Sharing God's Word With Children

  5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!  6 Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you  7 and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.  8 Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder;  9 inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.  --Deuteronomy 6:5-9 The Message (version) 
I've heard the actor Kirk Cameron say that we all have the ten commandments written on our hearts.  We know right from wrong.  We know that we shouldn't lie, steal, and kill.  We know that we should respect and love God.  There are, though, some questions we should be asking ourselves. 
What are we teaching our children about God?  What are we not saying?  How much is God in our lives?  Are we discussing issues about God with our children?  Are we equipped to teach our children about God? 
The Bible is readily available to us.  That is not enough.  We must know how to study the Bible.  We must ask the Holy Spirit to guide us.  Prayer brings about much, and God wants us to understand His words. 
That's why I think it's important to reach out.  When something does not make sense, it is an opportunity to look beyond ourselves.  It is an opportunity to tap into the wonderful resources that are available to us.  We can turn to people who are more knowledgeable than us.  We can turn to online helps, too.  I believe that when you truly understand what the Word of God means, and believe it, you are ready to teach the Word to your children.  The authority carries more weight in it.  The love you have for God will shine through.  Children need parents who are sold out believers in the Lord our God.  The love of God is manifest, or shown, through His words and through us, the parents.  That's why it is important to search our hearts.  We must see if there is anything in our lives that is not exhibiting that true love that we have for our God.  He loves us and wants us to love Him, too.  I think it's wonderful that we can model that love to our own children.  Just looking back at all the mistakes I could fallen into makes me appreciative of the loving God I have in my life.    I take the time to talk with my children about how God has helped me throughout my life.  Being forty years-old has given me some perspective.  It is the experiences of God's actual love and care in my life that have given me some authority to share with my children.  Everyone has baggage in life from hurts and disappointments; it's what happens as a result of them.  It's the struggles in life that God has brought me through that's important.  How do we handle the day to day life struggles?  Do we depend on ourselves?  Or do we turn to our loving Heavenly Father?  What are we teaching our children about the challenges in life?  What do we want for our children to believe about their struggles?  Are we in a constant state of frustration?  Or are we turning over our struggles to God?  I know that it feels weird to me that I might be the only one who knows what I'm thinking.  The reality, fortunately, is that we are not alone.  God knows what's in our hearts and minds.    Having the Word of God is comforting to me.  Whenever I have a problem, I first turn it over to God.  I turn to His words.  I feel peace.  I trust God.  I trust in no human.  Not everyone understands in that concept--trust God.  The truth is that people will disappoint you.  Family may not protect you.  Friends might back stab you.  The government will continually become too intrusive.    Even nature might seem to conspire against you.  You might want to garden or swim, but it rains.  Should you get upset at all those things?  It is our nature to get mad.  It's whether you learn to control it.  I think about times I have been so upset that my blood pressure caused my blood to boil.   It takes a lot of effort to control oneself, but it says in the Bible that you need self-control.  The Bible is God's word.  God loves us so much that He cautions us to control ourselves.  He is not trying to restrict us from living.  His words are there in the Bible to guide us to live the best life possible.  My question to you, my readers is this: What are you teaching your children?  Are you teaching them about God?  Have you introduced them to the Word of God?  Do they see you cracking open the Bible?  I encourage you to have discussions whenever you can, whether after dinner or as you sit in the car.  Your children and their children, will be blessed, as you share with them the love God has for us all.  I pray that God gives you all, my beloveds, His wisdom and peace. 

This has been an entry for the Spiritual Sundays series. 

To compile this mini- bible study, I visited: http://www.biblestudytools.com/

 

Hezekiah's Healing

Isaiah shows us we have reason to praise God.

9 When King Hezekiah was well again, he wrote this poem about his experience:  

10 I said, "In the prime of my life, must I now enter the place of the dead? Am I to be robbed of my normal years?"  

 

11 I said, "Never again will I see the LORD GOD while still in the land of the living. Never again will I see my friends or laugh with those who live in this world.  

 

12 My life has been blown away like a shepherd's tent in a storm. It has been cut short, as when a weaver cuts cloth from a loom. Suddenly, my life was over.  

 

13 I waited patiently all night, but I was torn apart as though by lions. Suddenly, my life was over.  

14 Delirious, I chattered like a swallow or a crane, and then I moaned like a mourning dove. My eyes grew tired of looking to heaven for help. I am in trouble, Lord. Help me!"  

15 But what could I say? For he himself had sent this sickness. Now I will walk humbly throughout my years because of this anguish I have felt.  

16 Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You have restored my health and have allowed me to live!  

17 Yes, it was good for me to suffer this anguish, for you have rescued me from death and have forgiven all my sins.  

18 For the dead cannot praise you; they cannot raise their voices in praise. Those who go down to destruction can no longer hope in your faithfulness.  

19 Only the living can praise you as I do today. Each generation can make known your faithfulness to the next.  

20 Think of it -- the LORD has healed me! I will sing his praises with instruments every day of my life in the Temple of the LORD.

--Isaiah 38: 9-20 New Living Translation

 

This special Bible reading came courtesy of that wonderful list of Bible verses that I had collected years ago.  The collection was compiled so that I could explain our homeschooling.  I wanted to give Biblical reasons as to why I homeschool.  I wanted to show how I have put my trust in God to help me homschool my children.  I wanted to show my total dependence on God for all areas of my life.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that it would be Resurrection Sunday.  This was a chance to praise the Lord.  The beginning of chapter 38 of the book of Isaiah is about God telling Isaiah to visit Hezekiah.  Isaiah is to tell Hezekiah to get his household in order because he would be dying soon.  Hezekiah then takes it upon himself, after hearing this news, to pray directly to God for mercy.

  

God instructs Isaiah to inform Hezekiah that fifteen years would be added to his life.  Further, as a sign of His intent to fulfill the promise, God says that He will show a special sign.  After all, God is most powerful.  God says in verse 8:

"I will cause the sun's shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz..."

So the shadow on the sundial moved backward ten steps.

I want to tell you something funny now.  Yes, this is a serious situation that Hezekiah went through.  I just want to show you how life happens in my world.  I was instructing my oldest, Gabriel, in his Algebra.  I had literally stepped back a few times to show him the negative aspect of numbers.  This was so hilarious to me when I later read about the backward steps of the sun's shadow.  I laughed out loud.

Another thing that was funny to me was that I would be reading a poem.  It's so interesting because we are in April, celebrating National Poetry Month.  I get to read a poem in the Bible.  It's as though the events lined up for me to have all of these situations coincide.  The poem above was written by Hezekiah as a praise report for what God did in extending his life.

  

Hezekiah experienced a very real healing.  Eventually, Isaiah let Hezekiah's people know what to do for him.  They were to create an ointment with figs and spread.  This was to be spread over Hezekiah's boil.  He received his healing!

Here's an extra shocker: I am suffering with several boils at this moment.  I have had them on and off throughout the last fifteen years.  I have Fig Newton Bars.  Guess what I just ate?  You guessed it--some of the bars.

The poem in blue font is in praise of God's mercy and goodness.  I wanted to pick something to blog about to brag on God's love for us all.  He provided Jesus as an ultimate healing of the breach between us (humans) and Himself.  Jesus filled the need for a reconciliation.  We have to be grateful and praise (openly share) about God the Father and Jesus, the Son. 

How about you, my readers?  Has God done something in your lives worthy of praise?  I would encourage you to to bless others with your praise report.

Thanks everyone, for reading this entry.  I hope you are blessed and encouraged by it.

This has been an entry for Spiritual Sundays.

To compile this mini- bible study, I consulted: http://www.biblestudytools.com/

Be Flexible to Receive: My Contemplation of Verse 22 of the Tao Te Ching

Dr. Dyer's book is Change your Thoughts--Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.

Today, I am sailing into verse 22 of the Tao Te Ching, specifically this portion:

The flexible are preserved unbroken.

The bent become straight.

The empty are filled.

The exhausted become renewed.

The poor are enriched.

The rich are confounded.

Flexibility...

That's the advice for today.  Dr. Dyer uses the palm tree to show just how flexible we should be.  You see, the palm tree manages to bend when strong winds blow it.  These type of trees do not break.  They go with the flow.

Picture taken at the Texas coast.

We need to be like the palm tree.  We need to be flexible.  We need to go with the flow.  Now, I'm not talking about bending on your truest integrity; I'm asking your to trust God to see you through your problems.  I'm asking you to stop getting stressed by all that happens around you.

I'm saying that we need to relax.  We can, and should, stop letting everything that happens to us get us down.  We need to take back some control.  We need to be like the ducks that let the water fall off their backs.  We can't control how others act around us, but we can control how we react.

People will be however they want to be.  That is their nature.  All we can do is realize that they will be who they are.  We must accept their nature.  We must accept the nature of our environment, and we will be better for it.

If we show our flexibility, we open ourselves up to more opportunities.  This would be showing our receptivity.  People would be receptive to our ideas and points of view.  The most important to me is to be truthful about it.  Trust goes both ways.

How about you, my readers?  How flexible are you?  How receptive do you want your loved ones and friends to be to your ideas and point of view?  If you want people to accept you, you must accept and meet people where they are at.  An abundance of blessings may flow your way if you open yourself up to the possibilities that God has for you.

God bless you all with His peace and wisdom, my beloveds, in Jesus' name.  Amen!

This has been an entry for Wisdom Wednesdays.  I hope you enjoyed it.

I am currently drawing inspiration from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer's book and the 81 verses of the Chinese wisdom book the Tao Te Ching.

For past entries, turn to Wisdom Wednesdays.