(Week 32) Bama Bound: Let’s Hear It For the Boys

Story Behind the Painting:

This watercolor elephant is a graduation present for a friend’s son.  I asked her what I could possibly paint that a freshman boy might actually hang in his dorm and an elephant was the safest, school appropriate bet.

Although the title gives it away, the elephant is intended to as well.

He is “Bama Bound.”

The University of Alabama is holy ground to me because of what it has been for my oldest son.  Just as I prayed up my firstborn before he entered college, I prayed circles around this precious, soon-to-be freshman and fraternity pledge the whole time I painted.

May the God who holds the whole world in His hands continue to hold this young man tight.  May God draw him closer and closer to Himself, empowering him to be a light for HIS  Kingdom.  As he sports his greek letters, let the world around him witness a mighty man of God.  Most importantly, Lord, enable him, and all of YOUR sons, to proudly wear their “identity letters”- H-I-S, unapologetically pointing the world around them to the ONE Whose image they bear, Jesus.

Take-away Treasure:

My oldest son, Jake, is headed into his junior year at the University of Alabama and I have watched and continue to watch him grow deeper and deeper spiritual roots, while flourishing in faith and calling.  He has met amazing friends in and outside his fraternity.  He sought out a mentor as soon as he stepped onto the campus his freshman year and has become a mentor to many. He is the first to tell you he is far from perfect, but he is also far from where he used to be as well.

I will let the remainder of this post be Jake’s words, not mine.  He wrote these words over a  year ago and his story is still being written.  As mamas, nothing makes our hearts sing more than watching our children fall in love with Christ, walk with HIM and share HIM with the world.  God’s timing is perfect. He alone draws hearts to HIMSELF.  He loves our children more than we do, hard to imagine but true nonetheless.

One of my favorite quotes:

“It is not a parent’s responsibility to have Godly children – It is a parent’s responsibility to make sure THEIR CHILDREN have Godly Parents!”

This quote has given me so much peace.

Yoked to Jesus for myself is the only thing that enables and empowers me to mother my babies HIS way, not mine.

Matthew 11:29-30 “…29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

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***My oldest son shared his testimony on a local site, ourcityonahill.net  , just over a year ago. His heart is beautiful and he knows Jesus as his best friend! What more can a mama ask for!

I am tagging our church, Church of the Highlands, because I want to say thank you for the Jesus deposits you have made in Jake’s life!

GoGod

False Fulfillment: My Son-Jake Wilson

I am a sinner, but my sins have been paid for. Love called my name and showed me home. Y’all best get ready for some transparency, because that is ultimately the best way I can show all that Jesus has done inside of me

Dad, I cry to you day and night desiring to be closer and deeper in Your Presence! Nothing can ever compare to the true joy and security you provide. I pray that whomever may read this post would have open eyes, open hearts, and a desire so geared towards a relationship with You that their eternity is next to You! Impress Your name upon their hearts O Lord, use me for whatever You want, I am just a tool in Your kit, a vessel that you prize and have complete control over. “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.” ~ John 3:30

I would like to begin with how I would define a testimony. I would describe this a story. However, it is not my story… but Jesus’ story through me and inside of me. Mine starts from our (Jesus and I’s) first intervention. Let’s get started.

Throughout my preschool days in the church to my multiple camp experiences, my eternally minded parents have always pushed the Gospel and church upon my siblings and I out of love. Sluggishly, I took the easy (temporary) fix and grew complacent and fixated on satisfying them instead of satisfying God. I did not care what God thought, I wanted what I wanted and I wanted to cause as little trouble as possible (aka appease my parents so I would never get in trouble). This deception taught me two things: how to lie and how to get away with it. The world is a tricky place and if we conform to it then we are destine for self-fulfilling traits and actions. As I grew older, I grew more curious. My fulfillment was being met through things that were only here and gone, instead of here to stay. For 17 years I lived without God. I knew who He was, but I was not curious at all to what He had to offer, only to the tangible things the world offered. This is where selfishness comes in… If I had simply opened my ears ONCE and stopped being selfish I would have heard His name. But that is not how He wanted my story to go, He wanted me to deprive of myself and come after Him on my own, not by my parents will, but Jake-willing (Even though He is completely sovereign and knew the script from the beginning). I had fought wars against pornography, jealousy, anger, alcohol, drugs, sex, envy, and insecurity for years before I even recognized that I was alone on the battlefield. That is how sneaky the devil is. All I had to realize is that I was fighting a war that had already been fought for me. Story time.

Junior year of high school spring break, it had been a crazy week. I was so drunk the entire week that I, to this day, hear stories about things I did on that trip that I had no clue even happened. I had lied to my parents to even go on the trip and it was all because I wanted to be full, I wanted to feel free, and my flesh was leading my spirit and mind while being without hesitation. Day 6 of the trip (day before we were going to leave) 6 A.M., everyone else is in their beds, but I had just snuck back into the house and was lying on the shower floor sicker than I had ever felt before. My eyes would literally not open. I had hit solid-rock bottom. So unlike anything I had ever done before, I prayed. I said, “God I don’t know you, I don’t deserve this love it sounds like you give, but can I have it cause nothing else is filling me?” Within half a second, my illness, my drunkenness, my pain, my shame, my terror, and my doubt were lifted off of me and stripped away. I felt love for the first time. God showed Himself to me and made me feel like a son. I got a taste of what life could be like. So clear, so visual, so untainted. I shook His hand for the first time and met the dude who saved me from eternal damnation, even though he had been with me since the beginning. LET’S BE A GENERATION THAT STOPS IGNORING JESUS!

Now like any other friend, you don’t just jump on the train and hangout 24-7. He would ask me to hang all the day and night, but Jake was so broken and feeling so unloved and undeserving that excuses swarmed in. I knew what He could do, but I was still terrified, heck this was eternity. A couple months later I came across a word from God that changed my mindset forever, “For the wages of sin is death, but the FREE gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~Romans 6:23. If my heart was full of Sin (noun not verb) then I was going to hell, if my heart was simply with Jesus I was going to heaven. Simple. I was taught Grace. I realized that I did not deserve this, however it was a GIFT and was mine if I would simply unwrap the present. So… I said heck yeah. Since this interaction I have only grown deeper and deeper in love with my man Jesus.

It does not take getting to rock bottom to meet Jesus, He is reaching out at all times, ready to take your hand any second of any day! When He said “Tetelestai” (It is finished) on the cross, He was saying that He had done it, He had defeated Sin forever and He had reached His hands out to us (as he does on the cross when His arms are spread) to come with Him to His eternal destination. I took His hand, and I still grip His hand everyday because I don’t ever want to feel that sense of loneliness or insecurity again that I was once defined by. My new identity was Son of God, forever citizen of Heaven. It does not get much better than that.

A recent realization leads me to this analogy. Say, I have a friend. His/her loving parents are not going to call me and ask me to come hangout with them and spend the night with them everyday forever, no matter how loving they are. But, if I come with their child, their arms are open wide and they would accept me into their home with open arms. Jesus is my friend, and His father welcomes me Home with open arms! God sent Jesus to connect with us, to take on every temptation that we have, He was seeking to relate to us so that He could have a relationship with us. “…But as for me and my household we will serve the Lord.” ~Joshua 24:15 This is referring to not just our literal households but our bodies as well. My body is the household of my Spirit, soul, and flesh. And as for me and my three parts, I will honor it by serving the Lord! For it is a gift and a blessing, not something to experiment on.

Judah Smith (a people-loving, Gospel-preaching, world traveling author and pastor), in His book Life is _____. makes a very life-changing point when He explains this: “The opposite of love [another name for God] in not hate; it is selfishness [another name for an idol]. Adam and Eve chose self over love. They chose self over God.” (Smith 10) I am declaring no more desires of Jake, but desires of God to be met for the rest of my days! God created me and gave me a choice (life or death), so I choose Him!

His story inside of me is not over, yet it is just beginning because it is time to watch the fruit flourish through me for whatever He has in mind for me. My heart is yours Dad! Lead me where my trust is without borders!