race cars and sneezing gloves

I have eight children. They are all different. Some of them are readers or story-tellers. Some are artists. Some are social butterflies and some are introverts who prefer to hang out with the dog. And some...some are doers. They have great ideas and they plow full force ahead into those ideas. 

When my now nine year old was five, we were in need of a new car. He desperately wanted us to get a race car. Unfortunately a race car is not very practical for a family of ten, so we got a 15 passenger van. We bought it used, but it was new to us and in pretty decent shape at the time. Lucky for us, he had an idea! You see, we also had this really old freezer in the garage. It was all rusted and ugly and I had an idea! (I'm realizing as I write this that I might be part of the problem). I decided that I would paint the freezer bright red. Instead of being an eyesore in the corner of the garage it would be a focal point. I painted the freezer red and it really did look better. I then put the can of spray paint on top of the freezer so that it would be out of reach of the kids. But kids climb, especially kids with ideas, and climb he did. He got that can of red spray paint and started at one tail light. He went all the way around the front of our new van and around to the other tail light. I literally caught him red handed. He was so mad that we didn't like his idea! I mean a race car! He had been determined that he could turn that ugly old van into a race car and when he got in trouble for it, he could not comprehend why we didn't think it had been a good idea. As a side note, if this happens to you, it will come off! As soon as it happens, mix a bucket of water and Dawn dish soap and wet a rag in it, then dip the rag in baking soda and gently scrub the paint off. 

Last week my four year old had a brilliant idea! You know how whenever you have to blow your nose, you have to go and find a tissue? It is so inconvenient. I mean, walking all the way over to the box of tissues? What are we? Cavemen? Good news. We no longer have to live in the dark ages! Here is what you do. Get yourself a pair of gloves and wear them. All the time. Whenever you need to blow your nose, just blow it right into those gloves! What? You're concerned about walking around with a gross booger glove on your hand? No problem. Once you've finished, just take your booger glove and wipe it off on your hair. Problem solved. 

Kids are awesome, aren't they? If either of them would have run their idea past me, I probably would have given them some guidance. You know, let's not paint the car. Maybe we could build a race car out of this awesome box! Or, hey, instead of using the booger-glove-hair system for blowing your nose, what if we put a tissue in your pocket?  But they were confident that their ideas were brilliant. Non-brilliant ideas don't just pop into your head, now, do they? 

Do you ever find yourself in these types of situations? I do. Probably more than I should. I run full steam ahead, confident in my plans. I don't stop to think. I don't get any input. I just do. There are other times when I hem and haw, trying to decide if I should really do something. So how do we know when our ideas are good ones that we should act on? Here are 3 ways you can test your ideas. 

1. Always, always, take it to the Lord. Run it by HIm. Seek His wisdom on the matter. Spend time in prayer asking Him to reveal your heart and His plans. 
2. Listen. Often when I ask the Lord about something it sounds like, "Hey, God, I've got this idea. What do you think? Yeah, I think I'll do that. Amen." Even when I do take it to the Lord, I don't even Him much of a chance to guide me. I can't count the number of times I've regretted speaking words that I thought I should have spoken, or how many times I've regretted a decision that seemed to make so much sense at the time.
3. Know Him by spending time with Him. That way when you have an idea, you'll know what His Word says about it. You'll know His voice when He speaks to you. We need to be ready to act when the Lord leads us to, but we have to know His voice and His Word. Do you know His voice, Beloved? Do you take time to know Him? Silence is uncomfortable. Our attention spans are short. I can sit in silence for about 45 seconds before I finally cave and grab my phone or a book or something!

Practice silence with me? Will you pray and spend some time reading the things He's written in His Word and then will you be silent, listening to what He is whispering to you?