Devotion 375 - Responsabilities

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Acts 1:8

Sometimes the most meaningful conversations we have as a family are in our car.  Our family of six is often five as our eldest finds his way through college.  Brian and I sit in the front seats and behind us sit our three youngest treasures. 

For a few moments I have no computer, no phone and we dive into each other’s day.  We talk about school and friendships and homework.  My youngest will invariably announce a new skill she has mastered in kindergarten.   She will count by fives or recite her phonics and we will all applaud and praise her. 

Our next child, Lily is a short six years older than her sister;  Beau two years Lily’s senior.  It is never lost on me that while we applaud one child, we are often warning the two others.  We ask about studies and chores.  

As children add years, they inherit obligations; as the obligations grow so do the expectations of their parents.  It is often a delicate dance; the parent leading, the child learning.

My youngest has caught onto this trend.  As we drove along, she heard me scold her siblings for some undone something and stopped me,  “Mama,” she announced, “I am responsibility.  And because I am responsibility, I will take care of Lily and Beau.” It is possible she has the moxie for this task, but I digress.

Ava has a fairly significant speech delay, yet she is never slow to speak.  Rather, we are very often slow to understand.  We spend a considerable amount of time each week on speech therapy.  

I know without a shadow of a doubt one day Ava will speak clearly but for now we adapt; we lean in and we learn Ava’s vocabulary. Ava does not use the word responsible, but responsibility.  She repeats over and over again, “I am responsibility.”

To her this is the sweet nectar of the soul.  She who now rarely rides in a stroller; she who can express her wants and desires; she who is learning to read and write walks as if she owns the world.  She craves and covets responsibility and we applaud.

Somewhere in the years after kindergarten, we forget that responsibilities are an extraordinary gift from God.

We are given time, talents, relationships, environs with which we are to bring God glory.  Yet often our response to these gifts is nothing short of weariness and anxiety.

I believe with my whole heart God hands us our responsibilities to see exactly how we will respond to our abilities.

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” Luke 12:48. 

We can hardly read a Christian author today who doesn’t encourage us to seize our gifting, yet we wax poetic waiting for the billboard, the sign, the cloud pointing us to His intended destination.

Dear one, I just don’t think it’s this hard. I believe every single thing we need to know about life begins in kindergarten.

We begin to read His word.  We begin to discover our passions.  We begin to learn how to make friends and tie our shoes.  We learn when we find our groove, parents and teachers applaud.

In the economy of the Savior, when we respond to our abilities, when we thank and praise Him, when we point others to His glory, He smiles.  He doesn't expect perfect, just simple trust and He brings something beautiful out of the obedience.

We can look at our to-do list and despise, or we can pull in and listen and hear His heart beating in the orchestra of what He has ordained for our lives.

You see the music He creates, the children He lends, the love He authors, the talents He enables us with; they all are our responsibility and they all should be our joy, not our frustration.

Listen; your abilities are playing loud. 

Respond.