But, Honey? How Will He Feel? And An Elephant Named Isaac.

"And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac,

whom thou lovest,

and get thee into the land of Moriah;

and offer him there for a burnt offering

upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning,

and saddled his ass,

and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son,

and clave the wood for the burnt offering,

and rose up,

and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes,

and saw the place afar off.
And Abraham said unto his young men,

Abide ye here with the ass;

and I and the lad will go yonder and worship,

and come again to you.
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering,

and laid it upon Isaac his son;

and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife;

and they went both of them together.
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father:

and he said, Here am I, my son.

And he said, Behold the fire and the wood:

but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering:

so they went both of them together.
And they came to the place which God had told him of;

and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order,

and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven,

and said, Abraham, Abraham:

and he said, Here am I.
And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad,

neither do thou any thing unto him:

for now I know that thou fearest God,

seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes,

and looked,

and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns:

and Abraham went and took the ram,

and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh:

as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham

out of heaven the second time,
And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD,

for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son,

thine only son:
That in blessing I will bless thee,

and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven,

and as the sand which is upon the sea shore;

and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

because thou hast obeyed my voice. "

Genesis 22: 2-18

A few months ago, maybe October or November,

my Honey was watching the Discovery Channel (shock - Ok, NOT a shock!)

This episode was so intriguing to me, I hope I can do it justice.

There was a particular herd of elephants,

where there were many teenage male elephants.

There were old male elephants,

not in their "hay-day" you could say.

There were not strong adult seasoned males.

The kind that can reign in and discipline the wild and youthful male elephants!

As a solution, they found a herd that could spare one or two adult males,

captured them and transported them to the herd

which was in need of their manly influence.

True to form, the young males tried to take on the strong adult males.

They later wished they didn't.

It just took one or two rounds to realize, they had a lot to learn!

It'd be better to grow up.

And to save fighting for when there was a real reason to fight!

It was fascinating to see how this indeed repaired the problem.

I was in the kitchen when the show came on.

And I knew at once when I heard the details

I had to go watch this with hubby!

Why did this speak to me?

We have two children. Both sons. a 23 year old, and a 15 year old.

Between them, my husband and Jesus, that is my heartbeat, the light in my eyes,

and is often the case in the heart's desires of our lives, my weak spot.

Those boys that is.

When the oldest turned 12, 13, 14 his Dad got much more stern with him.

It always hurt my feelings and his (our son).

I always wanted to intercede, explain, be the diplomat, extend the olive branch.

This did SOOOO much harm. In my defense, I didn't understand.

I did it in ignorance. As my oldest got older, I DID begin to learn.

But, it was a case of too little, too late.

Now, don't be alarmed my oldest is going to be fine.

It's a case of good, better, best.

We probably did low on the good side.

We trust God to COVER with grace, our lack of parenting ability.

We DID much good training, much loving, much praying, much trusting him to God.

And we continue to be very involved in his life, in a healthy way.

As a matter of fact,

he is in the backyard working with his Dad on some guy stuff, right now.

Now along comes the youngest. The baby. The last.

My oldest first slammed his bedroom door when he was 17.

My youngest when he was 3.

They are so alike.

And yet so different.

The oldest dodges conflict.

(mind you, many mistake that for obedience and sweetness, not necessarily the case!)

The youngest desires conflict at times!

(and many mistake this for lots of things, and they miss every time)

I am older, one hopes much wiser (one has much cause to doubt this),

no longer ignorant in this regard.

YET, I STILL struggle to get out of between the two males

in the household when it's time to discipline.

My youngest is really in touch with his feelings,

and can at times, explain things,

(though not always in the tone I might like to hear it.

At times I permit this, just to be able to hear what is going on in that mind of his).

One of the best things is, he consistently tells me,

"Mom, you HAVE to stay out of Dad and me!"

His Dad says,

"Honey, I love you, but you have to stay out when I am talking to him!

I know what I'm doing! Really!"

I hate it when my knee jerk reaction is to Butt-in!

The type of personality I have wants to FIX everything!

And really, it is a very prideful attitude, to think everything and everyone depends on you to come and explain it!

Really!

Our children do it, too!

So does my husband! It can be QUITE interesting!

We laugh at it, at times.

At other times, it's not so Christ like around here!

But, we ARE learning!

I am learning!

AND we are QUICK to repent!

Recently, as I read "When I Lay My Isaac Down",

by Carol Kent, I GOT something about this.

God didn't ask Sarah to offer up Isaac.

He told Abraham.

Think about that. It was such an eye opener to me.

What did Sarah feel like left at home...?

With Abraham telling her his big plan?

Imagine with me if you will...

Abraham: Honey, I've heard from God. Yeah, we're gonna take a trip, Isaac and I. God's gonna point the way. I am to sacrafice Isaac, and then we'll come on back home.

Sarah: (as we say in the South) Do What? You're NOT taking my baby boy anywhere.

No, I don't hardly think so!

Abraham, have you been smoking that pipe again?

Abraham: Woman, I know what I am talking about. The same God who gave us this son, has asked this of me. The same God who asked this, WILL and IS ABLE to raise him up again.

Do you doubt that?

Sarah: But, what will Isaac think? What will he FEEL like (mothers like me, we ALWAYS worry about that, How will they FEEL?)? How will he KNOW that WE LOVE him (that's the other worry!), if you do this thing, Abraham?

Sarah watches them go the next morning. Her heart in her throat.

Hot tears burning her eyes.

She cries. She doesn't know where to turn.

She wants to run after them, and beg Abraham to reconsider.

She pleads with God to help Isaac know that his Father DOES love him.

Not to take his life. She reminds God of His promise to them.

That Isaac WAS and IS their child of promise.

When Abraham caused Isaac to carry his own wood.

The wood he would be burned on....

that part always just slays me.

How could he? I think.

Well, how could God cause Jesus to carry the cross?

The cross He would be nailed to?

The death to the flesh that was being walked out, is a picture of the death to the flesh that Fathers are uniquely equipped to help their sons to do.

The Strongs Concordance tells us the word wood as it used there means (besides the obvious! ;) firmness, to be stable.

Could it be this discipline,

that it's necessary, it's a GOOD thing, desirable to bring stability?

I REALLY did not look forward in some ways, to doing this post.

It's hard to talk about things that people will very possibly misunderstand.

But, I felt it was important to help any mother, maybe who has young children,

everything is so much less complicated when they are young.

But, as they get older, the roles shift. At least for sons.

The father's role becomes much more prominent in some ways, at certain times.

Two EXCELLENT books to understand this dynamic,

are Dr James Dobson, "Bringing Up Boys", and John Eldridge "Wild at Heart".

I HEARTILY recommend them.

Some of the conversations in my head about this post, are "But, Lord, the people that read have little kids, or if they do have older children, they KNOW what they are doing. They are going to think I am a bad wife! A bad mother!"

As you can see, I am doing the post! He won! :)

I am humoring Him! LOL! :)

All I can say, is when it comes to the tough issues,

when you think your husband or their father is too stern, maybe harsh.

Consider Sarah. Consider Mary.

Remember the reward.

Abraham & God the Father, had faith in the long term dividend of crucifying the flesh.

Fathers are wired to do this.

And they all lived happily ever after, sort of!