Part 8 – “Faithfulness”

Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness . . . “

As moms, most of us consider ourselves faithful, especially when it comes to our children. We have been faithful in loving and caring for them from the day they entered this world and throughout their lives, no matter what has happened along the way or how much heartache they may have caused us. There is nothing that can make us stop loving them and all we really want for them is happiness, health, and productivity. Our greatest desire is to see them flourish and thrive in their lives and of course we desire a relationship with them. No matter what has happened in the past, we are always there waiting for them to turn around so that we can embrace them and draw close to them again.

It occurs to me that this is the way it is with God and us. He loves us no matter how many times we have turned our backs to him. He wants us to have love and joy and peace in our lives and he wants more than anything to have a relationship with us. One thing He doesn’t do is try to control or manipulate us into living the way he wants us to live. He patiently waits for us to figure it out and when we are ready, He is there waiting to embrace us. He will help us to make the changes in our lives in the areas that we are willing to submit to Him. But, in the areas we choose to hang on to, He doesn’t interfere, but He allows us to figure it out for ourselves.

What if we were to follow the example of our Lord and faithfully wait for our kids to turn around. What if instead of spending time and energy worrying and trying to control or fix our children, we focus on our own relationship with our Father, God. What if our faithfulness revolves around seeking Him in all things? I know that is easier said than done, but if we can shift our attention from our children to God and work on allowing Him to do in us what He wants to do, amazing things will begin to happen. For one, we will become free of the anxiety and pain that some of us have been living with for as long as we can remember. When we allow God to have first place in our hearts instead of giving that place to our children, He will heal our brokenness and help us to be the women that He created us to be.
God is so faithful! I love the way His faithfulness is described in Psalms 36:5 where it says, “Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.” And in Psalms 89:8 where it says, “Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.” His faithfulness reaches to the skies and surrounds Him. What a wonderful picture of God’s faithfulness. And as we are faithful to seek Him in all we do, and we grow in our relationship with Him, that same faithfulness that we see in Him will become part of who we are as well.

Faithfully seeking the Lord will result in all the other attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. And with those things at the forefront of our lives, we will be free from our pain and heartache.
Let’s make the choice today to seek Him with the same faithfulness we have given to fixing and changing our kids. Let’s faithfully seek Him in the same way He has been faithful in seeking a relationship with us.

by Cathy Taylor