Independence Day and the Dependent Life

With a brand-new elementary school graduate in the family, we departed on commencement day to spend two weeks in the U.S. visiting partners in Bakersfield. One of the highlights of our time away was a gala 4th of July party (that included people from Columbia, Canada and Australia in addition to our Mexican delegation!)

Independence is a wonderful concept when you are referring to a country being freed from oppressive rule, or maturing in their ability to self-govern. Just as in the U.S., in Mexico Independence Day is celebrated with lots of fireworks and good food to commemorate the ultimate price that was paid to secure freedom for those of us who enjoy it decades and centuries later.

Independence however is not something to be celebrated as it relates to our relationship with God. As the result of seeing a movie that debilitated her with fear and worry, our oldest daughter has gone from a young believer who loved God, to a maturing pre-teen who needs God on a daily, sometimes hourly, sometimes moment by moment basis and someone who has experienced in a very real and personal way God's presence and activity in her life.

Before this event she read the Bible while preparing her Sunday school lessons and prayed when she ate her meals or went to bed at night. Now she regularly asks us to pray with her, suggest Scripture passages for her to read or verses that she can memorize. God is no longer just a positive influence in her life...He is a necessity.

Our daughter still has her moments when she struggles, she still has to make choices to dwell on scary images and fearful thoughts, or God's promises and truth. However, more and more she is returning to her carefree, social self, but with a new depth of faith in, commitment to and dependence on God. What a good place to be when you just started Jr. High!! What a great place to be whatever your age...for the rest of your life.

(Read about this experience from our daughter's perspective in the preceeding blog.)