“DON’T GET DISTRACTED”

That was some excellent advice to me and the girls yesterday from our neighbor who invited us to church with her. On the drive there, I asked her about a little disagreement the girls and I were having about a football game that I said no to them going. She said the US is a country where it’s very easy to get distracted, but we must stay focused as to why we came here.

Later on that afternoon, I brought their dad into the conversation after I felt they were double-teaming me. We had a crucial family conference call with him in Nigeria and he explained that this separation is a big sacrifice for us and we set some ground rules to be followed in regards to social outings.

This morning, driving to school, with both of the girls extremely upset at me, I asked them to read an appointment with God. I looked at the dashboard of the car and picked 120 from the speedometer. Can you believe God even got in on our family discussion? Ember had started reading devotional 120 from another book, but quickly switched to our Rick Warren’s A Purpose Driven Life For Kids. This unbelievably showed up:

“You are sick and tired of your parents’ rules (precisely my daughters this weekend!). They just don’t understand you. When you don’t understand something that God or your parents ask you to do, talk it over with God. Vent your frustration. Don’t hold it in; otherwise you might run away and wind up in a stinking mess.
Prayer: God, why are there so many rules at home, at school and at church? It seems like rules, rules, rules are everywhere. I know they are supposed to help and protect me, but I need faith to believe that’s true.”

And that right there is another one of my God winks, where everything lines up a little bit too perfectly. It shows God’s intimate involvement in our lives. I’m telling you, in every aspect, He has been the Captain and Guide of my ship, including parenting. This number 120 that I randomly picked was all Him letting me know that His invisible Presence is with me in every moment of my life. The strange thing was that Ember was to drive today, but because of the rain, she asked me. So, me looking down at the dashboard and picking 120 from there, was all lovingly orchestrated by God. Is He the Captain and Guide of your ship?

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