Ever feel like you were just furniture? Just part of your home that’s always there; to dump the dirty clothes on, hide the three pair of shoes under, allow the dirty utensils to slide under a cushion?
Ever, feel like that?
Huh? ……What?
You parents out there, know what I mean!
1par·ent
noun \ˈper-ənt\
: a person who is a father or mother : a person who has a child
: an animal or plant that produces a young animal or plant
(I think this second one refers to what I am raising………….animals!)
: something out of which another thing has developed
~Webster’s Dictionary
OR an appliance in the house, that provides all the creature comforts for children.
I’ve been feeling like that for a long time……oh don’t get me wrong I’m not bitter……….. I want the best for my kids, but……. they don’t seem to care?
They use me and my most incredibly loving wife as if we were………. Furniture.
Sometimes I feel like the TV, displaying:
“This is a test, this is only a test, from the Emergency Broadcasting System.”
~ Emergency Broadcast System
Remember those? You know the ones nobody ever paid attention to.
Yep, ………….. I feel like that too.
Parents, …….. what exactly are we? We are the producers of all things our children need. We are not seen and unheard. We are the great giver, in the 1st room to the right, up the stairs, of all good things. The ones with the Almighty plastic card that magically buys children stuff. We are the disher outer, of discipline, ………unwarranted injustices delivered upon the children. Never deserved.
“You’re so mean! Why are you always mad at me? You never let me have any fun! You don’t trust me, what did I ever do to deserve this?!?!?”
~Hypothetical child
My wife and I often say………… Being a parent _________(fill in the blank), …………….well never mind, because it’s not true. We wouldn’t change a thing, except our children’s hearts, and only sometimes, but we can’t. Yes they are wonderful now and then………………. yet………..
I feel like furniture.
You can lead a child to the truth but you can’t make it drink!
Do you suppose, God feels this way with His children?
Well I woke up with a stiff-neck this past weekend, and I wonder if it’s due to stresses brought on by my children.
God has an interesting description for His children’s stubbornness, I wonder if it refers to what He get’s when dealing with them?
“You stiff–necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.” ~Acts 7:51
“And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.” ~ Exodus 32:9
Dear Lord! I know how you feel………..
I have wonderful children, and they have chosen to be Baptized and to declare before others their faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ! I love them, and want the best for them, and try to share my hard learned wisdom with them………BUT……..
It’s like speaking to a Brick Wall!!!!!!!!!!!
I can lay it out ohh so very neatly….. right in front of them….. for them to see….. and………
Nothing!……. Absolutely Nothing.
Then again I did, ……….no doubt ……..the same to my parents.
We try and try to save our children from the ills this world has to offer. Unfortunately, I really truly believe, that for one to appreciate ones parents, they have to go through there own storm…………………
…………………….baptism by HURRICANE………….parenting themselves!
Then the kids’ll understand, then they’ll know. They’ll get it. In fact, they’ll even start saying things we used to say to them,…. to their children.
Such as;
“When I was your age…..”
OR
“you want me to give you a reason to cry?”
OR
“Stop touching your sister”
OR… Better Yet
“This hurts me more than it hurts you.”
~ Thee Bloomin Idiot (over the last 23 years)
They’ll scheme like we did…… when they were kids. They’ll pray, hoping their kids will get it, that they’ll understand it. They’ll feel like furniture, or a super deluxe home appliance! But they will understand!
I understand!
“Mom! ……………Dad!………… Please forgive me, for I knew not what I did!” ~ Thee Bloomin Idiot (just now)
Just as it is for us, in order to understand the woe and misery of parenting,………..we must face it ourselves, and so must our children.
I sort of feel that faith in our “Love seat, leather sectional, furniture store, God” is exactly like that!
We experience God as, mere parental furniture. That is until we get it! Really get it.
How does someone understand Forgiveness, mercy, grace, divine love, until……………. We actually believe we need it?
Thank God for my parents, who instilled in me a foundation of faith, that at a critical point after thirty five years of age, gave birth to a real understanding of what it means to be forgiven. A real understanding of How in need of mercy I was. A desperate reality, knowing how I didn’t deserve anything, but justice. Yet, freely was offered and accepted Christ’s unmerited grace. That at my lowest of lows I actually could feel God hug me with, an over-sized bean bag chair type of, Divine Love!
I needed it. I really did. All along! Not just….. at that moment,…….. but all the time. I just denied it, or didn’t see how my thoughts, actions, and worldly view were leading me to my own destruction. I knew all the stuff I know now, but I couldn’t see how or why I needed to love Jesus.
“I mean…… come on……. that sounds kinda strange. How am I….. ah …… supposed to love a guy named Jesus like they say I should? ” ~Thee Bloomin Idiot (at fifteen)
It took my messed up life to figure it out. I wish it hadn’t, but it did. It may take my messed up kids life, or some twisting upside down world event for my kids to figure it out, I pray it doesn’t, but it very well may.
And so that brings me to my thought on all this………. is that what is needed? …….Being messed up……… I think ……..Absolutely!
Perhaps each of us has a different threshold of messed uppedness (made up word), till we get to that place of comprehension. However, I think we all need to grasp our need, before we can accept our need.
Are you a patient parent? I’m learning to be. But if you ask my kids they have seen a whole lot of impatience. I hate having to discipline them, but it comes from a heart for them………. filled with love!
…..and understanding! Yes……. understanding.
God understands us. He has been where we are, and where we fail he has triumphed. Oh, but he understands the temptations this world has to offer.
Because of His victory we can overcome our sinful failures. Because He paid the price for us.
“Listen, please listen children. Oh that I could take my children in my arms and spare them the pain they will foist upon themselves.” ~Thee Bloomin Idiot (each time I speak to my brick walls)
Christ said this didn’t He…..
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” ~ Luke 13:34
He did, and He does and He will, for He is loving and patient.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” ~2 Peter 3:9
So …….. if I’m furniture in my children’s life,……… I will be patient furniture. I will continue to share my, brick wall busting, commentaries on life. I will never give up on them, and always lift them up in prayer……. my Father in Heaven did that for me.
Ponder this as you stare into the black hole that is your childs mind (upon revealing truth):
Being furniture…………. it may be difficult, but how often is God furniture in your life? Is He now?
If one of my kids was reading this…….. I’d tell them God is always there. He’s just waiting for you to reach out for Him. He doesn’t stop life from happening, but He makes a way through it. Just look for the way. It’s usually the roundabout way. You’ve got to look for it. It gets you through, but it’s not the way you would go, left to your own devices..
God’s not furniture, but if He was……. He’d be a Love Seat for those who trust Him enough to rest on (in) Him.
Since He does that for us….. do it for your kids too!
Thee Bloomin Idiot 