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The Monitor
Posted By MaryBeth
When his baby sister was born, my son Brad marveled over the baby monitor we placed in her room. A typical little boy, he immediately picked it up and used it like a walkie-talkie. He was certain that the baby upstairs could hear him over the monitor. I had to explain to him that the monitor only worked one way.
“You see,” I told him, “We put the monitor there so we can hear the baby if she cries. That way we are never so far that we can’t hear her if she needs us. She can’t see us or hear us, but we are right there with her. All she has to do is call, and we will come running.” As soon as I uttered these words, I realized Who this explanation sounded like. I thought of my Heavenly parent who “monitors” His precious children at all times.
So often, I feel like I am all alone in the world, wondering: “Does He even hear me? Why won’t He answer?” I forget that just because I can’t see Him or hear Him, it doesn’t mean He isn’t right there—monitoring, waiting, listening, guarding—just like I do with my own precious child. He is ever present, connected through a powerful and encompassing love—a love that even went to the cross so that connection could last for all eternity.
Just as I assure my son of my presence, He is there, assuring me of His. As I read His word and spend times of quiet prayer, I can hear His still, small voice:
You can not see me, but I am with you.
You can not hear me, but I am listening for your cries.
Just call me, and I will be there, just as I have promised.
Daddy’s here. You have nothing to fear.
I am keeping watch over you at all times. I do not sleep. You are never alone, my child.
Rest. Take comfort. Find peace in my love. You are precious to me.
That day, as I reflected on my need for monitoring, I thanked God for always watching over me. I thanked Him for being the perfect role model as a parent, and for guiding me each day as I make my way through life. I thanked Him for once again using my own little child to teach me how to be have faith like a child. How grateful I am to have Him just a prayer away—always listening, always there—not because I deserve it and not because I earned it. Just because He loves me, and that is enough.
Discussion:
What situation has the Lord put in your life that prompted you to have child like faith? How are you using that situation for His glory and your growth?
Sep 8th, 2006
It is wonderful how you used the monitor as a tool to teach you son about faith…very lovingly.
I feel that when life throws us obstacles that we sometimes do not understand. I have come to the realization that by stumbling in the dark with worry, we waste so much time. We have to remember that God has everything under control.
We need to lean on our faith and trust that the Lord will guide us. Therefore, we shall be able to put our minds at ease and frolic in the light.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light…Ephesians 5:8
and HIS monitor never runs out of batteries!
i’m so glad about that.
thank you for sharing this post. shalom….
Marybeth
So much love and so much affirmation…we could move mountains if we gave this to each other all the time. That’s my biggest doubt as a parent. Not am I keeping them safe, am I providing adequate opportunities. But what am I *teaching* them?
Parenthood isn’t an orderly classroom, but a stew pot of spontaneous interactions in which my essential character shows through and helps to form theirs. What do I show them?
O my Father…My heart is the wandering compass needle…but you are my magnetic north …my true home. I set my face to follow you and everyday to come, journeying toward thehiger hills of faith. How I long to meet you there face to face.
I love the analogy you use.
There are so many times we don’t feel like God is on the other side because we don’t audible hear him. But oh how that can be sooo wrong.
Great message.
I love the way you used a simple baby monitor as the perfect example of how our Father watches over us even when we are unaware. I used a baby monitor when my mother-in-law was dying of cancer. I placed one in her bedroom upstairs and one in my bedroom downstairs and I heard her every single time she cried out and needed me. That is exactly how our Lord cares for us. Always there, silently keeping a close eye on his children.
Beautiful, Marybeth.
I loved this analogy as well. What a special way to use an everyday device to teach our Children a Godly principal. There are opportunities everywhere in our daily life. Great post and glad to meet you through your writing.
Have a blessed day.
Two years ago I went to this work shop for recovery called the Road Adventure, and one of the last things that happens to everyone at the Road is to be put in a Cradle of Love. The way they do this is to pick you up as if you were lying down, floating on air. Then they play a song that they hand-picked just for you, and then they rock you back and forth until the song stops. I knew ahead of time that this was going to happen, but as it got closer to me, fear started to completely take over my body. This was mainly because one of the things that I had done to myself throughout the last twenty years was to damage my body severely. I went from weighing about 150 pounds to weighing about 400 pounds at the time I was at the Road. I was so afraid to have these people touch my body, especially the men, because of my shame over how I looked.
Chuck saw that I was losing control, so he came up to me and put his hands in my hands and said, “Will you trust me to help you through this?” I told him I could. He took me over to the middle of the room, and all these people surrounded me. They told me to just very calmly fall backwards, and let my feet come up as I did. I was crying and calling out for Chuck, but they all stayed right there with me, never once faltering because I was so heavy. Before I knew it, I was all the way in the air, lying in all their arms and being rocked like a newborn baby. At first, I shook and shook, and called for Chuck even more than I did at the beginning when he first asked to help me. Then all of a sudden, I began to feel this calmness rush all through me. I could feel the tears of the people around me hitting my body. These people, who did not know me, were all holding me, rocking me and even crying for me. It felt as if God had come to me that very moment to console me, even saying to me that, if I could find a way to give my faith to Him, then He could find a way to heal me.
Maybe if I did this, then God would forgive me of the sinful love I put into my children’s lives that my father spoke of. To be forgiven by God was one thing I was just not sure could happen for me yet, but if I forgave all the people who hurt my girls, then maybe He really would take my sins from my children. So this would be the beginning of my new goal in life, and it would give me purpose for the time being and, for right now, that is all I could ask for.
It was a very profound moment for me, one that I have never experienced in my life before, and the beginning of what now was to be the greatest journey I would ever travel. This was the beginning of my faith-building process of trusting God completly.
Wonderful analogy.
(My son does that too with his cousin Julia’s monitor. No matter how often I tell him she can’t hear him, he still tries to talk to her through it.)
So often I wish I could just have him talk back when I cry out - but I know that is where faith grows.
That is brilliant!
I use a monitor with my little girl Julia and now I will always think of God listening to us in the same way.
I am so much like Julia, who every time she wakes and I’m not there, panics and cries out for me. I rush to her and assure her I’m there and she falls peacefully back to sleep. I often wish I could see the Lord walk right into my room, put His hand on my back and wait for me to fall peacefully to sleep. I have to remember that even though I cannot see Him in the room, that He is there.
Thank you so very much for sharing!
Wow, what an awesome concept. He shows us little lessons in every day simple things, huh? Great Post!
I love the baby monitor concept. Such a simple things but explains things so perfectly. I too am glad He’s always listening. I too have been known to panic when I don’t think He’s there. I really like that image of Him listening to me via the baby monitor connecting us.