Shape of You

A Vlog and a Blog today! It's because I have just so much spare time lately, what with all these kids at home, home learning and buidling relationship with each other and with me...although to be fair, a product of Lockdown is that your evenings are free!

I had a little window to do a Vlog, after a stressy tearful hour multiplying various numbers. I stayed in the girls' room, sat on the floor amidst Barbies, a Spa set up, and a discarded whiteboard of sums. I was hiding, and hoping no one needed me. The girls had been released to put a screen on, and I was hoping and trusting that the boys were somewhere on a lesson.

In the quiet, I was reminded that last week I felt God speaking to me about Him shaping me. Him shaping me instead of circumstance, Him shaping me instead of Lockdown, Him shaping me instead of HomeLearning. It was just thoughts I was thinking, so it was hard to know if it was God speaking. Then someone shared in a Devotional video about people letting the life of Jesus shape them. I was also struck by the different things you can shape; character, eyebrows, a beard, converstaion, creative decisions to name a few. And for me, if it's a reoccurring whisper or nudge, or kick up the bum and it lines up with the Bible, I try to take my fingers out my ears and listen, in case it's God whispering.

Feel free to watch the Vlog. Anyway, as a result of the subject of 'being shaped', I made some biscuit dough and explained to the girls that God shapes us, if we allow Him to. As I was teaching them, I suggested they shape their own biscuits to get an idea of God shaping them. I explained that God didn't use a cookie cutter when He made them. He didn't make them exactly like other people. He made them unique, and if they listen to God's best for their lives, He will shape them from the inside out. I explained that God shapes us through His Word, the Bible, through church or Kids TV, through us as their parents, through worship, and through the wisdom of others. Or they could choose instead to allow themselves to be shaped by those around them, their circumstances, movies they watch, TV, and as they get older Social Media. 

We discussed how absurd it is that Barbie's physical "perfection" could shape their thinking, even though she is both unreal and unrealistic and how God instead wants to shape them from the inside; their heart, their emotions, their thoughts, their moral thinking, their conscience. (Barbie comes up a lot in our teaching moments). 

The girls shaped their biscuits, and wondered what God was thinking when He designed them and shaped them. We wondered which parts He spent longer on, which parts made Him smile, which parts seemed annoying or confusing right now, but might grow into something different, which parts God might use in the future, which parts of us were like parts of Him, which parts He thought were the best parts of us, which characteristics He chose uniquely for us. And we ate cookie dough whilst doing so.

I was struck by the picture I had taken, of the things which surrounded the girls while they were shaping their biscuits. I mean some mums may have cleared the whole table before embarking on baking, but one of the benefits of a table that sits eight people every day, is that there is always a little space that can be made, in amongst the mayhem. The photo includes things that literally have potential to shape me... caffiene, chocolate spread, sheer mess, home learning, the future worries (well an empty 2021 diary), the TV controller, and stuff I listen to. I'm not sure the fish, German phrases and a poster on Puberty will shape me too much. But as always when teaching the kids, there seems a lot for me to learn too.

"Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature". Genesis 2v7

"But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand". Isaiah 64v8