Build Your Ark

 

 

One of my dearest friends shared this quote from Henry Nouwen with me recently and boy did it speak to me!  Life is busy and full.  Life is exciting and overwhelming.  Life brings great joy and deep sorrow.  Life is beautiful and safe and life can be ugly and frightening. Life with teenagers can be all of those things before lunch time!  Life is…well life.

Each morning I have a list of things to do before days end as I am sure many of you do.  Busy couples with busy and involved families running from one event to the next can be enough to make our head spin.  I have often joked that my schedule can be so tight on some days that getting 5 minutes behind in the morning stretches to running an hour behind by 5:00pm….and then there are all of those interruptions.

I have spent some time asking the Lord about it and His response to me was…”You get your calendar so full that if I want to thrill you, bless you or get your attention, I simply must interrupt.”  Ouch.

Some of the most beautiful interruptions of my life have been…

• A 5 year old boy calling to be picked up sick from school…I was supposed to be in an interview but instead Tanner and I spent the afternoon watching cartoons and coloring. He’s a man now, a husband and a daddy himself, and I remember it like it was yesterday.
• A call at 11:00 pm that something was wrong with my mom. I was supposed to be leaving on a cruise the next morning but instead my family and I walked my momma Home.
• A 6:30 am wakeup call and a 9:00 am doctor’s appointment on the days that Jake and Madi were born. I was supposed to be working, but instead I was introduced to two of the most important people in my life.
• An unexpected visit from my son on a Saturday night announcing that I would soon become a grandmother. I was supposed to be just hanging out with my nieces, but the Lord gave me a gift of peace and hope for new beginnings.

Interruptions are the joy of life.  Interruptions break up the mundane routine of life and remind us that He is not bound by our to-do list or our calendar.  He has a standing appointment and can enter the scene unannounced and aren’t we so thankful.

Then there is Noah.  He was a righteous man living life with his family while the world went crazy all around him…and then the Lord interrupted.    Noah I want you to build an ark for your family and I want you to do it exactly the way I describe it to you.  The Ark will be a shelter for you and your sons when unfamiliar disaster strikes.  There will be a day that it will flood, Noah, but when the waters rise and firm ground for your feet to stand on is a distant memory, the Ark will hold what you hold most dear and I will be your protection.

“Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” Genesis 6:22

So amidst the busy and the uncertain, remember to build the Ark for your family.  Because when the flood comes and the waters rise …the Ark will be a shelter for you and your sons when unfamiliar disaster strikes.  When the waters rise and firm ground for your feet to stand on is a distant memory, the Ark will hold what you hold most dear and He will be your protection.

“Lord you are our refuge and strong tower.  You are the Ark to which we run and are saved.  We trust our families to you Lord and we are thankful for the plans and purposes you have for them.  Be glorified in our homes, Father.  We will see you on the waves.  I love you.”

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord.

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, …bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Micah 4:2 Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Genesis 9:12-15 ^“And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:  I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.”

Psalm 62:8 Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Build your ark, piece by piece, truth upon truth, standard upon standard, to protect your family.  Thank you for journeying with my these past few weeks into devoted prayer for our teens.  Let’s make 2016 a year of deliberate prayer and may our homes be individual houses of prayer.

My love,

 

Continue praying for your teen in 2016 with the 12-week Rescue Prayer Journal.  Order yours here!