Mom Seriously: Hoping You Get Caught!

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One of the best things about the Pure In Heart Conference is that I get to serve alongside my daughter Danya. We make a pretty good team! A few years ago, Danya served as a contributing author for the Bible study I wrote on the book of Ruth: Get Real! Embrace the Reality of Ruth. Today I'm sharing an excerpt she wrote for Get Real! (This was written when she was 15 years old.)

Caught
Have you ever broken something made of glass? Glass is strong, but once something hits it, it shatters into a million pieces. I dropped a glass cup once while unloading the dishwasher, and it broke into several pieces. Now, imagine a glass jar sitting on top of a refrigerator, filled to the brim with
pennies.

When I was around six years old, my brothers and I were sitting around the table while Mom was making breakfast. She got something out of the refrigerator, shut the door, took two steps, and the glass jar fell off the top. We all braced ourselves for the shatter…but it never came. The jar landed upside-down on the edge of the counter next to the refrigerator. Not one penny had spilled out of it. Mom carefully picked it up and set it in a safer place. She said she thought God caught that jar and set it down.

As a six-year-old, I completely believed that God had caught the jar. As a fifteen-year-old, I still believe God caught the jar. But it has a much bigger impact on me now than it did then. As I think about what a dangerous position the jar was in, full of things that would make it fall faster, I think about Tamar… Rahab… Ruth… They were all in dangerous positions. Tamar let herself become a prostitute; Rahab made a living being a prostitute. Ruth was living in a heathen nation, surrounded by sin. Their lives were full of things that would make them fall faster. But each one of these women found God.

I was talking with one of my friends recently, and as we talked, I wanted to cry. She told me about a lot of things that had happened to her. She had done just about everything you could do. Her purity had been compromised, she had tried drinking, she had been involved with drugs, and she had attempted suicide. In real life, sometimes these stories don’t have happy endings. She’s still lost. She’s still struggling, and she’s still fighting God. She’s falling. But I completely believe God can catch her.

As I view my life, I wonder if, during those precious few hours I get to see my friend at church, I’m being a reflection of Jesus. I wonder if I’m being the friend I need to be. I wonder if I love her the way Jesus would love her. Is my reputation like Christ’s?

I pray that I am mirroring my Savior with my life, that I’m not just putting on a hypocritical show. I pray that I am producing the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I pray I look like the Vine. I also pray that the fruit of the Vine would spread rapidly throughout my life and the lives of others, changing the way people think and act.

In John 15, Jesus said, “You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.”

If we are not of this world, why do we try so hard to fit in? Why do we run after the latest fashions and pleasures the world offers? For Christians, this life is the prelude to eternity! God has caught us! There is so much more to come. It’s time to step up and be who we were meant to be.

Get Real! Embrace the Reality of Ruth ©2007 by Rebecca Ingram Powell. All rights reserved. May not be used without permission.

Would you please be praying for us as we minister to girls this weekend? Pray they will understand the freedom that comes from knowing they will be "caught" when they learn to let go--of what the world expects, of what they wish they were, of what their friends think they are--and fall into the open arms of our Savior.