During this outing, the topic of free-will came up. Throughout my journey, both before walking with the Lord and now, free-will was something that I allowed to define for me why I thought God was either good or not, whether He really wanted good for my life or not. My younger daughter had looked at me and said something about what she would or wouldn’t do when she was all grown up. Well, my mama heart never lets me give up an opportunity to impart nuggets of wisdom (wanted or unwanted)!

I asked the girls if they understood that God gives us boundaries because He loves us. They nodded but had a look of slight hesitation on their sweet ice cream covered faces. So I said, let’s think about it like this: Do you remember that when you go bowling and aren’t sure how to do it, the staff will put down the gutter-bumpers so your ball doesn’t always just go into the gutter. Instead, the bumpers allow the ball to go through all kinds of crazy and chaos, but they always are gentle in guiding the ball all the way down the lane into the beautiful collection of pins – right where it was meant to go.

Ok maybe my analogy didn’t fix the questioning hearts of a 9- and 7-year-old right in the moment. But I was convicted by my own wisdom nugget! How cool is it to close your eyes and imagine the amazing and fun times in your life. Also imagine the times you felt stuck and wobbly, or chaotic and a little off-centered. Now imagine that you are the bowling ball, and Jesus’ arms are stretched out, bumpers gently guiding you through life – always letting some life happen, but also always keeping you out of the gutter.