Becky Crenshaw

The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all he has made.  Psalm 145:9

So maybe I am being too hard on myself, but a short 48 hours ago, I was ready to call myself in and schedule a counseling appointment.  My diagnosis?  The least-effective-mom-on-the-planet.

But can I tell you a little story?

Sunday night I plopped down on the couch.  Dinner was finished.  The boys were fed and on the front porch swinging {very aggressively} in my pleasant, wooden porch swing.  I had already stuck my head outside the front door twice and asked them to come inside to help clean dinner.  The first ask got the infamous “no-response” and my second attempt returned to me with the “I helped set the table…it’s his turn”  reply.

So what does a mature woman of God/mother/pastor’s wife do in this situation?

Slam the front door, grab a blanket, and fasten herself on the couch where she rants for twenty minutes (or more) to her husband about how her kids never listen, they constantly fight and will likely grow up resentful because their mom fussed at them 24/7 during childhood.

I was seriously on the brink of tears, dreadful of the summer months ahead.  And in my over-reacting mindset, dreadful of the next fourteen years … day upon day of messing up my children.

Does anyone relate?  Please say yes.

So I moaned and prayed under my fluffy, white blanket…Lord, I need You to intervene here.  How can I be so in love with Your Word, so in love with You, pray, walk in Your Spirit, and then in a millisecond, turn into Ursela the Sea Witch?

In that moment, no kidding, I looked out the window overlooking my driving and saw a car pull up. Three friends from our church. Mr. Sam.  A young adult in our ministry who has gone above and beyond to make an intentional investment in the lives of our boys.

A Spirit-filled stud in the Kingdom of God.

We heart Mr. Sam.  My boys liken him to Superman.  Or SuperSam.

Yes. SuperSam.

He had sent Brent a text saying that he had a surprise for the boys and asked to stop by.

So up he walks up to our front door with a huge gray bin… Filled…With…LEGOS.

L-E-G-O-S.

Hundred upon hundred of tiny possiblilies.  Ships and planes and trains and towers.  Hours of play.

Nothing can unite a triune of brothers like building with Legos. Amen, mommies?

Sam had been home for the weekend and thought it was silly for this bin to sit unused in his old closet when three little Knoxville brothers could be playing with them.

Doesn’t this sound like Toy Story 3?   I wonder if his Legos thought they were heading to Sunnyside?  Nope, LEGO men, you were coming to the Crenshaws!  And I assure you that all of the years they sat silent in Sam’s closet has already been made up for in full.

HOURS UPON HOURS OF PLAY.

The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.  Psalm 145:9

It may sound overdone on my part to say that Sam bringing those Legos was the Lord’s compassion on us, but I will say it anyway. Because it is true.  Those Legos were God’s provision for my family.  His compassion lavished on us.  Manna from Heaven.  No kidding.

Sure it was good for my boys to have something new to distract them from killing eachohter, but big picture…that gray bin is God’s grace.  A tangible expression of His ever present “I-Care-For-You”ness.

I am thankful for Sam’s obedience to the Lord for bringing us his bin.  He really had NO IDEA what he was walking into.  {Me and my sulky sorrows on the couch.}

I know they are special to him.  But even more, I am thankful for God’s using this act of generosity to encourage me off the couch Sunday night and breathe life into our home.

God is with us … even to the end of our ropes.

“LEGOS are the best of all man’s inventions.” – Grant, age 9 (6/10/13)

Do you have a quick story when God showed up in the most unconventional way?  Do share!  It encourages our faith!