H:12:5 Huh?

For a long time I've (Justin) strongly believed that God reveals Himself in very real ways through our daily life experiences. He as proved that belief over and over again to me. Whether you see it and benefit from that or not depends only on your willingness to look and see it, but it's there. I have NO doubt in that.

My 2-1/2 yr old daughter Olivia has been potty trained for awhile now and during our bedtime routine, we take one last trip to the potty before laying down to sleep. After a successful potty and saying our good-nights, the lights were out and I was downstairs with Tami. After 5 or so minutes, Olivia comes out of her room and says, "I have to go potty."

Immediately, I remember the night before when the exact same thing happened. I told her she just went, but we sat on the potty just in case. Nothing. So we ended up sitting face to face on her bed having a talk about telling the truth that ended in an apology and forgiveness.

So, before even trying to potty this time, I told her she just went and that she needed to go back to bed. After hearing my command, she stated with a little desperation-whine a second time, "Daddy, I have to go potty." So I climbed the stairs and before even heading to the potty, we had a talk on the top step about honesty, telling the truth, and I gave her a quick reminder of what happened the previous night. In our conversation, I stated that she would get a spanking if she didn't go potty this time. I followed the statement of discipline with a couple questions that, I hoped, would get her to fess up before it led to the spanking. No luck. So, we walked to the potty and sat.....and sat......and sat. During this time, I said a quick prayer of desperation in my head, "Lord, PLEASE let her go potty. I don't want to spank her."

After the ordeal was over, Hebrews 12:5 became more real to me . Talks about 'God disciplining those he loves.' After Olivia finally went potty after about 4 minutes of sitting (Thank you Lord!), I came back downstairs to Tami and stated to her how thankful I was that she went because I really did not want to spank her. She brought the incident back up the next day and said that's probably how God thinks when we are in the midst of temptation or sin. Because His love is SO much greater than we offer our own kids, how much more then does He not 'want' to punish us, rather, so wants us to do right. Unfortunately, like Olivia, loving discipline is just what we need at times to bring us back to a life of righteousness and blessing. What a good and loving God we have anxious to have relationship with us.

Are you living your life looking for God to reveal Himself to you? He wants to be found by you every day.