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On my birthday several years ago, Tommy had the above picture by Mary Engelbreit matted and framed for me. It is now hanging in our den. Merry Katherine absolutely loved her daddy's characterization of me. She spent those first eight years watching how her daddy loved, nurtured...okay, even catered to me.
So when she and I were out walking one day, I went against my better judgment and shared a frustration I had at the time over Tommy with my dear sweet child. It was an overly sensitive remark questioning why he would love somebody like me, and my fears that haunt me every now and then that I might lose him to somebody else... In her child-like innocence, I will never forget as she exclaimed the sweet truth from her child's perspective, just after he had given me the above matted picture of "Princess-Of-Quite-A-Lot,"
But Mommy, Daddy loves you! Daddy's the Monk-sey!
{Note the monkey in the picture!} (Monk-sey was our pet name for monkey as this was how my children pronounced the word when they were wee little ones!)
Her words penetrated my silly paranoia and changed my outlook as I remembered the many, many ways her daddy, my Tommy, poured out his love for me on a daily basis.
Her sweet little eight-year-old paradigm shift for her mommy!
What a present to Mommy from her sweet little-girl heart!【ツ】
*****
So, now...bringing us up to the here-and-now, I will share with you the ponderings of this "Princess of Quite-a-Lot"!
Lately, it's been impressed upon me to actually get on my knees at night and pray. Jesus taught us to pray as He did in "The Lord's Prayer." So I often start with His prayer.
But first...a caveat...
Steeped in this pampered, spoiled, Western "me-me-me" culture as we are, it is easy to forget that WE are not the center of the universe.
Therefore it comes as a shock when I say the words,
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
HE is to be revered;
HE is to be hallowed/held sacred, as
HE is worthy of our reverent awe and holy fear.
HE is the Awesome One, NOT me!
His words continue to startle me...
Thy Kingdom come,
NOT MY Kingdom come but THY Kingdom come!
Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
This usually brings tears because of my prayer said to Him in agony over my child.
His will is so much larger and higher than my will. His "telescopic will" (that takes EVERYTHING into account through the lens of HIS KINGDOM) I am sure will often clash with my "microscopic will" myopic, if you will.
And I must remember as I hallow Him ☛ HE is GOD, I am NOT.
Know ye that the Lord, He is God.
It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves.
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture...
~Psalm 100:3
I must die to myself, and my limited view and trust His heart of love as He carries out His greater view.
Give us this day our daily bread.
This suggests a daily dependence on Him, not a well-mapped-out plan that details our future for us.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
(even those little "twit" Pharisees that I wrote about on a recent Wednesday's Woe? I'll write more on that later...)
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory,
(NOT MY KINGDOM, MY POWER, nor MY GLORY)
forever and ever. Amen.
What a perspective-changer!
What a paradigm shift to this egocentric-leaning "Princess-of-Quite-A-Lot" as artist Mary Engelbreit might call a person like me...
As much as God loves me (to give up His only Son to pay for my eternal life with Him~John 3:16), I am not the center of the Universe–He is, yet I get to be a part of His amazing Kingdom!
"What is man that You are mindful of him,
the Son of Man that you care for Him?
You made Him a little lower than the angels;
you crowned Him with glory and honor
and put everything under His feet."
In putting everything under Him, God left nothing that is not subject to Him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to Him.
~Hebrews 2:6-8, quoting Psalm 8:4-6
God in Heaven,
We long for the day when all is subject to Your Son, when all of Your creation who is longing for Your full redemption from bondage, to be freed up to be who You designed us to be before Satan, sin and death invaded Your world.
Meanwhile we know that You still take the evil that Satan unleashes on us and our children, and You turn even that horrid evil into an avenue of blessing to our children and to us that will be restored to us in Heaven.
Thank You.
In Jesus' precious name I pray,
Amen.
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