Wisdom from Kung Fu Panda???

OK.. Don't give up on me yet and I haven't turned in my Savior Jesus for Buddah. I recently watched this movie with my children and sat down prepared for the usuall no plot, same old same old, worn out theme for kids movies. Well, Iwasn't totally surprised. As a matter of fact I didn't even sit down on the first run of the movie. I got bored so what did I do? I washed dishes and cleaned a kitchen. Not usually what I do when bored out of my mind. Fast forward to the next night when the new-to-us video was begged for agian.....



This time the kitchen was cleaned, dishes put up and dessert served. I settled in once again and watched. OK OK you know me better than that. I sat with the kids in the same room but brought my calendar and home school week with me. I listened half way and then came a part when my son said" This is where the turtle dies mom." I wanted to make sure this wasn't some Buddah nonsense I was going to have to explain to a Sunday School teacher so I watched. And this is where the wisdom comes in....



If you haven't seen the movie I might spoil it for you but check this out....The turtle is talking to Shifu(don't know what he is) and tells him to stop trying to change the panda. You see the panda wasn't what Shifu thought he should be. Not the ferocious warrior type. The turtle tells him basically ( I am paraphrasing here)


"you might have hoped for a peach but you have an apple tree. No matter how you try you cannot change a peach tree to an apple tree. It hit me right there. Do I do that with my children? I know I have.



Has the Lord given me a peach trees and I am working my tail off trying to make then into apples. We all have an idea of what we want our children to be ,or sometime when they are acting up, not to be. We didn't ordain their future. The Lord has. He know what he has planned for our children. They were His before they were our. They are only a gift, on loan to train in godliness, to glorify Him and learn how to worship Him so when we get to heaven the can do what they were taught to do on earth.



Seek the Lord when it come to your children(I am talking to myself here) The little habits or tendencies that bother you just might be what the Lord has instilled in them to do their calling . I am hoping the hard headedness that occupies some of my children will be what God uses for them to stand firm for Him. Maybe the gentleness that is in my children is for reaching the homeless with a gentle heart. I shouldn't look at their ways as a bad thing just because it isn't what I have in mind for them.

Proverbs 24:14 says" Wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future of hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off."



So what if you have an apple, orange or even a nut tree. Let's spend our energy into pruning, watering, and shaping our trees into ones that reflect a home that loved them and wanted God's best for them. Not ours.