The Evil Queen And Her Minions
At bedtime this evening I asked my kids their favorite part of the day. All three (old enough to tell me) told me that it was when we all played princess-superhero-ninjas and saved the king from the evil queen and her minions.
Rewind:
My four young kids and I are on a little summer getaway down in Nashville for a few days while my husband deals with some especially difficult work stuff. The goal was to get out of Dodge and give him some space. We didn’t make any actual plans for our time here other than staying with my sister-in-law. (Thank you again ;) ) She had some plans this afternoon and we had the place to ourselves.
After being in the car from 8am-8pm yesterday, I’m tired, a “little” cranky, and feeling overwhelmed. What was I going to do with four stir crazy children on a hot humid day in a city I don’t know at all on next to zero budget?
I could feel the tightness in my chest, the shortening of my patience.
They were getting wilder, and wilder. I was getting more and more overwhelmed. We were all headed for an emotional, overtired downward spiral of awful and we were headed there fast.
After coming up short looking for some new and exciting “toy-like” distraction to keep them from running laps around the living room and leaping from the ottoman onto the couch on repeat, I knew I needed to do something.
I took a deep breath, and focused every fiber in my being into sounding fun and happy.
“Guys! I just found out that the King has been captured by an evil queen, and we MUST go on a quest to save him! Do any of you have any magic powers or secret weapons?!?”
It was exactly what they needed.
It was exactly what I needed.
We all ended up having a lot of fun.
This month’s theme for the blog is based on Isaiah 58:11,
“The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.”
I felt like my kids and I were in a sun-scorched land this afternoon. I was so stuck focusing on my circumstances, feeling overwhelmed. I was spinning my wheels trying to figure out how to change my circumstances.
At the end of the day we were still away from home on a hot humid day in a city I don’t know at all on next to zero budget. But once I shifted my focus, we had a great day.
There are a lot bigger circumstances we deal with as Christians, a lot of sun-scorched lands. When we get stuck feeling like we will be desperate and unhappy until our circumstances change, we are not listening to what scripture tells us again and again.
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit.”
When Isaiah writes about the well watered garden, the spring whose waters never fail, but the circumstances haven’t changed. We’re still in sun scorched lands. Faith and trust in God and His plan lead us to look beyond our circumstances and know that despite it all, we are Chosen children of a miraculous King who can and will transform us into well watered gardens, constant springs, if we can let go and let Him.
We’re not meant to sail through this life happily and easily without obstacles and hardships. Quite the opposite. God doesn’t abandon us in the desert like our sins deserve. He promised that when we let go of everything else but Him, He will renew us from within with His living water.
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Vanquishing the evil queen with my little ones is a great memory I hope we all hold onto for a long time.
Vanquishing the evil Foe is said and done by our Father who is waiting for us to look away from our circumstances, and trust His good and perfect will, which is always, always for our good.
