A Birthday Message to My 13 Year Old Granddaughter on Role Modeling

 

To my oldest, and first, granddaughter, my precious Hannah-Abigail on her 13^th Birthday

 

A short time ago I learned something I was not aware of. My sisters told me they had always looked up to me as kids, I wish I had realized that when I was a teen.

You have been chosen by God to be in a leadership role…as a godly role model for each of your younger sisters.  God chose your birth order for a reason.  He knew you would have leadership qualities because He designed you and wired you for His purposes.

Even though Selah will also look to Berea, and Berea to Lydia, and Lydia to Moriah, and Moriah to Tabitha, and Tabitha to you, you still lead the pack.  What you model, they will each model to the ones younger than them.  Your role therefore is most important because you lead from the top all the way to the youngest.  For this reason, you must rely on your Leader always, the Holy Spirit.  There will be times when you realize you messed up. This happens to everyone, except Jesus.  These times will be times of opportunity to role model humility, prayer, and forgiveness.  This will be one of the most important areas to role model because it is the most difficult area… as pride must go, ( James 4:6-8).  The Holy Spirit will enable this as you pour out your heart to God and be still and listen to what He puts into your heart.  This is a place of honor God has set you in, and designed you for, and an opportunity to role model the heart and ways of a godly young woman whose heart and eyes are set of Christ Jesus, who is everyone’s role model, to reveal what His Father was like.      

Happy 13^th Birthday, Hannah-Abigail

Love, Hugs and Prayers from your Grandma Law

 

Role Modelling...   This is an area we could do to practice more in.  Since we will not be perfected until Jesus returns, we are going to still have some mess ups every now or then.   Without our focus 100% on Jesus all the time, it's bound to happen.  What are the areas that we are most likely to mess up in, and how do they effect other areas of our life and those we are in contact with?

If we remember that when you throw a pebble into a pond it has a ripple effect. Therefore our attitudes, words, and actions don't just effect us and maybe one other person; they effect many people such as the person's family, and anyone that person may lash out at in response to the anger or  pain we may have inadvertently caused them.  This, I believe, is why God's Word tells us in several places, one being Romans 12:1-2, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.... then we will be able to know what God's good and perfect will is. According to Jesus it is sanctification through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. In John 17:17, in His High Priestly prayer, He says, "Sanctify them by Your truth; Your Word is truth."

Attitudes come before the words or actions, therefore attitudes need to be worked on first.  This is a very good reason in itself to be in the Bible, particularly the New Testament to learn Christ-like attitudes and to begin replacing old attitudes with the new ones progressively.  In this way, with the help of the Holy Spirit, our character will progressively grow more and more Christ-like and will attract more people to want to know Christ Jesus.

I pray each of you and your families will have a very blessed Christmas as we remember why God came to this earth as a baby... so He could die for us, in order that we would live for Him.  I pray also that this coming New Year will be one where we will see loved ones coming to Christ Jesus in faith for His saving work on the cross and proving He was God by rising from the dead.

Let all of us pray for genuine repentance for love ones and others we know, and for a saving faith in Christ Jesus so that they too, can know Him and have their hope anchored in Him.  For as He rose from the dead, one day we shall also rise to be with Him when He comes in the clouds for His own.

 

God Bless you all,

~Annie~

A letter to my daughter… edited for the blog

I thought I would tell you about a funny incident in the grocery store the other day.  It might give you a smile. 

My sister picked me up to go get some groceries.  I knew she likes to get home fast to her cats so I try to hurry as fast as I can.  Now because I have a walker my sister pushes the grocery cart.  She got a few things then parked the grocery cart across the aisle from where the carrots, squash, and potatoes are. I picked up a couple bags of carrots and started tossing them across the aisle into the cart so I could get things done quickly.  A lady was walking down the aisle at the same time as the carrots were airborne in front of her...barely missing her. She said, “Woe, flying carrots!”  I didn’t see her before I let go of the carrots, so was quickly apologizing to her.  (I was kind of stressed that morning before this happened.)  Then the lady disappeared.  I threw four squashes into the cart (looking first this time), then was going to get a bag of potatoes.  I picked up a bag of potatoes and was just getting ready to toss them across the aisle into the cart when that same lady suddenly appeared again from the opposite direction. I was still holding the potatoes when I noticed her moving toward me.  She walked right over to me and said very innocently, “What are you going to do with those?”  She sounded like a comedian the way she said it.  I just cracked up and started laughing. She was kind of saying, “I hope you are not thinking of throwing those at me too.”  Some other people who had seen it were laughing too.  She was dressed like a business lady and was serious looking but, obviously, had a good sense of humor.  I’m guessing she was probably about mid-forty. She kind of made my day.  It gave me a lift which I needed.  When I look back on it, I guess I must have looked like I was in some kind of contest to see how fast I could fill the cart with groceries.

 

Even this could have been a God-incident... the laugh was such good medicine as I was so stressed about a few things which I have no control over. It helped me to relax some and be able to concentrate on God’s Word when I got home.

 

After being in His Word it  helped even more to talk to God, pour out my heart to Him (Psalm.62), and tell Him what my fears were, and why, and then listen.  He brings passages to mind to remind me that it doesn’t matter what other people are doing, He is in control even of that. All the results are in His hands and He is right there with me so I am not going through them alone.  Whatever difficulties He allows into my life are for a purpose, a very good purpose...even if I cannot understand how right now.  He knows what He is doing, and I need to keep my focus on Him, knowing there is an eternal purpose for everything that happens, and when it happens.  Our part is to learn, grow, trust deeper, get our sight fixed back on Him and enjoy His presence.  He is our Abba and we are is children, so we are to run to Him and tell Him how we are feeling, discuss our problems with Him and be still and listen to what passages He brings to our heart, or maybe a principle or commandment.  Pray His Word back to Him too, and listen. We live in a rush, rush world and find it difficult to sit still long enough to listen, but we need to make some time to be alone with Him each day, even if it is short periods sometimes.  It is good to have a notebook and Bible to write down what God is bringing to your heart and mind after you pour out to Him and sit silently listening to what He brings to your heart. Write it down afterward and meditate on it.  How does God want to work this out in me?  Just ask questions and listen...  It is at these times I feel most close to God.  He wants our heart-felt needs to be brought to Him and He wants us to be honest to the core with whatever the fears or the needs are.  This is worshipping Him in Spirit and truth.  This is what He wants, all of our heart right to the depths of it laid out before Him to heal the broken places so that He can bring times of refreshment. Then we can truly give Him heart praise and thanks for being our Abba through what Christ has done for our benefit and salvation.  This is why He has given us the Holy Spirit to counsel and enable us through anything we must endure.  We have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with us at all times.  We just have to be more careful sometimes about quenching Him rather than crying out to Him, or pouring out our hearts to Him and listening to what He wants us to remember. He knows we will not be perfect before Jesus returns and that is why we need to keep returning to him for comfort, direction, forgiveness, to humble ourselves, to pour out our fears and our prayers for others, and to feel so grateful, so thankful, from our hearts that He is there for us 24/7 and ready to give us the hug we need and the Fatherly advice, encouragement, and reminders.  He brings us to the cross always, and brings us to praise and a worshipful heart set after this because of His amazing love, mercy, and grace.

 

As I remind you of this, I am reminding myself at the same time.  I need to hear it over and over, and over, as many times as I will need it for the rest of my life. 

 

This was part of a letter to my daughter.  I thought I would use this part as a post for now as my life has been under much pressure lately and I didn’t know what to write for the blog yet.    I pray these words will lighten someone else’s heart and encourage their spirit so that they too will find their refreshment and hope in Him in their time of need.

 

 

 ~Annie~