What turns your head?

In the past two days I've posted glimpses of two of my children.... things I had written about them in the past. Here is a glimpse of my youngest.

Sabrina's Season....

Sabrina (my youngest daughter) was the biggest hit of Saturday night's ballgame. No home run hit even came close in comparison. We went to watch my son play All-Stars, but it turned out that it was my daughter that seemed to be playing the starring role and was being watched. In the midst of the game one of my son's coaches came over to us in the stands and told Sabrina (my daughter) that she was a total distraction to the whole team. I laughed at what he said and told her that perhaps she had better go to the other side to distract the players on the opposing team, for we needed our focus. She grinned! She's come into the limelight --- and is thoroughly enjoying the spotlight that's shining upon her! One of our best players (I'll call him P1 for Player 1) was VERY interested and vying for her attention in whatever way he could get it. He was our 1st hitter, also our pitcher, and he had already told Tabor (my son) every which way he could think of to say so that he liked her.

Sabrina had a 'boyfriend'. We'll call him P2. He, too, was at the game; but at first she didn't know it. Finally he spotted her at about the same time that she spotted him. He nodded with his head for her to come over. She obliged his nod and submitted to its bidding. They stood and talked for a while then went and sat in the stands on the other side. Meanwhile, the guys on our team saw her do it! And questioned Tabor in their wonder of why? Mind you, they were supposed to be paying attention to the game; what were they doing paying attention to Sabrina? These were 12 and 13 year olds, way too young it seems to be interested or to notice.

During all of this a friend of ours (oblivious to all that was going on around him) was trying to "arrange a marriage" between his son (P3) and Sabrina. His son sat with us, and seemed in total agreement to what his daddy was suggesting. Finally, they realized that she hadn't left us for just a mere moment, but that she had left us to go sit with another boy. Well, "Who is he?" they asked. "And why is she sitting with him?" they wondered. SO(!), P3 did what any smart man would have done. He got up from his seat and went to sit with them! I LOVED IT! No man would scare him from his target, even if she had left him to go sit with another!

The next day we had half the team figure out one reason or another to come over to our house. Tabor was the decoy that they were hiding behind - but we all saw through their disguise and knew the truth of it! Each of them grinned when Sabrina's name was mentioned. Like I said, she thoroughly enjoyed being the night's attraction that had turned their heads and their hearts for the moment.

Shall I think that I see another season coming in my forecast? Did yet another one slip up upon me before I ever saw it coming? My goodness, will we weather these seasons? "There's a time for everything........," right? So shall we remember not to get lost in our seasons.

Written: July 2006

This is my prayer in our season - that though their heads might turn (and hers might too), I pray they'll never lose their focus! Boys will be boys and girls will be girls, and they'll have a normal attraction to each other,,, for it's put inside them to - meant for a good purpose I suppose; for to "replenish the earth" (as God told us to) attraction helps in the process to one day find the right mate to marry. Yet even while they look, may they always retain their focus on God and His commands and His will and their purpose.

We must learn from the examples in Scripture. In one verse we find that "The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice" (1 Kings 11:9). And that, "As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been" (1 Kings 11:4).

We don't want our children's (or ours!) spouses or 'boyfriends' or 'girlfriends' to-turn-their-hearts after other gods. We're told that God told Moses once that the Israelites had "been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt" (Exo. 32:8). We don't want our children to be "quick to turn away from what (He) commanded them" and make "themselves an idol cast in the shape" of the boy (or the girl) that's "turned" their heads. "Sacrificing to it", thinking that they are the 'gods that brought them out' of their "Egypts". You know what I mean?

What turns your head?

What turns your daughters? Whose head might she (or you) turn?

Are they turning their heads from the "game" of life (the race that God has called us to run) that should be their focus? Just a wonder. Just a wonder. Where is your head turned?

My prayer is that my daughter's (even though she might enjoy such attention) head and heart doesn't "turn" from the Lord that she loves. For we must remember our warning in Deuteronomy 5:32 to, "be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left."

Ah, these seasons that I'm watching my children weather have a tendency to "turn" a lot of heads in all kinds of directions. Actually it's with all of us all of our lives, for satan never gives up finding a tantalizing bait to dangle before us, hoping we'll turn to grab it and be grabbed by it instead.

May we plant the word of the seed into our children so deeply, that the word will be so engraved inside their minds and hearts that it springs out into their thinking whether they want it to or not when such things pop up to entice and to turn them. Let's pray hard for our children to be able to weather all of their seasons fully focused on the One that created them!

And too, with that reminder, let's watch where our own heads and hearts might be turned to!