As For The Lord

It was damp, cold, and rainy all day yesterday. Fortunately, I had to be home anyway to manage my DI team practice so it was a good day to be stuck indoors. The team is on a roll. Something seems to have clicked, and they are getting a great deal done. Not a minute too soon. The deadline looms but I think they will make it. I love it when at the end of the session, not me but they look at what they accomplished and say, "Wow, we got a lot done today!" There is great reward in working through hard things towards a defined goal, in disciplining oneself to do what is required even when it is not exciting or as entertaining as what one might prefer to be doing. To manage one's time well when one is young and time seems infinite is a challenge.

My goals for them are different than their goals for themselves I suspect. I want them to be creative within set parameters. Creativity is not anarchy, but kids don't always start off knowing that. I want them to abide by the rules, and understand that rules are not in place to stifle, but to protect. (themselves, each other, my home....)I want them to learn to be respectful of each other and of each others' work, while doing the very best they can individually. The balance of initiative and team cooperation is not always an easy one to strike, but I think they are learning. I want them to stretch for excellence over fun. Best of all, I want them to learn that excellence *is* fun, and in the long run, of more lasting value. I think it builds a sense of pride and worth that no one feels when they do less than what they are capable of. It seems to me that fun should be the by-product....not the goal.

As manager, I have a tough job. I am not allowed to help them, but I am allowed to ask a lot of questions to make them think, explore ideas they might not have arrived at on first impulse. My job is to make it a little less likely that they will fail.

They wanted to saw a chain in half yesterday. I stayed near, as I saw fingers dangerously close to the saw. They were not having much success. My husband asked if he could do it for them.
"No," we all said.
What we needed were bolt cutters, but we didn't have bolt cutters. They put down the saw, deciding it was not going to work. Failure teaches many lessons, but if I can give them the tools to succeed, how much better! But honestly, it would be much easier to help them, to just do it for them.

In a way, it is like fallible humans being given free will, and yet God sends us rules and guidelines to make it less likely we will fail. He could do it for us...He could do anything. But He doesn't. He sends us out, and watches, and I suspect cringes as the "saw comes dangerously close to our fingers." He corrects and admonishes and guides not out of harshness, but out of love. He is rooting for us, but perhaps not for what we think we want. Not once in the Bible does He tell us to go out and "have fun"...He tells us to go out and "be ye perfect as I am perfect." Our goal is not self satisfaction, but to work for The Lord, and to His glory not our own. Most of us don't like restraints on our behavior, but if we abide by His guidelines, we are much more likely to have success without regrets.

I was with half the group in the living room, watching them practice when there was a triumphant shout from the sunroom where all the DI supplies were scattered like confetti on the giant work table. One of the team members had stayed behind, picked up the saw and stuck with it, till the chain was severed.

Colossians 3:17,23 (NIV)
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. [23] Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters


-save a dog- hollowcreekfarm.org