758 - Wrath and love so very close!

Dear Jesus - there are many times I feel like I am failing as a parent! This weekend or at least Monday was no exception. My daughter came home from a friend's house to find one of her classmates that had spent the night with Elleigh. (She was fully aware of this situation and was fine with it because she had another place to go.) This classmate's older sister was spending the night too, but got sick and had to go home. The younger sister, my daughter's classmate, stayed. (Are you confused yet?)

It all was fine until another friend came over that my daughter always likes to impress. So in order to impress her, my daughter turned on her classmate and would not let her play with them. It really did not upset the classmate as much as it made my other daughters so mad because they knew their sister was doing what I had warned them would get in the worst trouble of the century. We never leave someone out, we never think we are better than anyone, and we never hurt someone to impress another!

Clay called with this situation. I was in Evansville picking up paint and could do nothing from there. But it was enough to ruin my paint shopping (ha ha) and just absolutely burned my butt because I knew the parties involved and knew THEY knew the rules! I was fit to be tied!

This morning in my quiet time I was going over the basics of salvation in John 3:16. I also jumped along the Roman Road to refresh my realization of what He has done for me, all of us, and yet did not have to! As I read another devotion from Piper book I am again reminded of the wrath that Jesus absorbed and the penalty He paid so that I would not have to because of His great love!

It occurs to me that wrath and love are so intertwined and relationally close. Even though my wrath and love as well could never compare to that of the Lord Jesus, I can relate to the closeness of the two. My daughter caused my blood to boil in a way it has not in a long time. I wanted to bite her head off and send her to the wolves for a time being. But because I love her so much I was not going to let her get away. (She packed her bags and got on her bike to run away. Do you remember doing that a time or two? i do!) My wrath was so great and yet my love too that I was not going to let this slip by and go unpunished! I loved her too much - so to speak!

And so does HE, love too much - for you and I. We have done, will do, and do do unspeakable. We are no different than the Israelites and probably would have acted the same way! And yet because of His great love and wrath too, He called on His Son, Jesus to do what we could not do. Because of Jesus within my heart He has called me to do what I can not do on my own. He has called me to love so much pass my wrath and make sure my daughter understand not only what she did wrong, apologize to the nth degree to all parties, and still Him and His love in it all - specifically me! I have no problem showing my wrath (ha), but still showing Jesus and His love in this - only He in me can do that!

Lord, help me in this! I want a good lesson to be learned, behavior to be changed, and a respect for friendships to be guarded! Jesus - please shine thru me - pass my wrath - because of Your love in me!