Seeing the True Gifts

 ¹ A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
       from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
 ² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
       the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
       the Spirit of counsel and of power,
       the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -
 ³ and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
       He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
       or decide by what he hears with his ears;
 ⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
       with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
       He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
       with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
 ⁵ Righteousness will be his belt
       and faithfulness the sash around his waist.   Isaiah 11:1-5

Now obviously, these verses are talking about the Messiah, but can they also apply to our individual lives?  I think so.  I'd like to focus on verse two today.

"The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him - the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." 

You know, here is Isaiah, writing about the Holy Spirit 600 years before Jesus promised Him, long before that crazy day of Pentecost.  And I think this is really important, because our faith rests in the knowledge that God has always been God; the Trinity of God has always been the Trinity of God.  God said in Genesis 1, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness."

In other words, God has always - since the dawn of time - yearned to make us like Him.  And He has always been gifting the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Spirit - the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge, and fear of the Lord.

I've had a lot of gifts in my life.  I've had plenty and I've had little.  And I know - in my ripe old age - (shut up Stephen) that there are no better gifts than the spiritual ones, the gifts that come from God.

Tonight we took our little one to see Toy Story 3.  (SPOILER ALERT!!!)  Towards the end of the movie, Andy's mother realizes that he really truly is leaving for college, and she gets emotional.  Cut to me, sniffling in my seat, thinking of myself there in 10 years. 

So I vowed right then and there to take all the time with Samuel I could, to enjoy the little things, to be the best darned mother in the world.  Patient, kind, understanding, sweet . . . you know, June Cleaver on valium and cough syrup . . .

Yeah right.  The truth of the matter is that I want to be those things . . . for me.  I want to be the best darned mother in the world for my own selfishness, not because of any deep or spiritual reason.  So that others will name streets after me, my child will grow up to become President of the United States and write speeches about me . . . ummm, excuse me.  Back to reality.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be the BDM (best darned mother, gotta love acronyms).  But I gotta quit trying to be the BDM, and just focus on God and learning and understanding Him and knowing Him - allowing His gifts to pour over me.  What kind of mother could I be if I have the gifts described above:  "The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord."

That's right.  The BDM.  Because if I'm able to approach life and give to others as a wise and understanding woman, one who gives good counsel and is spiritually powerful, one who is knowledgeable and above all, who fears the Lord . . . I could be a BDM to many.

How about you?