A number of years ago, when my girls were around 4 and 6 years old, I had this wooden mission style chair in my living room. It was covered with two vinyl cushions that were easily removable. For a long time, my girls loved to pull them off and use them as little seats on the floor to watch TV.
They discovered that if they went to the top of the stairs, flipped the cushions vinyl side down and sat on them, they made AWESOME sleds to slide down from the second floor to the living room! So while I was in another room working on something, all of a sudden I hear the sounds…..stump, stump, STUMP STUMP STUMP STUMP STUMP followed by a roar of giggles. I ran in to see them having the time of their lives, getting ready to run up the stairs for another run.
Enter me, the meanest Mama on the face of the earth.
I had to stop their joy ride on the cushions down the stairs. All it would take is one of them getting slightly off balance and they could end up falling HARD, head first down a flight of stairs.
I saw the danger but all they saw me taking away all of their fun.
One of the hardest things as a parent is telling your kids that they can’t do something that they really want to do. Most of the time, they don’t understand our reasoning, and are quick to tell us how “unfair” we are being.
It’s the same thing with God. In previous posts, I’ve talked a lot about God’s eternal perspective. How He sees all time, not just here and now. He also KNOWS the future in a way we can’t comprehend. Just like the Mom who has to stop her kids from making a dangerous decision, God sometimes has to abruptly stop us from doing something when we don’t fully understand why what we are doing is wrong.
There are many different ways this can play out.
It could be the loss of your perfect dream job or your dream house being bought from underneath you.
It could be not getting into the school you’ve had your heart set on for years.
It could even possibly be as difficult as a death.
Just today I shared with a friend how my Mom’s death really put opened my eyes to how much God loves me this way. Without the faith I have in Him and the trust that I have in His perspective, I would have never been able to get through such a profound loss at such a young age. But as I was grieving her and the life plans I had made that included her, I learned in a very powerful way that while it makes NO SENSE to me, God’s perspective always makes perfect sense.
It was so freeing to know that even the sad, difficult and painful things aren’t God is punishing me. It’s actually quite the opposite!
The truth is, this world is full of sin. Some of the bad things we experience are a direct consequence for our sin.
But what I want to talk about today is recognizing when God is trying to stop you from doing something that He knows is dangerous. How sometimes when we are disappointed and asking God “Why!?!?!” do we fail to even realize that His “why” was to keep you from something even more painful and possibly dangerous?
God promises us over and over again in His Word that He will protect us. The verse above tells us that He will go so far as to provide a way out so that we can endure temptation. He is always watching, always caring and always guiding us through His plan.
We may not always like being told to stop doing what we are doing, but it pays to reflect on the “why” and try to discover how sometimes being told to stop is actually a very good and loving thing.
I love my daughters and do want them to giggle and laugh and enjoy life. So after I put the brakes on their fun, I did allow them to go up to the 5th step and slide down safely from there. Next time God stops something in your life, I want to challenge you to look at the whole situation and see if you can notice how He might just be putting you on the 5th step so you safely get to where He is leading you.
In the comments below, let me know if you have been stopped and how you maybe missed something better and safer that He was steering you towards.
***If you are new to Gathered & Sown and Bible journaling, watch this short video first***
♡ In the post, I shared that God promises in His Word to protect us. That doesn’t mean He will keep us from being uncomfortable, hurt or even worse.
Many things we endure have nothing to do with punishment but instead are just a result of a sinful, fallen world. But what it does mean is that nothing will keep us from Him once we’ve accepted Him as our Savior. Once His Spirit is inside of you, nothing in this world can take that away from you. He is fully dedicated and invested in your salvation for all of eternity!
When we are accepting that God has told us “No” about something, we can focus on the ending (Look at Revelation 21:1-4 to get a sneak preview of how God will make all things right!) rather than the present to understand that God is still working.
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2 Responses
God’s protection is so perfect. I can have some pretty crazy ideas and he is always there to keep me from going off the rails!
Hmm.. good stuff.. I can think of one particular time when He shut the door. Man, I was so upset that He did that, but I can look back and see why He did. ❤️