Pride in family

“That’s my grandson,” my husband said with so much pride and affection I could immediately picture God the Father saying that about each of His children.

We received a huge unexpected blessing and found very inexpensive tickets on a new airline that allowed both of us, and two pieces of luggage to travel to Florida for $236 TOTAL. I’m telling you, if you’ve checked flight prices lately, it can easily be $600 one way, one person, and that doesn’t include luggage!

See why I say it was a blessing from God?

It was a very quick trip —  just four days with two of our boys and six of the grands, but we made every moment count. 

The first half of the trip we spent in Winter Haven where one son lives and he was given tickets for us to go to LegoLand with his family. Always a good time at LegoLand. My mother in law visited Cypress Gardens as a senior in high school when the water ski shows were a big deal. That’s all a part of LegoLand now, and the flowers are still beautiful. The water ski shows are still a very big deal, and exceptional athletes perform all kinds of jumps, tricks and provide excitement to the theme of pirates and Lego characters.

Then the boys traded us off to the son who lives in Orlando. I got to ride a bike to join the kids after school for the ride to the house. That night we attended a fast pitch girls softball game and our granddaughter did well and watched a practice for one of the boys.

The next night we watched our oldest grandson’s game. He is a left handed pitcher, catcher and very good! (I’ve got pictures to back up those words!) These 10-12 year old boys really play ball!

A young man was talking to my husband and told him he was good friends with the pitcher. That’s when my husband admitted with such pride and love, “That’s my grandson.”

Now, I know what our parents felt like when they had to be away from our boys —  their grandsons because of ministry. It hurts. There’s a hole in your heart. But when God does arrange time together —  it’s so precious. 

My devotion today mentioned the phrase, “The discipline of loneliness.” He was speaking of the time when King David returned to Ziklag and all of the women, children and livestock had been kidnapped. David experienced extreme loneliness —  at the same time his men were trying to find someone to blame and David was the perfect person for that.

David had to come to terms with the fact, there are times when only God can fill a void, a hurt, a loss. A spouse, best friend, or a grown child just doesn’t fill the gap. No one understands like God does.

And when we remember He looks at us with such pride, admiration, love, and says, “That’s my child,” and then adds your name. It’s an awesome feeling. There’s no condemnation or judgement in His voice for His children. He knows our name, our weaknesses and our sins.  But the nice thing about forgiving our sins, the Bible says He forgets those sins when we ask for forgiveness. So since we are habitual sinners, He doesn’t remember them. We are forgiven … again. I don’t think we should be trying to sin every day, but it is in our nature, and we have to work very, very hard to stay away from that sin nature.

There are so many perks to becoming a child of His. Just like the days we spent in Florida, having our kids love on us, and we on them. I don’t take events like that for granted. God provided that time away and the activities we enjoyed with our family —  and I’m extremely grateful!

But the biggest perk of all, is the fact we get to spend eternity in a perfect place, without tears, pain or hardships. We get to be with Jesus and thank Him for giving His life in our place. We will never be able to thank Him enough, but it will be a fun time trying. 

The opposite of that for eternity is waiting for anyone who doesn’t want to accept the gift Jesus provided. It’s not pleasant to consider, but picture a place so crowded you can’t breath. So hot and uncomfortable and sheer torture and pain from burning flesh —  that will never stop. Hell was not created for humans. But that’s the future for those who don’t believe in God and accept His free gift of salvation.

I’d rather be wrapped in the arms of Jesus with all the fun and excitement He has planned for eternity. I proudly say, “That’s my Heavenly Father!” Visit truelife.org or give me a call if you are ready to learn more about being God’s child.