God Box

The best advice I was ever given was to start a God Box for my prayers. At first, I wondered if it would be helpful, but I gravitate toward word pictures to help me grasp spiritual concepts so I was drawn to the idea. The God Box is a tangible picture of learning how to turn over my worries to God and leave them in His hands. 

I've been surprised how the simple act of writing down my concern on piece of paper and putting it in the God Box has transformed how I pray and how I see God. For years, I prayed to God and thought I had let go. But what I was actually doing was telling God how I wanted Him to answer my prayer. Or I was praying for someone or something to change so I could feel better.  But when I write down the prayer and put it in the God Box, I am letting God have it. I am truly letting go. My prayer is simple.  "This is too big for me to figure out on my own. I need Your help.  I'll wait for You to show me what to do."

Don't get me wrong. It's not easy to put some of the big ones in the box and leave them there. But the gift of the God Box is that I'm not trying to figure out the answer anymore. I wait. I live. I listen. Sometimes I have to remind myself, "It's in the God Box. Don't take it out today." Some of the things I put in my God Box are in there for a long time. Months. Maybe years. (I just started in 2011.)  But when I look back months later, I've often discovered that what was once a burden is now gone. My attitude or perspective has changed, and I can just remove it.

This past spring, my son struggled with two boys at school. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get them to stop bothering him. Our school was helping and intervening with the boys, but my son was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the situation. It was often the most difficult on Sunday evening when he was thinking about going to school the next day. I told him about my God Box and how I put problems that are too big for me to handle in it. I told him he could let me know if he wanted to use the God Box for his prayers.

That following morning at breakfast, he said, "Mom, can I put Jeff and Andy (not their real names) in the God Box?" So he wrote down their names on a piece of paper and put it in the box. He loved that the box had a special lock. One side has panels that slide into different positions to lock the box shut. I chose this box because reminds me that my prayers are locked in tight and safe and not to be taken out again!

As my son put the prayer into the box, I found myself thinking, "Okay, God. You got this one? You better show up!" Then I started thinking of ways I might need to explain to my son why God was not answering his prayers right away. Once again, I saw that I think I need to have a back up plan for God.  I too had to put this situation in the box that morning and trust that God could handle it.

When my husband picked up our son from school that day he was beaming. He was surrounded by classmates all trying to stand next to him. We soon found out that his teachers had decided to have a meeting that day with the two classes in my son's grade that included my son and the two boys.  My son was able to share in a safe environment about the teasing and how he felt like he had no friends at recess. Other students also opened up about how they felt the same way as my son. They came up with solutions on how to solve the problem. The teachers initiated letting my son pick a special friend for each recess over the next week. When the teachers asked who would like an opportunity to be my son's special friend, everyone raised their hands and wanted to be chosen. One teacher shared that this meeting was one of the most moving moments that she had experienced in her 30 years as an educator.

You can say it was a coincidence. I say it was God touching my son's life with an answer to his prayer. It was his dewdrop from heaven. And his mom got to enjoy it too. We were both so excited to take out our slips of paper in the God Box that evening. I wish that every slip of paper came out the next day. But that is not the case. But this experience with my son sure made me want to trust God to take care of me ... one day at a time. I could share time and time again when the answer comes in unexpected ways. But for right now, I want to keep those as God's special gifts to me that I keep hidden in my heart.

In this season of my life, I am learning to put my son's diagnosis of Tourette Syndrome into the box. Today I will be writing down, "How to parent a child with Tourette's?" This is what I need to put in my God Box. What about you?  I would encourage you to use the God Box and see what you discover.