Every year I pick a word to represent my year and that I want to learn and grow through. Last year I picked “dependence”. Thanks to the pandemic, it was really easy to look back and acknowledge that I had to depend on God a ton this last year. But this year (2021), I’m cheating and picking a phrase: “child of God”.
I Am A Child Of God
There’s a reason God created the family unit. There’s a reason God created this sort of life cycle being born as a baby and then growing up to later have your own kids.
God could’ve created life differently. He could’ve made all new living things smart and capable. I mean, a caterpillar doesn’t need any training from it’s parents to learn what to eat, how to fly, where to migrate, or how to reproduce.
Or what about horses, they know how to run the day they are born. And then there’s snakes, they are just as dangerous if not more dangerous than their parents from the day they are born.
However, he decided to make baby humans incapable, weak, and pretty stupid (though they get smarter) because he wanted us to understand something. He wanted us to know that we too are his children. And just as children need to learn from and depend on their parents, so we need to learn from and depend on God.
Why Did I Pick This Phrase?
God’s blessed me and my wife a ton this year. From giving us each other, to bringing us to Windsor, to providing a free car, and opening up the door to buy a townhouse, he’s given us so much. Now, I’ve been in this game of following Christ for a while, and I’ve recognized a few trends.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
I go through seasons of blessing and hardships. In 2020, God gave a lot, and in 2021, he might take away a lot. Why does this happen? I believe it’s because God wants to show me how much he cares for me and desires to fill me with joy. This way I have a strong foundation to trust God when I go through the hard seasons.
God’s built us up a lot emotionally, soon it will be time to build us up spiritually.
And when God starts asking us to do the hard things, I want to obey joyfully with the faith of a child.
We might not see this much on earth, but in theory, any child who has good parents and who absolutely trusts their parents to look out for them can joyfully obey their parents even when they ask them to give up something they love.
If I believe God is good and will do a far better job at taking care of my wife and I, then why would I hesitate?
The Faith of a Child
The only reason I’d hesitate is if I lack faith.
We make decisions based off of what seems smart or what makes sense to us. If God told you to sell your old and rickety car to accept a free new car, I’m sure you wouldn’t question God because it’s obviously a smart move. However, if God asked us to sell your new car to buy an old, rickety car, I’m guessing we’d fight him on this because it seems like a foolish decision.
But God isn’t foolish. He knows the future, he knows our hearts and he wants what’s best for us. However, this “best” might be poverty so we can build a stronger foundation on who he is.
This is where children are different. They have to trust and obey without understanding how it makes sense.
A Child’s Focus
Another thing I want to learn this year is how to keep my eyes off of others and instead fix them on God. Kid’s do crazy things and they don’t care who sees it. They do things because they love them, and they do things because it makes their parents happy.
Of course, kids do a lot of bad things too, but I want to learn the positive side of being a child, not the bad things, so I’ll ignore this fact.
Sometimes, I just want to run fast, climb things, and do parkour, but many see these things as childish. I don’t want to let man’s approval of me keep me from doing the things that make me come alive, which God’s set in my heart. By doing so, I glorify God because I’m expressing how he made me unique.
No matter how weird it might make me look, I want to focus on God and do what he’s calling me to. I don’t want to write, say, or do anything to earn man’s approval.
A Child of God
To summarize, the three things I want to learn this year and have be true about my next year are:
- I desire to learn how to joyfully follow God in the hard decisions even if it doesn’t make sense to me. Basically, I want to trust that the hard things are actually good things in disguise.
- Like a child, I want to be free from wondering what other’s might be thinking as I live out of who he made me to be.
- I want to be so focused on God that I follow His calling only to please him without any taint of adapting God’s calling to please others.
This is what I want to have sum up my next year. What about you? Please comment below what you believe God’s calling you to do this new year?
But, no matter what you plan to do this year, don’t forget to live wilder.
If you enjoyed this blog, check out my blog Take off Your Leash and Live Wild
And, if you have a hard time trusting God like this, I’d encourage you to check out my blog 5 Reasons Why You Can Trust God
