Partner or Stinker?

I feel like I'm kind of being a stinker. Or at the very least, a whiner.

My kids get called stinker pretty often. On the parenting lingo scale, it sits somewhere between Endearment and Very Long Sigh.

Most of the name calling is currently aimed at my toddler. You know that stage where little kids realize that they can take off running when their name is called? In. The. Thick.

Cooperating with mom is the furtherest thing from his chubby little mind. He has his own little agenda and his own devious plans. Run baby! Run!

I feel like a stinker too.

The word cooperate is a powerful one. 

co·op·er·ate

verb

1. Act jointly; work toward the same end.
2.      Assist someone or comply with their requests.

If I am being a stinker to God, it's pretty much the opposite of cooperating with him. I am not assisting him, I am not complying. 

But I love that first definition a whole lot more. 

    Act jointly; work toward the same end.

When we cooperate with God, we are working with him, working towards the same goal. We are actually in partnership with him. 

How amazing is it that God allows us to tag along with him and assist him with his big purposes? Pretty amazing. And then, if we are cooperating with God, if we are CO-operating, we are actually partnering with him. 

Very amazing.

God gave me the word Partner as my personal theme last year and you would think that after a year in God's School with one dominate theme, I would have this one DOWN. If only.

There has been a situation in my little life where God is asking me to cooperate with him. He is already doing something special in this situation. He has his sleeves rolled up and he has mud up to his arm pits. He is asking me to jump into this project with him. 

A stinker tries to get out of it. Or at the very least whines the whole way through the project. 

A partner rolls up their sleeves and digs in beside God. A partner is working towards the same end.

Is God asking you to join him in a project that he has going on? What an honor!

Time to shed that sweater, get dirty and be the partner that God knew you were when he called you. 

My sleeves are up and I'm diving in.

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