How Do You Know?

I had one of my children ask me the other day, "How do you know there really is a God?"

I tried to explain to him that I had "seen" God.  Seen him in his answers to my prayers, seen him in Creation, seen him in the works He's done in my life....  Not much of this was sinking in to Dear Child, as he was in a funk/rage at the time.

Then it occurred to me, I knew God was real every time my child threw a massive fit and I responded kindly.  When I've been spat upon and looked lovingly back.  When I've been kicked and not struck back, but instead offered loving kind words.  I know God is real because I am not capable of doing those things!  I am a short-tempered, impatient, self-centered person, by nature.  I am.  I'm not being self-depricating, I'm telling the truth.

Every time I respond lovingly to unjustified abuse, that's Jesus living in and through me.  I SEE him, and it occurred to me, that is how my child will learn to SEE him.  So, every one of these fits we endure, every outburst of anger/fear on my child's part, is an OPPORTUNITY for God to make himself real to my child.

It hit me right in the chest, that my resentment over these outbursts should be changed to thankfulness because each one represents an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus to my child.

I wish I succeeded more than I fail at this, but it's hard.  I'm human.

As the late Rich Mullins sang, "It's hard to turn the other cheek, hard to bless when others curse you, oh, it's hard to be a man of peace, oh it's hard, so hard, hard to be like Jesus."

Truly, that I succeed EVER is, quite literally, divine intervention!