God is Better Than ________.

Every night the girls repeat a phrase or two about who God is or how He relates to them.

"God is good."

"God is wise."

"God made me."

"God loves us."

They have all of the above phrases memorized, plus a few more. Edwin created a new phrase for the girls.

"God is better than milk."

This is an odd point of theology, I admit. I mean, who would question such an obviously true statement? For our girls, however, this is a major statement of faith. Milk is their good. They love it. They pant for it. They get down-right desperate for it. In order for God to be better than milk, God has to be really good.

The question now turns to me. There are the things in this life that seem absolutely necessary. Basic needs that could never be stripped away. Then God does something beyond gracious. Beyond kind. Beyond good. He takes them, and then He proves that He is better. Here are some of those things in my life:

• God is better than the the dreams I have for my children. When we found out about DeLaynie's learning issues, I began to question what that means for her long-term. This is when I learned, and continue to learn, that God's plan for DeLaynie is better than my dreams for DeLaynie.
• God is better than having a home. We were homeless for a while, but we were never Godless. By homeless I mean that we didn't know where we would be living. God always provided shelter for us, even if we didn't know when or how it would work out.
• God is better than serving Him our way. When we were told that we couldn't do overseas mission work, it was a hard pill to swallow. How could God not want us to do that? It was in that time that we learned that it takes a very big change in our plans in order to follow His plan.
• God is better than chocolate. While we were still planning on going overseas, we had a problem with getting through the medical requirements. I was too fat. So I had to lose weight. I lost fifty pounds, and although the last ten are going to be gained and lost many more times, He has always proven Himself to be greater than any food I may want. Sure, we ended up losing our medical clearance because of other problems that were in no way under our control, but it was still an important step of obedience to lose the weight, go through the program, find ourselves jobless, homeless, and clueless, and finally discover the place of service God had prepared for us. It was a process that has helped us to understand just how good God is, and it all started with realizing a very basic truth:

God is better.

What has God proven to be better than in your life?