10 Teens and a Late Sunday Night

What a weekend! Friday night I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the evening with the women in Liberty, North Carolina at their Ladies’s Night Out. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.

Saturday…it was time to hit the ground running! My daughter, Mariah, had rehearsal for her last concert with the Charlotte Children’s Choir 45 minutes away. She had asked if she could have a few friends come home with her to spend the night and they would all return the next day together for the concert. Great idea, I had thought. I just didn’t calculate the energy it would take on my part having a total of 10 teen girls in my house for the weekend! I felt like I was running a youth camp!

Sunday night it was finally time to unwind when a reminder surfaced that Madi had an end of the class test Monday morning and needed help studying. Now, I have a disclaimer in my home that Momma cannot be held responsible for anything that she says or does after 9:00 p.m….I am pretty much comatose. Being that it was now 8:30 p.m. we were cutting it close!

By 9:00 p.m. my patience was wearing thin and I was more than ready to get horizontal. In my frustration, I raised my voice at Madison, correcting her. She looked at me and said, “Mom, don’t talk to me that way.” Major role reversal!

I thought of Madi and her correction of me last night when I read my Bible this morning. Hebrews 12:12 – 13 “Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.” NIV

A great way to study portions of scripture is to break them down, phrase by phrase, looking up words in the dictionary that you may want to learn a deeper meaning of. So, here we go….

“Therefore…” In other words, in light of the words I just said in verses 1 – 11.

“Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.” The writer is saying, “I get that you get tired, but do something about it!” For me, speaking too many weekends in a row wipes me out! I am very thankful to have a few weeks off here in May so that I can strengthen my feeble arms and weak knees. Notice that this is a command for ME to do something about how I feel. I need to run to the Lord. It’s not Greg’s responsibility to work in some down time for me; or anyone else for that matter. I have to plan it myself.

“Make level paths for your feet” Again, it’s about me. I am the one walking this path I am on. I, through the strength of the Holy Spirit and the power found in the Word of God, need to level out my path.

What does that mean? When I read that verse I thought of James 1:6 -8 “He who doubts is like a wave of the sea (reminds me of an uneven pathway), blown and tossed by the wind; that man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is double-minded, unstable in all he does.” NIV A believer who is up and down and up and down is unstable, double minded, not on a level path.

So what is so bad about that? I mean, we all go through really hard times, don’t we? I know I sure do!

Here is the bad part of having a uneven path…

Hebrews 12:13 “Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”

The path was for MY feet; but there are others following behind. My kids, my friends, anyone who is within my influence. Some of those who are following are lame. (No…I’m not talking about those that you think are stuck in the ’80’s!)

Dictionary.com says:
Lame: crippled or physically disabled, especially in the foot or leg so as to
limp or walk with difficulty.

There are those who are following us who are having a hard time on this path called life. They are following behind us, hoping we can show them the way; giving them guidance. Some it is obvious that they are following us; others are following a bit further back. Some of those are lame; they are having difficulty.

Back to Hebrews 12:13 “…so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”

The Lord wants us to walk a level path in this life, a path that is not an emotional or faith rollar coaster, but a path that is level, not only for our sakes but for the lame, so that they will not be disabled. So that, by seeing our faith walk, especially through very hard times, it will bring healing to their lives.

Dictionary.com says
Disabled: Cripped; injured; incapacitated – unable to act or respond

When those who are watching us see us on an uneven pathway, it can cause them to become unable to act or respond in their own lives. We, by not walking in faith with Jesus, cause them to trip up.

Last night, when I was short with Madi, I may have caused her to trip up. I sent a message with my actions that when you are tired and worn out, it is ok to be short tempered with people. Is that the pathway that I want to create for her to walk on? Is that how I want her to one day treat her husband, children or co-workers?

Others are watching us. Others are following. How are we doing on making our pathway level?

Lynn

One Comment

  1. Jennifer Renee says:

    This was a wonderful post and gives me a lot to think about.

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