melt into a pile of mush as we come to Him and express our need for His help and accept His tender love. And He will forgive. Always. All we have to do is ask.

It’s a beautiful thing.