For the Sake of the Children

It has been a whole year to the day (yesterday) since I started this blog. I look at the sub-heading "Moments to Share. Treasures to Find," and I still feel happy at the thought. Today is a great day to start another year of blogging. God has been working in my heart and mind for several months, and I feel that He is finally getting somewhere! Maybe you know the feeling.

I have spent the today and this evening with Sally Clarkson, a godly woman, mother, wife, with a heart and a message for mothers - your "Mom heart" matters! I love that because that is exactly what God has been teaching me. I am called by God to be a godly mother, and if you have children, you are called to do the same. But what does that mean? What does that look like? How do I get there? Sally said it best tonight, one step at a time.

Long ago I memorized these verses, and I've often come back to them as a guide and even a restarting place for my walk with the Lord. Romans 12:1-2 says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Above anything else, the renewing of (my) mind always stands out to me. If I don't do this early in the morning, before anyone else is up and about, needing my attention, it just doesn't happen. This is the first place I'm going to start....I have to MAKE SURE this happens. It really is up to me, but I also know that if I ask God to help me, He will, because he wants to spend time with me, too! How sweet is that!

Sally talks about how she makes this time special. She plans to MEET with God. She gets up early, prepares a cup of tea, lights a candle, and sits in her favorite spot to read God's word and pray. I like that plan, for reading God's word should not be done as one more thing to check of my list for the day. It should be my most important meeting of the day; and appointment I cannot miss and do not want to miss. I hope you feel the same.

The second passage of scripture that Sally focused on tonight was Deuteronomy 6:1-9. It is a long passage, but I want to write it out for you so if is easy for you to read and mediate on for a few minutes.

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

"Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it. That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."

As Sally said, "God is not just a thought to be known or a rule to be followed." He is our Father, who loves us, and wants to have a relationship with us. A relationship requires time.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. If I were to ask you if you wanted to please God, most of you would say YES! Well, according to God's word, faith is the ONLY way to do it. After studying the book of Hebrews and the lives of some of the patriachs of our faith, my husband came up with a good working definition of faith: 1) God speaks, 2) I listen, and 3)I obey completely, no matter what. That's what God is looking for from you and me. Not just for our sake, but for the sake of our children, may the Lord find us faithful in doing what He has already told us to do.