A Challenging Career

I started working when I was 14 years old.  I was a bag girl at Publix (a grocery store) I worked there until I was 18 years old and I worked my way up to the totem pole from bag girl to the cash office. After that I started working at Sams club from 18-22 years old and I started there as a cashier and then I was promoted to supervisor fairly quickly.  No matter what job I had I always wanted to the best, I was always trying to excel and be the greatest I wanted to be on top at my jobs, and with this mind frame I was.  I have never been given an imperfect evaluation in my life and I’m proud of that!

 There’s has been one career path that is very challenging to me though….so challenging that I feel like at times I just don’t know what I’m doing….Do you ever get that feeling? For me the job that I have of being a mom is the most challenging and humbling calling that I have ever done.  There are times I don’t get a perfect evaluation….actually I don’t ever get a perfect evaluation. My job is not based upon performance like most jobs are….being a parent is job that is based on the product…the outcome...the child. I feel like most days I fail….to be perfectly honest with you. Romans 5:8 “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

As I was thinking about how I am sometimes at a loss at being a parent I thought of God. I thought that the mightiest being. Our creator….is our parent.  He gave each and everyone one of us free will and he watches day to day either to make good use of it, or poor use of it.  He looks down at us from the heavens and I wonder what he thinks with our decisions and choices? I began to ponder this a bit this morning and I thought “the mightiest powerful being is the most humble of all us, and he is our father”.  God is wonderful isn’t he?  He has the ability to take us out of this world at any given moment, but he has spared us our lives with the sacrifice of his one and only son….so that we could give live…by grace only. 1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it”

 I look at myself being a mom and I think day to day how I can give grace to my kids.  I find it to be a challenge because just like the rest of the moms and dads in the world we know what our kids our capable of.  We want them to succeed and be great human beings, not for this world alone, but for the kingdom of God.  The Lord keeps a watchful eye on us just as we do our own kids, but he’s got a bird’s eye view.  Knowing; that he has a birds view and we still mess up every day and every day we are given another chance. John 1:3 “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”

The free will that God has given us is to be used ever so wisely.  We can either use it for his glory, or we can use it with selfish gain and gain nothing.  Being a parent; it’s hard to see sometimes when your children use their own free will ineffectively.  However; what I can say is that as a child of God I am grateful for all the lessons that the Lord has taught me while using my free will imperfectly.  I know that it’s my job to instill great values into my children and It’s the most important job I will ever be given.  I am ever so grateful that I don’t get a perfect evaluation on being mom, but what I am grateful for is for the sovereign grace and mercy that the Lord shows me every day while being an imperfect parent. Hebrews 4:10 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need"