shut up...

Shut!!!  Up!!!!

These are the last words that are heard coming from the open windows of our minivan as Bethany pulls away, driving all of the kids to JJ's baseball game.  I have to go to work, she has to take the kids to the game.  It's just how it is sometimes.

Then I realize our neighbors are out, sitting on their porch, sipping coffee, and they saw it!!! Oh no!!!  They saw it!!!  They saw our family being real!!  

He is making us so beautifully awkward.

It is not always rainbows and unicorn farts in our house.  Sometimes, "Shut Up!!!" is as nice as it gets.  

If that offends you, I'm sorry, but honesty and transparency is really what's it's all about.

So the real question is now up for grabs.  How does God find glory in all of this?  It's not even Sunday and we don't have our hands lifted high to a Michael W Smith, Chris Tomlin or Steven Curtis Chapmen songs.  So how in the world could he possibly find glory in this crazy, mixed up family?

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. 

Ephesians 1:4

Then Romans 8:29,30 points to the fact that he is glorified in us.

"For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. "- Romans 8:29-30

How does God find glory in us?  How could he?

Because he is that good.  He is that sovereign, and that perfect. He will find glory in our lives and through our lives because, he will be glorified through us.

It is not about us playing dress up and having fake smiles when we are out and about.  It is most certainly not found in us when we are trying to be better.  That is just foolishness.  

It is dying to ourselves daily, seeking obedience to him, and having him find favor in his own actions through us.

Lord, 

Thank you for the "shut up" days. Thank you for the days we find ourself flat on our face because that leave us only to look to you. You are that good, you are that perfect, you are the one we serve.