You have to read that title in your best newspaper boy voice.

Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

So many people I know comment on how they think they could live so easily with the cross that someone else experiences. Maybe if we had the other person’s cross we would find it as difficult as they do.  But maybe not.  I think more often than not, the other person’s cross WOULD be easier for you. And that is precisely why God didn’t choose it for you.

I was talking to my friend yesterday about about how our trials are just exactly in line with the things we hate and just aren’t good at.  God is all knowing. He just knows me so much better than I will ever know myself.  He knows my faults and my graces, and just exactly what I need to overcome in order to get to heaven.

I think God tailors our cross to best help us get to heaven.  One of my sisters is the most organized, energetic, fun, lovely women in the world.  She has all the qualities of a great mom.  And no children.  I am crazy, lazy, messy, and rather emotional.  Nice combo.  My husband is a saint.  Oh, and 8 sticky Mick’s running around.  Soemtimes even I wonder what God was thinking.  So I am left with this: God picks our cross special made to help us overcome our worst qualities in order to help us get to heaven.

God is all good.  He only gives me good things, even when they don’t feel that great.  A good example of this is the chores that I give to my own children.  A couple of the children really hate to brush their teeth.  Gross, I know.  So guess what?  I hound them.  Those teeth are getting brushed every morning and every night whether you like it or not.  This is obvious.  If they don’t bruch their teeth they will get cavities (which cost a lot of money to fix), they will have related dental probelms, but also they will have other illnesses.  Studies show that poor dental health leads to all sorts of other problems, including heart disease.  If they learn as children to take good care of their teeth, hopefully when they leave home they will continue to do so.  So when God asks me to do something that I hate, like spending my whole life washing dishes, it is for my own good in the end.  Even if sometimes it seems like a tedious waste of time.

And finally of course, God is all present.  When I don’t feel like I can get up one more time at night, or do one more load of laundry, He is already there with me.  He is in the bathroom with me when I am holding a child’s hair for a night of barfing.  And he is there when I say for the four hundredth time in a day as I perform some menial task, “I do this for you, O Lord”.  Because that is my cross, I am a housewife and it really isn’t my cup of tea.  But it will bring me sanctification if I can just learn to embrace it in all of it’s diapers, dishes, and dust.

By the way, that picture seems to bring a lot of traffic to this post.  I did take the picture and you are free to use it, but please do so in a manner respectful to the cross itself.

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