GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF WHAT IS HIS

I've been struggling a little emotionally and spiritually with these first couple days of school. It seems the enemy has come at me with the same old strategies. I'm going to mess the kids up. I'm not doing enough. Our kids won't know what they're supposed to know. Etc, etc, etc. So I've been sharpening the sword and lifting the shield of faith ruthlessly the last two days. But victory is not instantaneous. I'll compare it to the scene in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe where they push their way through the coats. It's hot and stuffy and you're not sure where you're going. You pray and fight for faith and the right affections just aren't following. Then the Lord in His grace gives you some light and you're in the bright, clean air just like first entering the cold crispness of Narnia. This morning this happened to me when I read the first chapter of 1 Samuel. Hannah promises to give Samuel up when she has weaned him. I'm sure she knows what kind of father Eli has been since she has gone up to the temple with her husband year after year. Eli's sons are wanton and disobedient. Yet Hannah brings Samuel to Eli. The key I think is that she gives Samuel not to Eli but to God. She entrusts him to God. I had written something in my Bible at this part that really struck me and was my gateway to greater faith and light today. I wrote, "God takes care of His own property." Samuel became God's property when Hannah devoted him to the Lord.

Who am I to think that I have that much control over the fate of my children? I have tremendous influence, yes, but I am not God. Thankfully, praise God, He takes the influence I have and molds it and uses it for each child's needs. And if I continually surrender them to God and they're truly His, He will take care of His own.