A Series In Proverbs

When the kids where little and home all day with me, I had a nice schedule that I kept to keep us busy, productive and cheerful. We started the day with breakfast and I always read a Bible story while the kids ate. Before the kids where allowed to leave the table, they had to say a memory verse. The majority of the verses where from Proverbs. I wrote them on note cards and kept them at the table so that we would be consistent with our verse memorization. It has proved a good idea and now that mornings are busy with school preparations, I find it amazing to find time to do anything but eat, clean, dress and run out the door. But I have been trying to reinstate our old tradition because of the fruit I have seen from it. They still know the verses and Jason and I know them as well so it is easy to call them to mind in times of great need. And we find that these times of great need occur multiple times throughout each day. I often picked verses that I needed to memorize, finding that if mom is struggling in one area you can be sure that kids are right their with her. And it taught and is teaching the kids how to meditate on Gods word. Jason has pointed out a number of times to different groups of people, that meditating on Gods word is a public practice. It is not something that is meant to be in solitude. Meditating is the art of interacting with God's word with each other. God is a Trinity and never alone; He is always in conversation, the Son with the Spirit and Father, the Father with the Son and the Spirit, and the Spirit with the Father and Son. And so we are to imitate this. You should be in the word, getting yourself familiar with the stories, the poetry, the wisdom. But you do this not to internalize it all in your private little devotion but you take in God's word so that you can pour it out on those around you. You pour it out by talking about what you read. You pour it out by asking your kids specific questions about the text so that they can take it in and pour it out. And that is the gospel preached! You want to get good at this. It is something to strive for, to do in excellence. Memorizing scriptures with your kids will give you and them wisdom. It will teach how to meditate on God's word. It will lay a foundation for them that will bless them daily.

My future posts will therefore be meditations on proverbs that I have memorized with the kids.

Happy Sweeping to you and I look forward to meditating on God's word in the book of Proverbs with you.

Cast Your Cares On Him

This week has been plagued with that great beast the stomach flu. It is still rampaging the fort and has hit Jason hard tonight. I am usually the last to fall so we will see what tomorrow holds for me. I will say that being sick has its good moments. We have been forced to stay home and have been having a great time of it amidst the occasional interruption in the form of serious vomit and clean up. And I will say that I have been up for many nights in a row. But Jason is ever helpful and I have been taking lengthy morning naps to catch up on sleep. So even though we have been sick, we have stayed cheerful and are weathering the storm with movies, wii, Trouble and lots of Gatorade. But I will also confess that I do worry about the kids when they are sick and am tempted to worry myself sick! Every cough has me springing out of bed, heart racing and I can scarcely believe how quickly I wake up and make it to their room! I think that I could win some kind of award for this!

I have been reminding myself the need to bring my worries to God and leave them their at His feet believing and knowing that he will take care of them (the kids). David cries out in the Psalms repeatedly but he always ends the same way. And that way is one of surrender and thankfulness. Jason asked the kids what they where most thankful for during this time of sickness. I loved that he asked them and it was amazing that they all responding quickly and cheerfully. As the caregiver and nurse in times of sickness, I need to ask myself the same question. What am I thankful for? I love comforting my kids. I love rubbing their backs and pulling back their hair so that it stays clean amidst the foulness. I love giving them warm baths. I love snuggling with them during a movie. I love praying with them and teaching them to weather the sick storm with cheerfulness. I love finding them something to eat that sounds good amidst the carnival ride in their stomachs. And I love that God is constantly taking care of me the same way every day!

The other thing I remind myself when they are sick, is that we are going somewhere, we are preparing for something other then this time. And that my kids really are Gods children more then they are mine. And that he cares for them more then I can! "Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven," I do not know why sickness makes me think of this verse but it does. Maybe it is because I feel how inadequate I am. Maybe it is that I see how fragile our bodies are. But that verse sticks with me when we are sick and helps me remember the journey that I am on and the journey that my children are on.

If sickness comes your way soon, try to remember amidst the caring and nursing, to be a cheerful servant. To be a comfort to your children as God is a comfort to you. To pray for them and not to worry and fuss over them. To cast all of your cares on Him and go to Him for strength and encouragement. To remember that it is all apart of the race set before you. It is all apart of the journey God is giving you and that He is right their with you.

So blessings on you as you continue sweeping and if that sweeping includes some serious cleaning supplies and sleepless nights, may God help you be faithful through it!

Mini-World to Greater World

All is quiet in my house. The kids are out tromping in the mud with Jason and I am left to prepare for tonights Sabbath dinner. My tree is still up and Christmas decorations are hung about the house looking ready to come down. And I am drinking coffee and water trying to recover from the New Years late night! My bread is rising and I found a minute to sit down. I think that it is amazing that Christmas is gone and the new year is here. We are in the middle of the "Christmas" season and Ephinany is right around the corner. My endurence is not quite up to all of the celebrating that needs to take place in this season of goodness and joy. But every year we make it a little bit closer to our goal of running the seasonal race with celebrations and establishing traditions for the kids to pass along to their kids. In this time of quiet amidst the rush of preparations and recovery I was thinking about how our children our going to some day run their own homes. Crazy to think about and a little bit scary! But all that we have done this season really is for them. It is to teach them about what God has done in history for his people and what he is doing for his people now in this new year of 2011. We are handing them a story, a story about the way the world works. A story that they are apart of. Whether you mean to or not you are teaching them about the world. Whether you are teaching them the truth or not, you are teaching and they are learning. God has designed it this way and that is why he again and again tells his people to make sure that they are teaching the right story, the true story, His story! Christmas is an easy time to get the story right. An Easy time to tell and retell the great story of the incarnation, the great story of the Magi (the gentiles) coming and kneeling before the King of the world! Your home is a mini-world. It is the center of your childrens life. But it will not always be this way. Does your little mini-world match the one that God has made? Does your home reflect the truth and beauty of God? Is there joy in your home? Is their laughter? Some day your children will grow up and look around at the greater world around them. When this happens they will either feel like they have been lied to or they will have deep wisdom in understanding the world around them. If they have deep wisdom they will want to go forth and leave their mini-world and conquer the greater world. If they have been lied to, they will want to leave their mini-world and they will enter the greater world and be conquered by it! Either way, they will be leaving your home. I think of faithful parenting as giving your children a full tool belt to go out and conquer the world with; whatever comes their way, they have been prepared and can grab the tool the need for the job set before them. When you do not teach your children faithfully you send them out to the job site without any tools. They will fail, they will fall, and they will not produce any fruit. If they are not producing any fruit in their mini-world, there is no way that they will produce fruit in the greater world. So what do you do if there is no fruit now. You pray! You humble yourself and go before God and ask him to give you deep wisdom and faithfulness so that you can go and be fruitful in your home. If your kids are not being fruitful, it is because you are not being fruitful. So humble yourself and confess your sins to God and to them (your kids and spouse) and go forth in the forgiveness that Jesus brings and in his strength to do better! Solomon was pleasing to God and God told Solomon to ask anything from him. Solomon was King and felt like a child leading God's people. So he asked for wisdom in leading God's people. Your children are God's people, God's children. Be like Solomon and ask for wisdom in leading them. He will give to you! He is faithful to his children and you are his child. So go to your Maker and ask, so that you can faithfully represent the world that he has made. Go to him so that you can fill your childs belt up with all the resources he will need to conquer the greater world!

And happy sweeping to you as you imitate your great Maker in all you do!