My Heart, The Past & The Future

For the last little while I have sensed in my heart the need to try and connect more with my kids. Maybe it's because they are getting older and moving more towards leaving the nest, or maybe it's because of Noah, and once again my heart has been getting hammered by the enemy over the what ifs and the could have beens.

There feels like an emotional roller coaster inside my heart. I'm not talking about the little kiddie kind you see at the fair either, it's one filled with multiple loop-de-loops and hair pin turns. And just when I think the ride is about over, I'll hear a tone and inflection in the voice of either Micah or April, or see something that reminds me of Noah, and bam here we go again.

Of course as soon as that happens, the enemy is all over it spewing his personal best about how inedpt I am as a father, and that my kids really don't want to be around me because I'm no fun, and all I do is make their lives miserable. The good thing is that I know his attacks, and how he operates. He wants me to live in the past, something that God in His Word tells me not to do. Look at this passage of Scripture.

Philippians 3:12-14 "12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. "

The enemy wants us looking back, and not ahead because he knows that if he can get us looking backwards he has us. I'm reminded of Rafiki talking to Simba in the Lion King movie. He hits Simba on the head, and he yelps and says, "Hey what did you do that for?" Rafiki tells him that it doesn't matter it's in the past. Simba says, "Yeah, but it still hurts." "Yes, Simba the past can still hurt, but what is important is that you learn from it." Then he swings his stick again and this time Simba ducks, takes the stick and throws it away.

And that is just what we have to do, forget the past but learn from it, and then move on towards the future and all the good stuff that God has for us there. So get 'em up folks, let's go out there and whip something for the Kingdom today!