Do We Really Want His Job?

(8/25/11)

The last couple of days have been a little rough.  Parents, you know what I’m talking about… the looks from your children that say, “You’re never right so you must be stupid”… the whining and complaining simply because you woke them up in the morning… the fighting against every decision that you make.  I know I’ve thought more than once, “I don’t remember seeing this anywhere in the contract.  It must have been in the fine print because this is not what I signed up for when I decided to have children.” 

After battling with my daughter one more time this morning and finally getting her off to school, I decided to have a little gripe session of my own.  I took a drive in my car, all the while crying, whining, and moaning the phrase, “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.  God, I feel so unappreciated.”  Now, do we do all that we do as parents for the praise?  No… but a ‘thank you’ every once in a while would be nice, wouldn’t it?  Our children have no idea how much work it takes to try and make their lives run smoothly.  It’s a full time job, and most of us are worn out at the end of the day.  Think about this… if it takes all that we have as human beings to take care of our children, how much more does it take for God to take care of billions every day?  How often do we whine to Him when we don’t get our way?  How often do we look up with an expression that says, “What were you thinking, God?”  How often do we fight Him on His decisions for our lives?  It probably happens a lot more than we’d like to admit.  Here’s the good part, though.  God doesn’t get worn out.  He doesn’t feel like He can’t take it anymore.  He doesn’t ever think that we are more than He can handle.  He just continues to care for us and love us, all the while taking whatever abuse we may happen to throw His way.  And just like we, as parents, deserve a little more respect from our children; doesn’t God deserve a little more respect from us?  So here’s my thought of the day for each of us: the next time we want to complain about what God seemingly is (or isn’t) doing in our lives, let’s ask ourselves the question, “Would I really want His job?”  When we inevitably answer that question with a resounding, “NO!”, we can then thank Him and praise Him for being with us no matter what (Joshua 1:5) and working all things out for our good (Romans 8:28).