THE PRESSURE POT OF RESPONSIBILITY II
Are you toiling and boiling and trying your darnedest to be a good parent in this toxic world where what used to be good is now bad, and what once worked, for thousands of years as parents and grandparents, is now deemed abusive? Are you deemed, as a parent outside the bounds of the law, abusive just because you discipline your children? Do you feel the burn, the scorn of society because of it?
Well, so did I, and a lot of other parents…until I began to learn what the pressure pot of responsibility was all about. Now in Pressure Pot I, I go into how our parents and grandparents put us into the pressure pot of responsibility, what it was, what it was like, and how it affected us all in the beginnings of our lives. If you would like to start at the beginning with an informative and insightful read, CLICK HERE: Are You in the Pressure Pot of Responsibility? Parenting? Are you toiling and boiling and don’t know how to get out?
When we left off with The Pressure Pot of Responsibility I, we were at the point when I wanted to delve into God’s idea of a pressure pot! So here goes!
Like I said before, pressure pots have very distinct and unequivocal directions on how to properly use them, requirements if you will, for your safety. If you don’t diligently adhere to them, I promise you, you will have an explosion on your hands; a very dangerous one. You could lose your life!!!
You may think the pressure pot of responsibility is not as dangerous, but I would argue that it is even more dangerous if not done properly; and I would add, Godly.
Responsibility. It has been an ugly word for a long time now. Sitting in a room, on a computer, playing video games and what-not is not the real reality of life, but is unfortunately a lot of today’s children’s realities. And while I understand it is very dangerous these days to let your children play outside, if not watched over by mature adults, or parents, not teaching them the real reality of life is just as dangerous. Statistics say at least 800,000 children go missing in America every year. Just think about that, and try to consider what the people who have abducted them are doing with them. Why isn’t the news, mainstream media talking about this? It’s outrageous that they don’t! Why?
Okay, I’ll try not to get off topic again. Let’s go back to responsibility, and being a responsible parent. After I had worked with children for five years in the school system, I was horrified that most children didn’t understand some of the most elemental basics of life. For instance: They did not know where their food came from. They thought it magically appeared in the supermarket. I’m not kidding you when I say this. I could go on and on!
But I will not. Here, now, I’d like to share my testimony of my pressure pot of responsibility to my own children.
When my two children became teenagers, I thought I was doing a good job of being a mother. But in my prayer time, the Lord began to deal with me and convict me about some of my so called “good” mothering ways. I got the feeling he didn’t approve of them, much to my dismay. This caused me to pray even harder. I was confused, thinking I had been giving them good advice…direction.
Then came the day when the Lord shocked me to my core. To make a long story short enough for this blog, I will just explain it this way. The Lord basically told me I could no longer tell my children what to do! What? How could I continue raising them without telling them what to do; correct them?
In our culture, most children do not respect their parents, and this is a result of having an “entitled” mentality. You can’t spoil a child with too much love, but you can spoil them with too many possessions they have had no part in earning. Earning “stuff” is hard work, something a lot of children in this toxic culture know nothing about.
So…I had been teaching my children the right concepts…or so I thought. Now, I didn’t know what to do, so I kept praying. Then came the kicker that put me in the pressure pot!
Get this! The Lord told me I could only correct my children and tell them what HE told me to say!! Whaaaat?? Now in those days, I was really having a hard time discerning the voice of the Lord. But I was learning, when the Lord wanted me to hear his voice, it was loud and clear. No doubt there.
From that point, I began to know, through experience, not mental knowledge of concepts, what the pressure pot of God was all about. Can you guess how many times my mouth opened to tell my children what to do? But I couldn’t. I had to watch them struggle, even as I struggled, to understand my new role as the Lord’s spokesperson to my teenage children. I had to learn to watch them make mistakes, struggle in the culture, wanting to become part of it. Even though I felt a lot of their decisions were wrong, I couldn’t say a word. Can you imagine that? If you know me, you would laughingly say, “No!”
Let me tell you, I began to be more on my knees, my head in the Bible, and learning to discern the Lord’s voice among all the chattering thoughts in my head, for the sake of my children, and them learning right from wrong; God’s ways.
I was in the pressure pot cooking, torn, confused, and wondering if I was even hearing the voice of God!! But I learned to discern his voice. I learned that even if I didn’t get it right the first time, he wasn’t angry. But lovingly encouraged me to keep on going.
In my pressure pot, God began to bring out the servant in me, waiting on HIM to give ME direction to my children!
I began to be grateful, and gracious, and eternally thankful as I watched God’s direction to me begin to play out for the betterment of my children in mine, and their everyday life.
Did I get it wrong sometimes? Yes, yes I did. Did I fail to deliver the Lord’s words in the right way sometimes? Yes, yes I did. But in my defense, consider this: Jesus discipled grown men for three and one half years! Guess what? They still didn’t get it. That is, until, the day of Pentecost. When the Light, the Truth, the Comforter came, he continued to disciple them. Meaning, they had to adhere to the risen Lord leading them and guiding them in the responsibility of their individual lives, and work for the Lord, ministry, his servants, if you will.
I want to say this about my pressure pot of responsibility; I learned to hear his voice, and I became his servant. And…this is a big one…I gave him the honor for his word. I told my children that I heard from the Lord, and then I gave them HIS words, not mine. And they began to see the richness of his word in their lives. They saw me struggle, pray, fast, and wait on the Lord for his word for our family, for their lives, and for our future.
Then, the most amazing thing began to happen! They began coming to me in the middle of their problems and asking me to pray to the Lord for direction. I would always say yes, and many, many times, I would tell them they needed to pray with me. And they began to.
As I began to give God the honor, praise, and glory for his precious words of instruction and wisdom into our lives, it was as if someone hit the pressure gage, and pressure I didn’t even realize I was under began to be released. Anxiety, fears, and other toxic feeling where my children were concerned began to be released from my spirit, toxic spirits that had caused my mind to be in bondage to them.
The Lord put me in a pressure pot of responsibility. Then he brought my children into it. And eventually my husband. We were all in this pressure pot of responsibility, and we learned to let the Lord lead us and guide us.
We all began to get to know the Lord and he strengthened our relationship with him and each other. It also brought us into new levels of faith we didn’t even know existed, except for the stories in the Bible.
I give him all the praise and glory for it. And I did, and still do, in front of my family.
In that pressure pot of responsibility, I learned the difference between being a good mother and a Godly mother. My Bible, my prayer, and fasting became my foundation for living.
1 Corinthians 10:24 (BBE)
24 Let a man give attention not only to what is good for himself, but equally to his neighbor’s good.
I sought the Lord for the benefit of my children. But the benefits I never dreamed of became our way of life, living as servants of the Lord.
Now if you have a problem with being a servant, listen to what Jesus says about it. Mark 10:45 (BBE)
45 For truly the Son of man did not come to have servants, but to be a servant, and to give his life for the salvation of men.
If Jesus came to be a SERVANT, and we, as Christians, are supposed to be modeling ourselves after Christ Jesus, aren’t we supposed to more concerned about becoming HIS SERVANT than anything else?
Think about this: 1 Corinthians 4:1 (BBE)
1 Let us be judged as SERVANTS of Christ, and as those who are RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SECRET THINGS OF GOD.
IN MY PRESSURE POT OF GOD, the Lord brought me close, trained me to hear his voice, and began to teach me about my responsibility towards my children. When he felt he could TRUST me, he began to REVEAL the secret things about my children that he and he alone knew. In order to do that, I had to be patient and confident, with faith towards him, the Lord, that he knew what he was doing. Through me, his servant, he wanted them to know that he knew them better than they knew themselves. Know why? Because our toxic society wants us to be cookie cutter people. Even the church sometimes has this mentality. But God does not!!! Because we are not cookie cutter people. We are each one uniquely, and one-of-a-kind created by God, for God’s purposes alone.
(I want to put an ad here: My books are all about the uniqueness of each and every one of my characters in my fiction novels. And I celebrate them and the Lord while I write each story. My stories are not cookie cutter genre! If that is what you want, the same old same old, you will not appreciate my stories of love, faith, growth, intrigue, and romance. They are each unique, because I want my characters to each come off as real, unique, one-of-a-kind characters; ones the readers can empathize with. Why do I say empathize? {I found this on the web. I don’t know who said it, but it fits here.} By means of empathy, a great painting, or novel, becomes a mirror of the self.)
So, if you feel as if you are in God’s pressure pot of responsibility, suffering, even in physical pain, know this: The bottom line in your pot is three things: 1. Become obedient, and do it as quickly as you can, without delay. 2. Acknowledge, accept, and underscore, in your mind, that you are being trained to become a SERVANT of El Elyon, the God Most High; Elohim, God, the Creator of all things! 3. Acknowledge, and rebuke, most persistently, any and all rebellious spirits that try to cause you to kick against the pricks! Allow God to bring you to a point of praise and worship from the heart. And when you begin to genuinely do this, you will begin to see the Lord hit the pressure valve and let off the pressure.
But know and understand this, in God’s Pressure Pot of Responsibility, you will have to deal with yourself and the toxic spirits Satan has tried to bind you with, to enslave you to him. But God wants you to be free.
John 8:36 (KJV)
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Satan wants you to be in bondage, a slave, bound in the chains of sin. God wants you to be free. That is why he sent his son into the world, to save us from slavery and sin to Satan, into becoming free to serve God. After all, that is what we all were created for.
It is our duty, our responsibility to serve Adonai, our Lord!
Jesus said to pray this way: Our Father, who art in heaven… Abba, our Father.
Speaking as a parent, is it really our responsibility to teach our children about the Heavenly Father, God?
What is the big deal about “giving God the honor, praise, and the glory?”
Why should we give Him, God, the credit when it is us who are working our tails off down here on earth to survive?
Ever wondered these things? Well, we are going to cover this in God’s Pressure Pot of Responsibility III!
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Thank you for visiting! I hope you enjoyed the blog.
And by all means, click over to Shop-For-Love to check out all my books where you can purchase them straight from amazon.
If you would like to read more about my “pressure pot of responsibility” testimony and how to build a Godly foundation in your home, our most precious places on earth, check out my non-fiction testimonial book: Inside Sarah’s Tent, Birthing God’s Blessings Inside Your Home, A Handbook of Hope for the Home.
And also, my children’s book, Emma’s Moments; six stories on how one set of parents began to take the things of everyday life to teach their little “question box” Emma about God, his kingdom, and salvation through Jesus. They are fun, fresh, and are good for both parents and children. 
Also, check out my latest fictional love and romance story, #5 in the series, One-of-a-kind Snowflakes Series:
After years of longing for real, passionate love, the kind with a story to tell, Lilly Noel thinks she has finally found her man, William Gallagher. But Will is cool, reclusive, and only seems to care about his young daughter, Katie Marie. Can Lilly breach Will’s stone wall of resistance to her and convince him to take a chance on love again? When Will’s past begins to unfold, Lilly realizes that the kind of love she has been longing for could have a high price tag. Can she step out on faith and pay the high price, especially when a strange woman from Will’s past comes back into his life with her own demands, and the price for love seems so high that Lilly wonders if love is out of her reach, once again.
Again, thank you so much!
From Romance & the Homestead, be blessed in the Lord!
Della
Author Della M Strickland 