Lessons from play-doh- the pain of being molded

Remember the good ol' days of play-doh? You would sit for hours as a little kid cutting out shapes and rolling snakes. You may have tried a taste or two (especially if you are the type of kid who also ate paste in kindergarten- you know who you are).

Ya, that's why having kids is so cool. You get to relive all your childhood memories. Everyone loves playing with play-doh- right? I think somewhere in the official human adult manual of life it says that when you grow up it's not appropriate to play with play-doh anymore... unless of course... you have kids!

I love that look in my daughter's eye when she reaches for the play-doh and starts creating masterpieces. The world of possibilities is endless. She can make whatever she desires. All she has to do is squish it between her fingers or cut out shapes, and she immediately has results.

And yet this is how we are in our Father's hands, isn't it? He is the potter and we are the clay. (Clay is just a glorified term for play-doh, really.) We think we are running our own lives. We think we've reached our goals all by ourselves. We think we are totally in control of it all, and we grasp our dreams even tighter in our fist. But tell me, can the clay look up at the potter and claim to have created itself? Certainly not. But yet we do this, over and over, time and time again.

Our Father is running the show, whether or not we'd like to admit it. I think the best thing we can do is submit our will to His, give up our preconceived ideas and well-thought-out plans, and lay it all down at His feet. And then, the molding and the shaping begins. Have you ever thought that when things are hard, maybe Father is trying to get your attention? Maybe things were going "too well" and you had very little use for Him in your life. But suddenly when the tide turned, you look up to heaven with a prayer on your lips once again.

Our Father is good and faithful. He will never leave or forsake us. We are the ones who run away like lost sheep, and yet He leaves the other 99 sheep to look for us when we wander off. I will never fully comprehend this love He has for us. It is too deep for my comprehension!  Some lyrics to a song I wrote a few years ago paint a small picture of this concept...

But I will trust in You.

For I am in love with You.

Who is this King, who is this Love?

Who pursues me even when I want to give up?

Father, Father, fight this battle for me.

Let us bow before the Lord God our Maker, and allow Him to mold and shape our hearts. Like play-doh in his fingers, may he shape us into the men and women of God we are called to be. It may hurt, but it is oh so worth it.

Break me

Burn me

Melt me

'Til only you remain.