Righteousness not Results

As Noodle and I set out for our Monday morning errands today, I just had this feeling of needing to hear the Word. Listening to talk radio or a bible program in the car is not as easy as one would think....at least not in my world. Burrito and Noodle are quite the talkers, especially in the car, and not just to me but to each other as well. My chances of being able to hear anything were a little better with just one child with me, so I started surfing the channels to find something good.

I landed on Focus on the Family. I like Dr. Dobson and most of the things his program has to say, but my ears perked up when he spoke of Beth Moore. I first "met" Beth back at Passion 99 and instantly fell in love with her fireball delivery! Dr. Dobson was introducing this segment, as it was originally from the National Day of Prayer meeting that he and his wife Shirley attended in D.C. a few weeks ago. Beth was a speaker but did not get aired over the radio waves that day. Man, am I glad he chose to air her segment because it was rich...and it only lasted about 10 minutes. That girl can say more good stuff in 10 minutes than I will ever in a lifetime!

This is some of what she said:

God calls us to righteousness not results. She gave many examples of this in the Bible, one being Isaiah. He was a prophet that God used to speak to His people but the people did not listen. So why didn't Isaiah just give up? If they weren't going to listen, why should he keep speaking to them? Because Isaiah knew God's call on his life, and it wasn't about the results or the outcomes of whatever he said or did. God knew the people would not listen. Isaiah saw that the people were not listening. But obeying God's call and command on his life produced righteouseness, and that is far more important and fruitful than results.

My mind immediately jumped to the book I have been reading with a group of mommies called Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp. We have learned many, many things as a result of reading this book but for me, maybe the most important thing I've learned is that my responsibility as their mother is not to produce this certain type of person that I think is good and right and loves the Lord. That, of course, is my desire but not my responsibility. No, my responsibility is to train and teach them what is right and good and pray that the Lord would mold them into men after His own heart. I cannot produce or control that. My calling is to train and teach. A focus on righteousness, not results.

Beth Moore then recounted a story of some friends who had a son. These friends were very successful doctors, had always done everything right and had great plans for their children. It was not long after birth that it became apparent that their son, Gabriel, had some learning disabilites. He was diagnosed with severe seizures and at age 15, could only write one word, his name. And he couldn't write his entire name....just the first 3 letters. She relates that he did perfect on the first letter, "G", but then the "a" was always just a circle, that he never remembered to put the tail on the circle to make it a lowercase a. And the "b" was always inverted so it looked like the letter d, and then he would always follow that with a period. So everytime his mother or father would pick up a drawing that Gabriel had done, it would have his name scribbled at the top and would look like this: "God."

A reminder from the Lord that it is righteouseness, not results, that matters to Him.

What He is doing in my heart is the real treasure, not the results we may "see" here on this earth.