Have you ever wondered if there are times when God just doesn't know what to do with us? I know that He is God and is perfect, but in my finite, human brain I just have to wonder if He ever just shakes His head and says "Why didn't I stop with the animals?" As a parent, I know (albeit in a very miniscule way) how God feels about His children. He desperately loves us to distraction as I do my children. But tonight I found myself staring at my kids completely clueless as to what I needed to do next. They had just broken one of the Ten Commandments of the law of Hochstetler (Thou shalt not scream at thy siblings and call down all manner of curses on their heads). Yea, that one! (I know that there are those of you whose children would never dare speak an unkind word to their sibling, so this is just for us loser parents, okay?) I called a family meeting which consisted of me sitting on my bed facing them as they lined up against the wall. All manner of words and phrases and examples and motherly verbage were flying around in my head just waiting to be flung at my children who sat staring at me as if to say, "what big word is she going to use this time, and whose turn is it to look it up?" I prepared to launch a verbal attack that would leave them begging for mercy when it suddenly hit me. I had absolutely nothing to say. And I was sad. I was sad because I was disappointed. I was disappointed that they had felt the need to hurt each other with words and had counted the cost to be worth it. I was sad that maybe they had learned it from me. I was truly clueless on what consequence would be necessary to get them to understand the irreparable damage that is caused by words that we hurl at each other. Is that how He feels when we hurt each other? Sad? If I truly saw you as God's child, would I treat you differently? If my children truly knew how I felt about them, would they hurt each other knowing the pain it would cause me? Matthew 22:37-39 says, "He said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." Enough said!

In His Grace and Mercy