By Katy Mariotti

God’s Ways Are Higher

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 English Standard Version

As a parent, it is difficult not to compare your own experiences with your children’s. As an example, I spent HOURS on a bike as a kid. I rode all over, playing with friends, getting exercise and feeling the wind on my arms. But my own kids rarely ride bikes. It’s not their fault! We live in a very small town right next to the mountains. Our house is on a hill and there are no sidewalks in almost the entire town. So in order to ride bikes, the bikes need to be transported somewhere else, which the kids can’t do on their own. I kind of wondered if my kids would ever learn to ride a bike, which concerned me.

But someone built houses next door to us that are still sitting empty, and have a long driveway, so the kids have gotten a couple chances to really practice, and yesterday my daughter finally did it; she rode her bike with no training wheels! I was so proud of her.

My kids’ childhoods will never be like mine, because they are not me. Maybe they are learning to ride bikes later than I did, and there are plenty of other things that feel like deficits as well. But then I look around and see how many wonderful things they have in their lives. They couldn’t ride bikes easily because we live in a beautiful home right near the mountains! They get to regularly see wild animals! They get to attend a smaller school where they know their teachers and classmates better than I did.

I’ve prayed since before my kids were born that God would watch over them and be with them in their lives, and He certainly has and I know He will continue, because He has promised it. And I can trust what the paths of their lives will be because, as it says in Isaiah, God’s ways and thoughts are so much higher than mine than I can possibly imagine.

I pray today for trust in God not only for my children, but in my own life and your lives too. Amen!

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado