Worshipping a Forever-Loving God

Home with a sick kid today, so we can't go to church to worship God. Thankfully, His Spirit is in my heart and I'm not without Him.

I have a life of experience with broken families because of broken relationships. My grandmother married several times. I and then my sister were born to an unwed mother. She married my step-dad and had two more children after my sister and I. I bore my first son before I was married, then married that man and was shortly after divorced.

But that's not what this blogpost is about.

This morning, reading in the Jesus Storybook Bible (written by Sally Lloyd-Jones) I was struck by the truth that God doesn't always choose those people whose lives exemplify purity and perfection. The only life like that was Jesus' life.
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So, I'm reading about Leah in "The girl no one wanted" from Genesis 29-30. "Now when Leah knew that God loved her, in her heart, suddenly it didn't matter anymore whether her husband loved her the best, or if she was the prettiest. Someone had chosen her, Someone did love her- with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love...
You see, when God looked at Leah, he saw a princess. And sure enough, that's exactly what she became. One of Leah's children's children's children would be a prince- the Prince of Heaven- God's son...
This Prince would love God's people. They wouldn't need to be beautiful for him to love them. He would love them with all of his heart. And they would be beautiful because he loved them.
Like Leah."
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I think we miss this aspect when we teach our children purity. This aspect that yes, we want to love God with all our hearts and we want to be faithful with our hearts, minds and bodies. And recognizing that it is grace alone that saves us, grace also keeps us pure. Also, though we want to do these things, these things are not what make us beautiful to him. They're not what make us saved. There are those people that do make wrong choices, and our children could be the people on the other end of those bad choices. Leah, for one was used by her father to deceive Jacob. Then she had to be married to Jacob, a man who loved her sister better. But God loved her. He saw her. And He had purpose for her. We have to pray for our children, meditating on scripture that promises that His Love matters most. It's the only Lasting Love. Then we have to live in front of our children like we believe that. Not trying to control every relationship, but at the appropriate age, after we've trained in righteousness, letting our children go to live a life covered by grace.