(Contributed by Sarah Richmond. Meet all our writers.)

Parenting Parables

Parenting has given me a deep appreciation of several things--locks on bathroom doors, chocolate covered almonds in bulk from Costco, children's church volunteers, and the way Jesus often communicated via parables. To name just a few.

Parenthood itself is really one giant parable--an ongoing picture of how God loves his children. And my life as a parent seems to be full of personalized parables too. I am not sure a day goes by when God doesn't offer an exhortation, kind conviction, or even just a laugh to my soul through something one of my kids has done or said.

The time Jesus showed up at the craft store

During a recent trip through our favorite craft supply store, sandwiched between the obnoxiously early Christmas decor and the modeling clay aisles, Jesus showed up to walk and teach his latest parable among us.

It started simply enough with my 10 year old daughter still riding the buzz of a new school year.  Her creative soul inundated with all the brightly packaged, glittering art supplies, she approached me with a small decorative box in hand. I was only half-listening as she laid out her five point proposal as to why this was the perfect box for her pencils and supplies.

When she had finished I took the item in my hands.

"It is very cute, luv. Don't you already have several pencil cases though?"

Rebuttal.

"Ahh, I see...The thing is babe, this box isn't even long enough to hold a pencil, see?"

As we held up the short narrow container, we both clearly saw it was not made with the intention of housing writing utensils.

Slightly deflated, but far from defeat, my daughter went to return the treasure one aisle over. And then she was back, this time with an even prettier, more elaborate trinket, still attempting to sell the pencil case bit.

I listened, pushing shopping cart forward with one hand while plucking my 4-year-old from a shelf she was attempting to scale, with the other. By the middle of our third go around, I began to understand why she wanted a new pencil box. I knew Jesus was near, using the bargaining of a child to illustrate and highlight an area of my life aching for growth and sanctification. Parable on aisle 12.

The pencil box would bring change, she hoped.

My sweet girl aimed to start her school year strong, to change some unhelpful habits (a messy workspace, constant misplacing of supplies) and was desperately convinced these cute, fun, yet ill-fitting and ill-equipped items were what she needed to make a fresh start.

She wanted the elaborate, the beautiful, when all she truly needed was a $.25 plastic box she already owned and the discipline to use it.

She is so me right now, I thought with a convicted laugh.

Change or Escape?

There are days change beckons, times when packing it all up and starting over somewhere new sounds pretty appealing.

Today may be one of those days for me too. A new address, a new education plan for my kids, a new chore system...it all sounds so alluring. Then I remember all the mess in my brain and heart would be tagging along and the fresh start fantasy would be tainted before I could pull up realtor.com.

Sometimes I think I just want to relocate from myself. Does anyone know how to do that?

The element of change is an important, often essential presence in our lives. When pursued out of obedience and purity, it is an opportunity for growth, refreshment, and spiritual health. I, however, can also enact change out of nothing more than a desperate act of distraction or escape.

As the itch to try something new returns, the Holy Spirit reminds me of the craft store parable. In the quiet and the honest, motives are examined. If feelings of desperation over health rise to the surface, I know it is an escape plan I have concocted, not a divine path of destiny, growth, or anything resembling righteous obedience.

I am just a little girl pulling the wrong boxes off shelves, franticly trying to convince myself and the Father. This is just the one I need to make my life all neat, pretty...worthy. With each and every proposed whim, He reminds, You are already fully equipped for the path before you, child.

His Spirit is alive in me, His word a light unto my path. Nothing fancy required. Just the tools I already possess and the discipline to use them.

"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." 2Peter 1:2-3 NASB

Originally Published 11/12/2015