The Daily Blessing

It is my habit when tucking in our girls at night to say a prayer to end their day to prepare them for sleep. It is the daily blessing I give as a father to my girls. We have a routine to our prayer, we pray to bring honor to God and His name, we pray to grow in His knowledge and grace, we pray for various people, and for our family. Sometimes we pray for various issues in life that we are concerned about.

The night before last I sent the girls to bed and allowed them to watch some television until I could come to tuck them in bed to say the daily blessing. By the time I went into their room, Hannah, my middle child, had fallen fast asleep while Zoe was still awake. I said a prayer with Zoe, and then I said a prayer with Hannah, even though she was sound asleep. I became concerned about how Hannah was going to react if she woke up before sunrise in the morning because Hannah is a stickler for routine, and when a routine is broken she becomes very upset. I knew that if she woke up she was going to think that her daddy had forgotten to come say the daily blessing with her, and it brings me heartache to think that she would believe that I had forgotten her.

Later that night in the wee hours of the early morning, sure enough Hannah woke up and she quietly opened and shut the door to the bedroom and came quietly to find a sleepy daddy to see why I had not said the nighttime prayer with her. Hannah spoke to me in her broken toddler-like English which actually tends to sound more like Chinese at times. I was tired and sleepy so I really did not understand the words she was speaking to me, but I did know what she was trying to communicate to me because I know my girls and have done my best to study them. When you live with someone for a time you get to know them, their habits, the way they think, their personality. I knew Hannah was asking me why I had not come to say the night-night prayer with her.

I got up out of bed and we went back to her bedroom. She was very pleased when I got up. She headed right back to her bed and crawled up in bed in the manner that only Hannah does. I gave her, her three blankets. She wrapped two of them around her body like a cape and then tucked them completely around her so that she looked like a “pig-in-a-blanket.” (A pig-in-a-blanket is a food item in which a hot dog or small sausage like food is wrapped in bread dough and cooked till done) I laid the last blanket on top of her and then tucked her under her comforter. I proceeded with the daily blessing again, except this time she was awake and conscious of my blessing, then she chirped, hummed, and make bird-like noises which are signs that she is pleased and content. I also kissed her on her head. She was going to sleep again knowing now that her daddy had now officially fulfilled the daily blessing duty in her mind. I returned to my bed. I too now could sleep peacefully and happily as I smiled knowing that her heart was satisfied and secured by the daily blessing and the love of a daddy who met her spiritual needs. I felt fulfilled as a man and a father, as if I had just completed a task for which God had assigned for and created me to do.

Hannah is about 2 ½ years old and Zoe is almost 5 ½ years old. My, oh my, how time does fly!

What Motivates Me - Part 2

I wanted to talk more about why love motivates me when life gets difficult and hard. I don’t always communicate my heart clearly or in accurate words and terms, so with God’s grace and help I hope to turn my lemon into some delicious lemonade.

It is so easy to love when life is easy, pleasant, and fun just like a Walt Disney theme park or like a fairy tale when the “good” characters live happily ever after. The reality is that life is trouble from the day we are born till the day we die and not everyone gets to experience a golden life or have happiness in their life. Hence the founding fathers of America called it the “pursuit of happiness.”

My best friend, Kevin, used to tell me what his dad used to tell him and that is when life gives you a bunch of lemons then you make lemonade. I used to carry a bunch of lemons around in my life that I was unable to turn into lemonade because ultimately it was and is beyond my own power to make the lemonade. An example of this is losing someone you love either to death or by separation.

I can see lemons in my own kids’ lives, especially when they are little and have no concept of time yet like when I drop them off at daycare and have to go to work. In their little world they do not understand that when I leave them with the intention of only a temporary separation all they understand is that they do not know if they will ever see me again so they begin to cry and mourn for me. Just being separated from the ones they love and who bring them security is too much for them to bear.

The fact is that life’s lemons come in all shapes and sizes. Lemons can be just the same monotonous experience day after day such as going to work or living the same routine every day. Lemons can be a small as stubbing your toe or getting a paper cut or as large as experiencing a car wreck, enduring a hurricane, a job loss, or the loss of your home. Lemons can be experiencing a sickness or becoming poor. Lemons can come from the ones you love as well as from your enemies; they can be unintentional as well as intentional. Lemons can even come from yourself, such as your own weaknesses, limitations, and character flaws. Lemons can test your endurance, your patience, your very character. Lemons are trials and tribulations.

I believe that God allows lemons in our life so that we can learn to make lemonade. It is part of my faith that God has been trying to teach us to make lemonade from lemons from the very beginning of creation, and the ultimate example God has given to us is of Him becoming a man in order to show us the way to make lemonade out of all the lemons in life. In the end Jesus shows us that God is ultimately responsible for turning the ultimate lemons of evil, pain, suffering, and death into lemonade through the victory of Jesus’ righteous and pure life culminating ultimately in His resurrection into a new and glorious immortal life.

I’m not sure that I have clearly communicated such a difficult and painful subject on life’s lemons, but I have given it my best shot. In the end being able to endure lemons in life relies upon faith in God who has not just told us the way, but has lived through the lemons in life so that we could follow Him and one day taste the sweet lemonade of victory!

If you want to know why I am a Christian, then this is one of the main reasons why. No other religion, faith, or worldview that I know shows the way to make lemonade out of all life’s lemons and has such a guarantee of obtaining the sweet fruits of victory!