“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
It was Friday morning. Kadynce woke up with a sore throat and a slight fever. Sweet girl is so prone to Strep throat that we immediately took her to the Dr. just to be sure that wasn’t what we were dealing with. The test was negative. As a reward for resisting the urge to punch the nurse in the throat (you know you’ve been tempted, too) it was her pick for lunch. Chilis. She is indeed her mother’s daughter. Don’t tell anyone, but secretly I love it too. She was eating her Chicken Enchilada Soup at her normal slower than slow pace, when she looked up at me and asked a question that has continued to replay in my mind for over a week now. “Mommy, why do you just hand the waiter your credit card? Couldn’t they take all of our money? Why do you trust them when you don’t even know them?”
Mic Drop. My precious girl just summed up so much of the culture we are living in with just a few questions. It hurt my heart. When I was 8 years old I wouldn’t have even considered someone stealing our money just like that. Sure, maybe I was a little naive, but I think more than anything it is a sign of the times and that realization was nothing short of heartbreaking to me. So right there in the middle of Chilis we had one of the most important conversations I have had with my Kadynce in her short 8 years of life. Her questions immediately struck a cord with me because I believe that so much of not being able to trust people is driven by fear. I have lived much of my life as a prisoner to this fear. That’s exactly what fear does. It puts you in chains. It makes you a slave. It prevents you from living a life of freedom in Christ. The life that we are given when we are adopted as sons and daughters into the family of God. The Bible has so much to say about fear, but one of my favorite verses is Romans 8:15 “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” Those that have the Holy Spirit living inside of them are not to live in fear! We are to put our trust in God, our good Father.
Really when it comes down to it, everything we have is His anyway. Without His grace, His kindness, His mercy, and His love we would have nothing. I like to think of it this way. I am placing whatever it is... my money, my house, goodness as hard as it is to say even my husband and my children in the palm of my hand. I then picture myself holding my hand out and saying “It’s yours, Lord. It’s all yours and I trust you with every single thing.” I wish I could say I live this out each and every day, but I am sinful and it is a constant battle to remind myself of Who’s I truly am. This is the message I want my girls to see, though. I don’t want them seeing their mommy living in fear. I want them to see me living a life of freedom because that’s why Jesus’ blood was spilled on the cross. If we go back to Romans 8, verses 1and 2 say... “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
Friends, we are free! We can and should live in that freedom! Let’s show our kids what it looks like not to live in the bondage of fear, but in the freedom of Christ!
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