Wednesday October 20, 2010

Speaker: Rick Enloe

Theme: The Kid Factor

Weekend Music links on iTunes: Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) - Paul Baloche, God Is With Us - Michael Olson, Cannons - Phil Wickham, Lead Me to the Cross - Hillsong

Read: Ephesians 6:1-3, Ruth 1:1-7, Ruth 4:13-17

Think: This Sunday we heard from guest speaker Rick Enloe. Continuing the series ‘I want a new marriage’ this week we looked at ‘the kid (or no kid) factor’. Rick said that when life unfolds, reality profoundly impacts our dreams and expectations. 

I have a number of friends who are pregnant at the moment and for women it is a time when dreams of the future are forefront in their minds. It starts with a due date, which babies seem unaware of. It continues with an easy, beautiful birth…well anyone who has had a baby can tell you those births are few and far between as wonderful as it is to meet the baby. The largest dream however seems to be that their baby will be perfect sleeping through from a few weeks old.  Having worked nights I knew tired but I was not really aware of how bone tired you can really be until my 11month old slept through for the first time. Months of waking each night left me exhausted and emotional. Reality had impacted my dreams in so many ways!!

We are often faced with a choice to adapt our dreams or give up. Naomi had big dreams for her marriage and was blessed to have two sons but when reality hit her dreams she was left penniless, far from home and with two daughters (not ideal in those times sadly) She adapted her dream she didn’t give up but  went home and with her daughter Ruth she rebuilt a family for herself. Not what she had planned but now her grandchild was to be an ancestor of Jesus! 

Relationships are often like this, the world throws things at us that aren’t in our plan and we have to work around them. It is often the working through difficulties and holding on to what we know God wants for our life that helps us value the outcome so much more. 

Do: Think back on dreams you may have had in the past and how life has affected them. Can you see how those changes have shaped your life to make it what it now is and the benefits from them? Even hard times give us opportunities. If you are struggling with a reality hitting your dreams in a relationship or part of your life right now reach out to someone to pray with you and support you as you adapt and push forward. God put us in community to support each other which means one supports while the other gives them that opportunity. Perhaps you are in a place after you have adapted, can you reach out to someone else who is ‘fighting through’ right now? 

Pray: Lord thank you that you are with us as we cope with the changes to our plans that reality throws at us. Thankyou that you understand how hard it is when our dreams do not come to be as we would hope they would. Please bless those of us who are undergoing a struggle with the impact of reality and guide those of us who can help and support them knowing that at some point it may be us. Amen 

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.

4505 236th Ave. NE • Redmond, WA 98053 • 425-869-4400 • info@timberlakeonline.org