empty cupboards…

You were up late last night doing laundry.  You have a list of things to do, and continue adding to it. At some point they’ll be accomplished – either on lunch breaks or if a sitter comes over during nap-time, or some other unknown hour of opportunity.  The meal plan is half-written, but you’re not sure the budget will stretch.  Not to mention needing a few minutes to actually get grocery shopping done.  It’s fall, and in the midst of trick or treating, bonfires, and other activities – the family is drifting forward on auto-pilot.

Maybe you’re somewhere in the midst of these scenarios.  Perhaps worse, hopefully better.  But no matter where we are currently, we all have seasons where the needs and stresses of life add up to a point where we feel like we’re being worn incredibly thin.  In those moments, we see our children looking up to us and think “Do I have enough left to offer them?”

In Luke 11:5-6 we capture an entire story in one sentence.  Someone has come to your house in the middle of the night with a need.  You want to help them but realize you’re out of food also.  So you went with your friends’ need to a third house.  Verses 9 and 10 here are often quoted in reference to God giving us anything we need.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

But the verses aren’t talking about meeting our needs. They are talking about us coming to God, confessing that we have nothing to offer those we love. When we approach him on the behalf of those we want to love and support, He is faithful to respond.  These are very encouraging words to any parent who finds themselves wearing thin, feeling like they have very little left to offer at the end of the “to do list”.  As your child tugs at your hand, lift them into your arms.  Together, approach the throne of God and knock on the door of Jesus Christ.  We have his Word, that it will be given, we will find, and doors will be opened.

After all, they’re His children too…:)