From the inside out....

Tomorrow is my son Clay's birthday. From the moment he was born 27 years ago, he tried to take charge. It seemed that we were always in a battle for control. Fortunately, that fierce determination has served to grow him into a fine young man and I am so proud of my son. I always say that he is the best son any mom could ever have. NOW he is.....But there were days during his younger years that I wanted to quit!!

We once battled over whether or not he was going to pick up his toys. He was determined that he was not and I was just as determined that he was!! Finally, I put my hands on his hand and pulled him over to the toy. I curled his fat little fingers around the toy, forcing him to grab it. I then dragged him over to the toy box where I "uncurled" his fingers and made him drop the toy in the box. I triumphantly said, "See I told you that you were going to pick up your toys." The problem was that I didn't feel very triumphant. In fact, I felt pretty defeated because I may have won that battle, but I didn't feel like I was doing so well in the war. I got what I wanted, but Clay's heart really hadn't changed when it came to being submissive to my authority.

After so many similar rounds, I found myself wishing that I could just crawl inside that boy and motivate him from the inside out. If I could have just changed his heart so that he would become submissive to my authority, things would have gone so much better for him. Both our lives would have been much less stressful.

Years later, God began to show me that He had that idea long before I did! He could have forced His children to obey Him because He is much stronger than us. He could have dragged us kicking and screaming into His will and forced us into submission. But instead He chose to come and live inside us and motivate us from the inside out. He wants to soften our hearts toward Him, to transform the way we think, and to lovingly draw us to submission to Him by teaching us that His will is always best for us. He places His Holy Spirit inside us to do all those things.

God has never attempted to change anyone by changing their actions. Instead He changed us on the inside and when we are truly changed on the inside, it will show in our outward actions. We can never "do" enough righteous things to "become righteous." But when we come to realize that God has made us righteous, we will be motivated and empowered to do righteous things.

We named our son Clay because our goal for him was that he would be moldable and submissive to God, just as clay is to the potter. Since Clay received Christ for salvation many years ago, God has been faithful to work in Clay's life. On his birthday I'll be praying that God will continue His work of shaping throughout Clay's life and that he will be the husband, father, and man that God has planned. Happy Birthday Clay-boy.