The threat of thunder on a pool day has loaded implications for a house full of children on summer break. Yet, it happens, and Mom gets the fun job of explaining why we have to stay home. Sullenness and general malaise begin to set in, and I am left to sipping my coffee, thinking about what to do now.
We all know that plans change often in this life. Yet our children are the least likely to understand these changes. They do not have the life experience to understand that there are a lot of circumstances that affect decisions and the changing of plans. Add the current tenuous state in our culture to the lack of life experience, and you can have some seriously downtrodden kids. Who knows what may lie around the corner, or the following week? No one knows.
How do we help them to walk through a forever changing world? How do we make plans and keep hope alive in such a fragile climate?
The answers may be real and hard, but they are also trustworthy and true. The affects of what we do as parents can be life long. The powerful lessons we learn from navigating through life’s unknowns can be passed down for generations.
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| On the Merced by Tamara Keiper |
Our children have recently learned that things may not go as they had hoped in every area of their lives. What will my camp be like, if I still get to go? Will my friends be aloud to play with me? Will I be able to see my grandparents? What will my school be like? They live with these questions, constantly.
We have been commissioned by God to live biblical lives in the face of whatever our culture does. This calling necessitates living uprightly before the face of God. Our children should understand that our God is constant and unchanging, and so is His Word. His yes is yes, His promises are true, His character does not change and He is our God and Father.
But how often are we more moved by the latest news report or the predictions of our own hearts than the unfailing promises of God? We may be really good at hiding our emotions about the current state of affairs or our thoughts of the future from our children, but our mouths and body language too often betray us, and out of our anxious hearts, we speak.
I have been resisting fear and apprehension over the past few years, and it is hard work. The discipline of returning to the restful presence of the Lord often slips through my fingers. Keeping the first things first and maintaining a godly life in our home is hard. It requires being intentional, reforming often, and refocusing. It means saying “no” to many things in order to say “yes” to what truly matters.
As we enter the last days of summer, It is a good time for us as parents to pull off the parenting highway and make a rest stop. We need to ask ourselves where we are going. Is this the direction we want to head with our families? Are we helping our children to know and live a stable, God-centered life, or are we showing them what it is like to barely hang on and just push through?
These are the things that I am looking at in my life as I pull over and think through what our coming school year will be like:
*How are my regular times with the Lord? Are they more like a Chick-fil-A drive thru or the quiet corner of a cafe?
*How is our consistency with family Bible reading and prayer? Is it more like praying over pizza and walking away with a slice or like sitting around the table and enjoying one another’s company?
*How am I responding when our plans/routines change throughout the day? Is it like rummaging through the cabinet for that emergency snickers bar or like sipping my way through a fresh cup of coffee?
*How is my level of joy throughout the day? Is it rare, like finding the last gourmet ice cream bar in the back of the freezer or like enjoying the planning, preparing and serving of a beautiful home made meal?
*How do I end and begin my days? Is it like cramming a granola bar in my face as I walk to the car or more like slowly savoring an ice cream cone on the porch swing?
Notice that I have attempted to equate these questions with eating, drinking and relating to others. Times of refreshing come as our souls are nurtured and fed by God. He says to come, buy and eat, even when we do not feel worthy, so that our souls may be fed. We know that we cannot give what we do not already have. So the more we find ourselves in the blessed place of giving to others, the more we must sit at the feet of the One who leads and replenishes us in sweet green pastures.
The answer to navigating our families through this life is to keep our own walk with the Lord constant and close. It is here that our souls will be fed, and where we can unload our own heavy burdens. We can listen, drink in, and know the constant unfailing mercy and grace of the Lord for HIs own. The Savior, like a shepherd, will lead us.
He has sought you and saved you, not so you can just muddle through, but so you and your children can walk closely with Him. Here we find rest for our weary souls and a joyful stability in a changing world.
You keep him in perfect peace
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
For the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
Jer. 26:3-4
We cannot right an entire ship over night and so we must begin with prayer. As we cast ourselves onto Christ, let us put our trust in His life changing work. As we present ourselves to Him, let us trust in His leading. What He has promised in His Word, He will do.
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
Is. 55:6-10
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| Myrtle Cottage Garden by Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris |
May you have more grace and peace in the days to come, and may you know the sweet presence of the Lord in your home ~ Your Fellow Sojourner
Here are some ideas that have worked for us as we seek to maintain the joyful stability of a Christ centered home. As you prayerfully seek the Lord, may He lead you to your own rhythms of worship and work in your home.
*Keep to a wake time and a bed time throughout the entire year, even in the summer. Of course, enjoy the fun exceptional times with family, friends and vacations.
*Shoot for family worship after dinner twice a week. Have your plans and materials all ready made so you can grab and go. (Having desert when you are finished is fun too.)
*Keep dinner time sacred. If you are here at dinner time - you eat with the family at the dinner table and engage in conversation together. (This can be the hardest time of day for a lot of families for many reasons - food flying, tempers flaring, lima beans - really?! - but its worth it, trust me.)
*Its important, necessary and good for you as a parent to keep your own morning and evening routines that you look forward to because they are restful and nourishing. This is where I can grab my coffee, my Bible, my notebook and be in the presence of the Lord or read an enjoyable book. I find that this can be the hardest area to stick to, but again, it is so good. Lord, help us!!
*Find the support community that keeps your values and priorities of worship and fellowship. This will help support you and your family in a multitude of ways. Yes, people are messy, but so are you! Regular Sunday worship, meals with friends, and fellowshipping with other like minded people are great joy boosting activities for you and your family.
Here is a short list:
*Wake and Sleep Schedule
*Family Worship 2x a week
*Dinner time as a family
*Establish my own wake/sleep routine of prayer, reading and meditation
*Keep Sunday Worship, meals with friends, and times of fellowship a priority
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