No Filter


 

Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time. Hebrews 4:16

 
How many times have you heard it said of someone that he or she has no filter? My granddaughter Madelyn is the personification of that statement and she gets that quality straight from her mother. My daughter Laura is an adult now and as such has tamed her wild tongue a little bit. Madelyn, who I lovingly call Mim, has not. Mim says whatever she’s thinking. It pops into her head and she says it. Just the other day she told me that she’d seen an old picture of me with blonde hair. “Hey Grammy, so I saw a picture of you when you used to have blonde hair.” She looked at me, cocked her head, gave me the quirkiest little look and said, “Yeah, keep the red.” See what I mean? No. Filter.  And quite frankly we all love it, for now, because Mim is six years old. Eventually she’ll have to find a filter. Although knowing her as I do, I suspect it will be a tiny one. She reminds me of my Gram who never really got that concept either. She just learned to pseudo whisper her comments.

          Maybe that isn’t a bad thing. Mim says what she wants, to her family, her teachers and to God. She isn’t afraid to express herself. In prayer, Mim approaches the throne of grace with the confidence of the beloved child that she is.

          In several places in Scripture we are told to become like children, to interact with God with the pure and simple faith of a child. Hmm… maybe those filters are overrated. I’m not advocating speaking your mind at all times. Feelings get hurt that way, damage gets done. We are also advised in Scripture to be quick to listen and slow to speak. (James 1:9) Reading the verse above and thinking of Mim, I realized that yes, in our human interactions we need to follow James’ advice and to have a filter but when we are speaking to our Father in heaven anything goes, with respect of course. Our Father is available always to hear our hearts. He already knows what we’re thinking and how we’re feeling. Sometimes in an effort to spare our family and friends we don’t say what we’re thinking or feeling. With God we can. We can whine, cry, laugh, vent and beg and we can do it with confidence, confident in the fact that His feelings for us won’t change.

         

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Applause, Applause and Protection

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, Hebrews 12:1 Reading some Scripture this morning I was reminded of a message that I watched from Louie Giglio. In it Louie described a child of God leaving her home for the day. He goes on about how the heavenly beings see it. With great excitement, he tells of the joy and applause going on in heaven as the woman gets in the elevator, gets to the parking lot and gets in her car. It’s hilarious and over the top, (remember I did say it was Louie Giglio!) but there’s a great lesson in it. My husband and I were watching a TV show about a fictional former president. At one point the poor man is just over the Secret Service detail. He’s tired of them following him around so he fires them. It takes less than five minutes for him to start to see all that they’ve been doing for...
Read more

My Father Saw That

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me, “for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” Genesis 16:13 There’s a movie from several years ago that I absolutely love! It’s called “The American President.” The premise is that the president, who is a widower, has begun to date. He’s dating a lovely woman while running for reelection. His opponent is awful. He knows he doesn’t have much of a chance against the popular incumbent so he tries to make a mountain out of the molehill of the standing president’s romance. At one point there is a news clip that shows the woman in a protest during her college days. After the clip plays the opponent refers to the president’s lady friend as “the president’s whore.” She groans and says to the president “My father saw that!” She is devastated, not because what is being said is true but because her father, who she loves and respects, saw the clip and heard those words spoken about her. I thought of ...
Read more

Not Really god, where are you?

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning to noon.”Baal answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said, “Surely he is a god! Perhaps his is deep in thought, or busy or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 1 Kings 18:26b-27 Those who know me would be quick to tell you that I am a bit sarcastic. It’s a quality that I have passed on to my children and even some of my grandchildren. Some days I feel a little guilty. Is that really a quality that God wants to see in me? Certainly that cannot be my go to attitude but there are times that it comes in quite nicely. This morning, reading a totally unrelated verse, I was reminded of this account in the first book of Kings. (It begins at verse 16 and continues to the end of the chapter. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t and it if you have reread it. It’s great!) In this p...
Read more