Nanny 911 and the Children of God

     So many times, I have learned about God in a new way by observing the lives of children in relation to their parents.  James Dobson related a story of taking his child to get their booster shots and how the child begged him to be removed from the painful situation, but as a father he knew it needed to be done.  Recently, one of my daughters related her viewing of the show "Nanny 911" where parents bring in a child behavior specialist (the nanny) to help "fix" a bad family situation.  She said the Nanny usually gave the parents advice on how to set rules and boundaries for their children to help them grow into responsible adults.  My daughter pointed out to us her understanding of the things her mother and I had done to give her guidance and that she now can see a little clearer the reasons. 
     I find myself more and more relating to the children in these stories and even more relating to my daughter's experience of coming to an understanding of the reasons that God takes us through painful times.  I have often spoken to people who acknowledge God and like an infant, they stubbornly remain angry with God for something they had to go through or are going through now.  The younger you are, the less you see that your life is continually molding you and strengthening you.  If you always avoid the pain, you do not see the benefits of God's path.  You do not develop the quality of trust in God which brings peace to your life.  You do not develop the coping strategies or the ability to see and avoid future trouble.  You are stuck in fear with no guidance out the other side. 
     God have given us simple ways to go through troubled times, but sometimes we do not believe it can be that simple.  Or sometimes we refuse to let go of our own plans and turn every moment and every pain and every fear over to God.  Trusting God is NOT logical in the setting of our life.   But at some point you will face something that defies the ability to reason your way out.  You will be stuck and at that point, you must ask God to do something supernatural.   You must ask him to take control of everything, but most importantly to take control of YOU.  You must cry out to God and ask him to step into the situation whether it is logical or not and just be God.  If he wasn't someone who could do that, then He is not who he promises to be and not the one to whom I have trusted my life and soul to.
     There have been times in my life, many that most people do not know about, but times when I have bowed down to the floor, or I have raised my hands in the air and verbally asked God to take over and bring all those involved into his presence where evil and confusion can not exist.   I have asked him to control the spiritual realm around me which is where most of our pain begins.

"12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12

We struggle with things we do not understand, but we must ask God to struggle with them, because He does understand them and overpowers them easily. We must ask him to do so continually. He is God and we are not. In our submission He takes over and becomes our strength and it is a wonderful thing to experience. The confusion in your life subsides. The temptations that run rampant become less and less visible to your eyes which are filled with the blinding light of God's peace. We start to learn that things are a lot easier when we do not act as children do and try to take control of that which we are not yet ready to handle. If we are going to be God's children, then let's run to him crying with our hurts and fears. Let's trust that he truly has the answers and the ability to fight off the things in this world that scare us. Then the boundaries and rules God has outlined for us become a guiding rope along the path of peace.