life beyond the well…

Author Archives: erin.almond


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Fathering in the Way of God

father blog collage

Left: My dad praying with me before my wedding. Right: Preacherman consoling our little one.

One of the (many) things that I love about Preacherman is that he is an EXCELLENT father.  He truly finds joy and happiness in interacting and engaging with our daughter.  While he (admittedly) spoils her, he is also a wonderful leader for her and our family.  His demonstration of love is consistent and firm.  He strives to teach her in the ways of the Lord.  When you see them together, it is clear that they are two peas in a pod.

For the last few weeks, our bedtime stories have been from a children’s pajama bible.  Samiyah gets to choose four stories (because she’s 4 years old), and we’ll read them together.  Her choices over the past few weeks have been: God Made the World, Adam and Eve, Noah, and Naomi and Ruth.  We’ve read them so much that she has nearly memorized them.  After we read them, we try to include a one sentence synopsis or takeaway that she’ll be able to remember.

Last night, after reading about Adam and Eve, she began to ask questions (deep, theological, 4 year old questions).  As we talked about the serpent and how God felt after Adam and Eve disobeyed, she came to the conclusion that God wasn’t real because she couldn’t see Him in the pictures of her pajama bible.  (Insert parenting panic here).

After overcoming my parenting panic, I said, “Well, you don’t see Daddy all the time.  Does that mean that he is not real?”  She responded, “Yes, Daddy is real!”  I then explained, “Well, just because we aren’t able to see God, that doesn’t mean that He isn’t real.  He’s always there for us in the same way that Daddy is always there for you.  Daddy is your earthly father, and God is your heavenly father.”  At that moment, she took off running to the other room to give Preacherman one of many good night hugs and kisses.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  Crisis averted.  Praise the Lord, I hadn’t ruined my little one’s faith!

Because Preacherman is such a great father, it was easy for her to make the connection between him being there and being real, and God being real.  When fathers are great (and this doesn’t mean without fault or flawless) and truly desire to lead their families in the way of the Lord, it becomes so much easier for their children to trust God.  It’s so easy for me to trust that God is on time, because my dad is never late.  I can believe in God’s consistency because I see that in my dad and in my husband.  I am able to accept that God is faithful and keeps His promises because I have good earthly examples in my husband and my dad.

My husband and my dad have shown me that while good parenting is about the day to day activities, it’s also about love and discipleship and leaving a legacy of faith behind that can support and encourage the generations to come.  For that, I am truly grateful.

Be encouraged!  Peace and blessings!

 


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Empowered by the Wait

Waiting is not my specialty.  I can do it, but it’s not something that I’m great at.  I’m easily annoyed by stoplights that are longer than I think they should be.  I get frustrated when people take FOREVER in the check out line (are you REALLY writing a check?!?), and making me wait in the drive-through line is just sinister.  I just don’t like to wait.

Part of this is from our culture of immediacy, where we can get anything and everything that we need on our smartphones in about .5 seconds.  We can reheat dinner in 2 minutes thanks to a microwave.  I can “rent” a movie by just clicking an option with the remote, and within seconds it’s there.  It’s difficult to be good at something, (and even more difficult to like it) if I never have to do it.

A few weeks ago, my pastor was preaching about how the anointing changes us, but that also how part of how we are changed is through having to wait.  Learning to endure.  Developing patience and in some cases, long suffering.  There’s a perseverance that comes only from having to wait something out, or see a process through until the end.

I thought about this some more this morning, after having a conversation with Preacherman.  Usually our four-year old is okay with the time it takes for her Daddy to come get her from bed in the morning and she doesn’t call out for him to get her.  But this morning, our conversation was a little longer, and she called out to him.  I encouraged him to wait just a little longer, and not to move immediately, because we’re working on developing her patience.  He asked if I wanted him to wait until she called out again with more urgency (her “urgency” call outs are HILARIOUS, and we’re not abusing the child, we can totally distinguish between fake urgency and real urgency #justsaying).  I thought that would be a good idea (and a funny start to the morning).

As Preacherman got up, I began to think about how God makes us wait.  If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw this stream of consciousness.  But here’s what I’ve learned about having to wait:

  1. When you call out to God and He doesn’t respond, it doesn’t mean that He’s not there or that He’s not listening.  Sometimes God waits to respond to us because he needs for something to develop IN us that can only happen through us having to wait.
  2. We have to remember to “let perseverance finish its’ perfect work so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.“
  3. When we don’t immediately receive what we’ve been asking for, we appreciate it more.
  4. You learn how strong you are and how much willpower you have when you have to wait for something that has been promised.
  5. You gain the ability to see things from a totally different perspective when you don’t immediately receive what you’ve been believing for.

Even though we don’t LIKE to wait, there are advantages to it.  Oftentimes, we don’t pay attention to the advantages of waiting and instead become bitter by the process.  But if we allow it to happen, we can become empowered by the wait.  There are some things that I’ve been believing God for since I got saved nearly 10 years ago that have not yet come to pass.  But I’m still waiting and believing.  And I’m empowered because I’ve seen how God has worked in the lives of others, and how He has answered other prayers that I’ve had.  He is faithful and He ALWAYS keeps His promises.

“God is not human, that he should lie,not a human being, that he should change his mind.  Does he speak and then not act?  Does he promise and not fulfill?” – Numbers 23:19

Be encouraged!  Peace and Blessings!