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For Our Good

When my daughter was small and just beginning to get teeth, I needed to brush them. I knew it had to be done. I was her mother and responsible for keeping her healthy and that means keeping her from getting cavities. At first, she fought me with everything she had in her. She didn’t want to have them brushed and she was going to do everything in her power to prevent it from happening. So I forced to resort to sitting her on my lap. With one arm I held her arms down and I wrapped my leg around her legs in keep them still. I held her head with my the crook of my arm and brushed those teeth. All the while she struggled against me and screamed at the top of her lungs.

Eventually after many days, my little one understood that she was going to get them brushed everyday and she let go of her will. She relaxed and put her head back and opened her mouth wide. When she surrendered her will, it was so easy for her and for me and it was over quickly. And to date, she has had no cavities. So the good that was intended came to pass.

Later on when she was a little older, she got pink eye. The same thing happened. She was not going to allow me to put those drops in her eyes. They stung! She didn’t want to experience this pain although if she didn’t get the drops her eyes were going to keep getting worse and very sore. Once again, this unpleasant experience was needed for overall good. She did not have pink eye once, but four times in one year. At first I had to lay her on the floor and hold her limbs down with the weight of my body and force the drops in. But after one or two times of that, she surrendered. Always with tears, she would voluntarily go the couch and put her head back on the pillow and often say “I love you Mom,” or “I love you Jesus,” as the drops were administered.

Now as she goes to school, she struggles with this same will of hers being challenged. She is constantly being asked to do things that take her out of her comfort zone, and make her do things she doesn’t want to. She is once again fighting against her circumstances. I can see that she’s that same little girl fighting against the toothbrush and the eye drops. Of course, she’s older now, and doesn’t take these tantrums in the classroom, but at home she lets her feelings show. She doesn’t understand that going to school will help her to grow socially, mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. She just knows she doesn’t want to do certain things. She wants her own way and her own will.

I can see that she is already being asked to die to self at this young age. I reminded her of Jesus, who surely didn’t want to experience the pain of the crown of thorns, the spit in his face, the whips on his back. He didn’t want to experience the scorn of men, and the ultimate death on the cross. He gave up His will for the will of the Father, knowing that the Father had a plan for the good for all men. He gave up His what he wanted, “for this cup to be taken from him” and obeyed to the point of shedding His blood.

In my own life, things will happen that make me uncomfortable, things I don’t want to happen. Just as Gracie at her young age did not understand cavities or pink eye, I don’t understand the things of God. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, His ways are higher than my ways. I don’t need to understand why these things are happening, but trust my Heavenly Father, stop striving and struggling against Him. I need to relax and lean back into his arms and give over my will to Him.

I want my daughter to know that I love her and that I’m not trying to hurt her, but to help her. In the same way, there are some things about our Heavenly Father that we should know so that we can trust Him and give over our will and die to our fleshly desires.

Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Psalm 118:1
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalm 117:2
For His merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 107:1
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 111:3
His work is honorable and glorious, And His righteousness endures forever.

Psalm 111:10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.

Hebrews 12:1-3
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.

Romans 8:28
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.