The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Here's the progression....I am scared of God punishing me (fear of the Lord), I study the Bible to understand how I can avoid that punishment (the beginning of knowledge) and as I study I learn how awesome and great His love for us is. This has been a cool topic to discuss with the kids. I actually encountered several schools of thought on this idea over the past couple of weeks. I'll share them with you.
1. God IS powerful but He is more about love. If we just absorb the love of God everything else will take care of itself. You won't want to sin anymore. You'll just be so full of love you'll want to do what God wants all the time.
2. God IS love, but He is powerful. He doesn't like our sin and it makes Him very angry and we don't want to make God angry do we? So be good and follow the rules or you'll make God mad.
3. If we just pound the Word of God into their hearts and minds we'll win them over. We need to drive Jesus into them so they won't stray into sin.
The sad thing is, we've subscribed to all of these schools of thought at one time or another. We've tried to teach our kids to love love love so they would be good. We've tried to make them fear so they would be good. We've tried to lecture and drill and pound the Word of God into them so they'll be good. None of these methods have worked for us. We are seeing kids who are growing up with these methods and some of them are starting to harden their hearts toward God. My husband and I don't want that for our children. Thus, we study God's Word to find His answers to our questions.
What we're learning is this:For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). God's Word can change the children's hearts. We must not be afraid to give it to them. I've been guilty of watering down the Bible so the kids aren't overwhelmed by it, but am I not accusing God of being to much for them? Am I showing a lack of trust for God's ability to reach them where they are? Am I not demonstrating to them that God's Word is irrelevant in their lives? I really have to wonder. As we put the word of God in front of them (quite literally, it's on a white board in front of them as they eat breakfast), we have to trust that God will reveal Himself to them. As He shows up in their lives, we are here to pastor and guide them. It's been cool to watch happen. We're having some awesome conversations. Romans 2:4b points out that God's kindness is meant to bring us to repentance. God's kindness is meant to bring us to repentance! Not our lecturing, threatening, hammering, scolding, or yelling. God's kindness. It has nothing to do with me or my husband. It will have everything to do with God. I trust He'll be faithful to my children, and we open our home and our lives to allow Him that freedom.
Ummm Yeah...About This Parenting Thing
So, okay. As we continue to pursue Godly parenting we find ourselves asking...What does that mean?! How do we start?! We've been praying and reading the Bible in a desperate attempt to find the right answers. As I type that sentence I realize I have just admitted our ignorance. Isn't that where our search should have started and not ended. I'm going to attempt to chronicle this journey. I hope it will be helpful to my kids someday. They'll be the ones to tell us whether God worked through us as parents or worked in spite of us. I sure hope it's that through us option.
FIRST PARENTING CONCEPT - KIDS ARE PRONE TO BE A WRECK AND THEY NEED GOD
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7
I was listening to a speaker who explained the fear of the Lord very appropriately and his idea on the subject has put a multitude of things into perspective for me. Angie summary is...God is big and good and holy and perfect. Adam and Eve were created. Adam and Eve mess up God's world. Humankind continues to mess up God's world and even goes so far as to kill His son. We are not perfect. Put us next to each other and you've got the true God of the universe and us messed up humans. I don't know about you but I'm a little nervous about how He feels about me if I keep messing up His world. I'm a wreck. Honestly I'm prone to be a wreck and if I'm really honest, when I'm ignoring God, I like being a wreck. I need God to help me stop.
Why would my kids be any different? It's so easy to push them out and see this fragile little human being who is so dependent on you for everything and believe they are innocent and without sin. But any parent who has ever told a two year old no and watched that child blatantly ignore said parent knows...they are not innocent and without sin. SO the first concept I've had to accept is that my children are prone to be a wreck. My husband seems to accept this truth more quickly than I do. As a mother, I don't want to believe it. That's my little baby. But if I am going to raise Godly children I must accept that they are in need of God's love and forgiveness just as I am. They are born with the desire to do wrong. Our response to this concept has been to pray that God would give them an awareness of Him, that God would help us to LOVINGLY show them how prone to sin they are and how much they need Him to be a part of their lives. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, then we want to cultivate in them the fear of the Lord. We aren't sure what this will look like, but we're having some interesting conversations. I'll keep you posted.
FIRST PARENTING CONCEPT - KIDS ARE PRONE TO BE A WRECK AND THEY NEED GOD
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7
I was listening to a speaker who explained the fear of the Lord very appropriately and his idea on the subject has put a multitude of things into perspective for me. Angie summary is...God is big and good and holy and perfect. Adam and Eve were created. Adam and Eve mess up God's world. Humankind continues to mess up God's world and even goes so far as to kill His son. We are not perfect. Put us next to each other and you've got the true God of the universe and us messed up humans. I don't know about you but I'm a little nervous about how He feels about me if I keep messing up His world. I'm a wreck. Honestly I'm prone to be a wreck and if I'm really honest, when I'm ignoring God, I like being a wreck. I need God to help me stop.
Why would my kids be any different? It's so easy to push them out and see this fragile little human being who is so dependent on you for everything and believe they are innocent and without sin. But any parent who has ever told a two year old no and watched that child blatantly ignore said parent knows...they are not innocent and without sin. SO the first concept I've had to accept is that my children are prone to be a wreck. My husband seems to accept this truth more quickly than I do. As a mother, I don't want to believe it. That's my little baby. But if I am going to raise Godly children I must accept that they are in need of God's love and forgiveness just as I am. They are born with the desire to do wrong. Our response to this concept has been to pray that God would give them an awareness of Him, that God would help us to LOVINGLY show them how prone to sin they are and how much they need Him to be a part of their lives. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, then we want to cultivate in them the fear of the Lord. We aren't sure what this will look like, but we're having some interesting conversations. I'll keep you posted.
Faithwalking is easy for CHUMPS
This week the Pastor Man opened up Nehemiah's life a little more by examining the distractions he faced. He's building the wall and these guys, their names is incredibly old school and hard to pronounce so I leave them out, are trying to get him to stop building. Distractions! You face distractions, I face distractions. It happens. I actually get to live this out in my week. Recently my hubby and I have felt God asking me to reexamine the focus of my area of service. We've prayed and prayed and agree with God (that's always a good conclusion isn't it) my focus will change. The decision hadn't even been made for 2 minutes when I heard all the arguments in my head on why I should stay on my current course. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Not to mention, this week is the craziest week of our month. So I'm also hearing arguments like, "And you think you can handle that? You're a fool!" Seriously, no lie. It's brutal. At times, it's everything I can do not to quit. Anyone who tells you a life of faith is easy...IS A CHUMP! That's right, I said it, a CHUMP! You would think I would struggle with thoughts like these...
1. Pray. Don't pray some fancy, wordy prayer. When I'm start wrestling with feelings of inadequacy and thoughts of quitting I just pray a simple seemingly wimpy prayer. "God I need you. I need you. I can't do this by myself. I need you." Make it your own prayer but make it simple and to the point.
Repeat this process as necessary. Don't get stuck on, "I should be beyond this" "I shouldn't be struggling with this." That's pride and that's sin. It will only delay the process.
"What am I supposed to do?" "Where should I serve?" "How involved should I be?"
NO! Those are the questions I already have answers to. The thoughts I have been wrestling with go more like this..."It's going to require every ounce of me." "It's going to be hard." "I'm going to have to depend on You God, otherwise this won't get done."
I know what God is asking of me. I know He can get it done in me. What I don't know is this, how many times am I going to let Him down? How many times am I going to want to quit? How many times am I going to fight thoughts of inadequacy? I get tired just writing it down. Those are the thoughts I wrestle with, and I know I'm not the only one. You just aren't talking about your wrestling match. I know God is big enough, but if I commit to this I'm committing 100%. There is no halfway, there is no "I'll see how it goes". I do it or I don't.
What's my point? My point is, serving God is typically HARD. No one gets it easy. The Bible is full of stories of guys and gals who decided to serve God and then got their lives messed up. We shouldn't be focusing on how to keep the faith walk easy, we should be focusing on how to fight while we're on the faith walk. I'll share my strategies with you if you don't mind. It's not that I think you need them, I just need to write them down, because today I am going to have to fight on my faith walk and I need to refresh my memory.
1. Pray. Don't pray some fancy, wordy prayer. When I'm start wrestling with feelings of inadequacy and thoughts of quitting I just pray a simple seemingly wimpy prayer. "God I need you. I need you. I can't do this by myself. I need you." Make it your own prayer but make it simple and to the point.
2. Read your Bible. Yes, it works. Read Nehemiah, read Psalms, read Proverbs, read SOMETHING. Get familiar with what God says about you.
3. Finally, Pray some more.
Repeat this process as necessary. Don't get stuck on, "I should be beyond this" "I shouldn't be struggling with this." That's pride and that's sin. It will only delay the process.
Now, to go and live what I write.
My Throw Down With God.
Me and God had a throw-down today. It was pretty intense. I was listening to the Pastor Man on the podcast today. I missed the main event on Saturday night and wanted to find out what I missed. We're going through Nehemiah and if you've been keeping up with the blog you know, I'm getting a lot out of it. You would be too if you were listening in. Anyway, I'm rabbit trailing.
So today I'm listening to the most recent talk and God starts whispering to me. Mind you, He's been whispering for a while, but I've been deflecting Him with other conversations. Today He would be heard. It went something like this
GOD: Hey I really want you to do something.
Me: I am doing something.
GOD: I want you to do this thing though.
Me: Ummmm, I don't think this is God.
GOD: Yeah chick, it's me.
Me: Ummmm, I don't really think that I want to do that.
GOD: But will you do it?
Me: Ummm, No?
GOD: Okay.
Me: Wait, wait, wait.....But I don't want to do it.
GOD: I heard you say that already.
Me: I'm going to end up doing it, You know I will. You know I want to do whatever You want me to do, but I want to go on record as saying I don't want to do it, so You're going to have to do something about that.
Then the response was so appropriate, it melted my heart.
So today I'm listening to the most recent talk and God starts whispering to me. Mind you, He's been whispering for a while, but I've been deflecting Him with other conversations. Today He would be heard. It went something like this
GOD: Hey I really want you to do something.
Me: I am doing something.
GOD: I want you to do this thing though.
Me: Ummmm, I don't think this is God.
GOD: Yeah chick, it's me.
Me: Ummmm, I don't really think that I want to do that.
GOD: But will you do it?
Me: Ummm, No?
GOD: Okay.
Me: Wait, wait, wait.....But I don't want to do it.
GOD: I heard you say that already.
Me: I'm going to end up doing it, You know I will. You know I want to do whatever You want me to do, but I want to go on record as saying I don't want to do it, so You're going to have to do something about that.
Then the response was so appropriate, it melted my heart.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~ Jeremiah 29:11
The big idea from the message was, Don't ask God what He wants you to do, ask God who He wants you to be. As you start to see who God wants you to be, you start to behave out of that knowledge. If you ask God what He wants you to do, it's easy to find reasons why you can't do it. Ask God who He wants me to be? I did. Who He wants me to be, is different than what I want me to be. But as I put the two together I realized, He's trying to give me a hope and a future. And the two, do go together, just not in the way I was planning. How can I go wrong with God's plan? So, God wins, again. Sweet defeat.