God Knows Our Thoughts and Hearts

Do you remember those times when your home that contained small children was strangely quiet? You didn’t notice it at first but then you had this nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right. THEN you realized that it was way too quiet. I remember when my kids were tiny and I had one of those moments. I called out their names and it was STILL quiet. That’s when you know you better get there FAST. I looked around and found my four-year-old daughter and my 6-month-old son sitting in the upstairs bathroom. His head was covered in some sort of white mess which I quickly found out was baby powder and water that my daughter was using to “shampoo” his hair. It was one of those times that I tried to hold back the laughter so I could be a serious parent (well, sometimes you just have to go with it).

Those moments made me quickly realize that I couldn’t know everything that was in my children’s thoughts. That is a scary thing for a parent’s heart that loves their children so much. The truth is, though, that God knows. I love the psalm that tells me he knows everything about me. About my children. About my hubster. About my friends. He knows even when I don’t know.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. Psalm 139: 1-4

Just think, that God knows my words, even before they are formed on my tongue. What an intimate knowledge of me and yet he loves me. If I knew all the words of everyone I know, how would I react? I know how God reacts – well how he acts. I look at the cross and I see how he acts: in love and forgiveness I cannot imagine. He knows my children and husband and family and friends and he loves them.

Knowing that God knows and that he parents us with perfect Love gave me a lot of peace as my children grew up and spent more waking hours at school than at home. It gives me a lot of peace as those tiny kids on the floor of that upstairs bathroom are now adults. I am at peace knowing they know God and he knows them. It releases me from feeling like I have to know everything that goes on in their heads and hearts and controlling it. For, even when they were tiny, God was active as their Perfect Parent in guiding them to his love through his Words in the Bible and his Spirit.

A Daily Prayer
Dear Jesus, thank you for the faith you have given us. Protect our children’s souls and give them strong faith in your love and give us your words of truth and grace to share with them. Amen.