The Rainbow

Growing up in a Christian household I heard the story of the very first rainbow from a very early age and God's promise to never flood the whole earth again! If you aren't familiar with this story you can read it in the Bible Genesis 6v9 - 9v17.

The beautiful rainbow pictured above was taken on our wedding day. Many couples dream of a beautiful rain-free day, and that didn't happen for us! Getting married in March in UK we knew we were taking a huge risk, but, despite the weather our day was perfect. I wouldn't change it for anything, and I am so thankful for this rainbow! Without the rain we wouldn't have had the beautiful rainbow pictured above, and I wouldn't have the reminder every time I see a rainbow now of the way that God will see us through. I feel like I've stalled a bit with blog posts recently, but, today I prayed and decided to stop thinking about it. I'll just share what comes to mind that day so here I am! Today's Devotional was Deuteronomy 1 v 19-36. That passage in verses 30-31 where it says "Be not afraid, neither fear them; Jehovah your God who goeth before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the wilderness where thou hast seen that Jehovah thy God bore thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came to this place." and in verse 36 where it says "Except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed Jehovah." really struck a note with me.

So, I prayed and it came to me about the rainbow on our wedding day and all that God has seen us through since 2010. The way that through the trials I have proved His faithfulness and now as I bring up my children I can depend on Him and give thanks that He is able. My husband and I are not alone on this parenting journey, if we were, we would fail, but it's all in the hands of the One who is able! And if you know and trust the Lord you are not alone either. Here are some scriptures I find comfort in:

Matthew 19v14 "But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven" The little children are precious to Jesus; He is God and therefore does not fail like we do as humans. We know how precious our little ones are to us, yet as humans we so often fail them, despite our best intentions. But we can commit them, and ourselves as parents, in to the hand of the one who does not fail, how much more precious they are to Him than even to us!

Proverbs 22 v 6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

I was talking to a neighbour recently, who is now a grandmother of married adults; she said "with parenting you need to have an end goal for your children, the road they take to get there may be wide but keep working for the goal and you'll all get there in the end". This reminded me of the scripture I quoted above. I thought of all the options for my children after this conversation and after contemplating everything, I came to it that really my priority as a mother is to teach them about Jesus and His way. If they have a solid, living link with Jesus from an early age, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, there is nothing I can give them in life that will equal that in value! So, I pray for their preservation, that they may come to know Him early, have a living link with Him and learn to depend upon Him. I pray for guidance for myself as a mother that I may be available for God to use me as He needs, I pray for this for my husband also as he leads our household and I pray for my whole household to be founded more and more firmly on Him and that we may all be preserved together so we can be a testimony of Him.

It doesn't matter how much we care for our health, we don't know how long we will be in our children's lives or how long we will have with our children, this is all in God's hands, so how am I using the time that I have? If my children come to know Jesus and trust and depend upon Him for themselves; their education, their career choices, their financial situation, their family, their health, EVERYTHING, is in good hands and I can have peace! John 14 v 6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." This scripture just reiterates the importance of knowing Jesus and depending on Him. So I give thanks for the rain on our wedding day that allowed us to see the beautiful rainbow pictured above; I give thanks that every time I see a rainbow I can tell my children the story of the first rainbow and God's promise; and, I give thanks for the promise that He will see us through no matter what life throws at us, we just have to depend on Him in all things! There's a hymn that I enjoyed as a child and we still sing today:

1. Jesus lingers still, 'tis for you He waits, And He's waited for you long;

He waits that heav'n, with its fadeless joy,

May yet to you belong.

Chorus: Come and welcome, welcome whosoever will,

'Tis the Saviour's gracious call;

He is able, willing, waiting now to save;

Simply trust Him, that is all.

2. Though your wayward feet have wandered far,

And you're deeply sunk in sin,

Yet in patient grace now the Saviour waits

Your weary heart to win.

3. Though His gracious call you have oft refused,

And He's sought your trust in vain,

Yet with love unchanged by cold neglect

He is seeking you again.

4. O surrender now, yield to love divine,

Jesus lingers for you still;

While in grace He says, "Come unto Me,"

Let your answer be, I will!

In this final picture I'm sharing, here is my husband and I on our wedding day singing in the rain; we didn't know what was going to be ahead of us, but, I now want this displayed in my home with a caption "Don't stop singing in the rain, He is able to do far exceedingly above all that we ask or think!"

Ephesians 3 v 13-21- "Wherefore I beseech [you] not to faint through my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], of whom every family in [the] heavens and on the earth is named, in order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what [is] the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled [even] to all the fulness of God. But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which works in us, to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen.)"