June 5, 2016
TRUTH for SUMMER SUNDAYs…and for Everyday with your Precious Ones
SO THEY Will KNOW…
“Keep these words in your heart that I am telling you today. Do your best to teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7
I remember the day, almost twenty-five years ago, when my good friend Sue and I were discussing the demands of our children’s very busy schedules…In fact, she had calculated that during the school week, our children spent two-thirds of their waking hours actually in school and /or activities, with the remaining three or four hours left to the parents ( that would be us) to feed them, bathe them, oversee homework…and to, if possible, spend quality time…We concluded our conversation asking the question, “And just when do we as their parents have time to “influence” them? Some of you might agree with this observation because you and your family have personally experienced this phenomenon.
No doubt, parents, especially moms, may actually be more proactive with the calendar’s countdown…measuring the moments until the school bell rings for the last time, as summer begins. The wonderful, spectacular, exciting, entertaining days of summer transition quickly into the monotonous, tedious, unscheduled, boring days, which are actually Wonderful, Spectacular, Exciting…opportunities! Yes, of course it makes crazy sense!
SO THEY Will KNOW…
When a number of children/teens were asked what the one thing was they yearned for more than anything, the answers revealed that the majority of young people desired the opportunity to connect with their parents and their families. They craved relationship with the family, and with their parents. I know what you are thinking, “This is absolutely impossible to believe! Have you seen how my teenager behaves toward our family?”
No, I have not, but I worked with a few hundred teenagers (including my own) for over 20 years, and what a never-ending adventure! The truth is that in spite of the many unknowns in parenting, we can be certain of the fact that a child’s behavior is not always indicative of what is in his or her heart.
Summer Blessings!
Some of the most wonderful moments of our years of parenting occurred in the summer months. The time when our schedule was cleared to an extent, when the days contained some margin, some boredom, and some monotony which actually translate to incredible opportunities; these are the moments when the imagination emerges and develops! We discovered that summer days provided limitless possibilities to connect with our children and to provide “influence” on them as their parents.
I am so deeply thankful that we did not miss our chances…In the midst of cluttered closets, a disastrous playroom, scratched base-boards from bicycles ridden through the house, and Christie and her goat Daisy, yes, I said GOAT, converging on the kitchen in search of snacks, not to mention a million other events! I remain thankful that we did not overlook these times, which, honestly, made me crazy as I was tempted to focus on the messy moments of family life, instead of what our family life was producing for the long term, by and through the grace of our Loving and Forgiving God!
Messy Moments
And, yes Bill and I made many mistakes and I know that I made the most because for a very long time, I kept a mental tally of all of my “messy moments”. Times when I would totally lose it and s-c-r-e-a-m…maybe a slammed door or more, as I added more marks under my name on the list of “parental failures”. I think that we all are guilty of this. Often that is how we learn best as we absolutely do not want to repeat the same mistakes.
Recently, I began looking back at our years of family life, including the most recent decade as we celebrate family life with our two grown children and their wonderful, delightful spouses, (who put up with us) and our six incredible grands…clearly, there are two things which were non-negotiables in our family culture.
SO THEY Will KNOW…
Two pillars of precepts were drilled deeply into our hearts, as our home was founded on our commitment to serve the Lord, because of who He is, in spite of our personal and parenting failures. Bill and I discovered, through God’s Grace and through His Word that we did not have to repeat our own dismal failures in the lives of our family. The pillars of precept became the Lamp to guide our feet and the Light to illuminate our family path, through the Word of God. From Psalm 119:105.
Our Faithful God Pursues His Children
The first thing that I am absolutely, unequivocally certain of, is that we pursued our children. Connection seems easy when family time is going well and all is right in the world, but, The Pursuit becomes a little more challenging as life happens, as feelings are injured, as disappointments occur, as mistakes are made, as discipline and restrictions are levied…as communication is hindered by something, that something that likes to hover over the healthy family life, and to shoot the darts and arrows, without invitation, into our “safe” zones.
But, I am sure we pursued them because we knew from experience that, “Doors closed to communication and to community, lead to closed hearts…” When their behavior tried to push us away…we pursued! You see, we knew from experience the, The Pillar of Pursuit, the Way of our Loving Father! We learned that when a wall went up between us, something was behind it which needed to be addressed…and we pursued them. Sometimes, they came to us when they became aware of the troublesome issue; other times, we ran after them!
Bill and I had individually experienced the love and the forgiveness, and the passionate and persistent pursuit of our Heavenly Father when we both had faltered and had failed; Our Father had run after both of us in the same season to bring us into His fellowship…You see, He had pursued us with His relentless, continual, never-ending, persistent, interrupted love…His Love. His Love which changes the world, certainly our worlds. And He Prepared us…And then, our Loving and Redeeming Father brought our lives together, to marry and to start a family. We both had learned that “His Pursuit” has the propensity to reveal a new and previously undisclosed dimension of love. So, we pursued our children with fervency, because we knew from experience the Power of Pursuit!
The pursuit of our children is imperative in Family Life! No matter what they have said, what they have done, what they have thought, unconditional love and forgiveness pursues. And, Summer Time is the perfect prescription for connection and for family community time, not to mention forgiveness and pursuit.
I have no doubt that you know this! And, may I encourage you to never give up the “pursuit” of your precious ones. I promise that no door, no phone, no computer, no peer group, no culture is too big for our Loving God…Remember that your prayers for your precious ones are the most powerful forms of pursuit…Pray to your ABBA FATHER…for your tiny ones, for your toddlers, your tweens, your teens, your young adult ones and your grown-up ones, your grands…your Abba Father is faithful to hear…to listen. Then trust Him with them…no matter what it looks like. As much as we love them, we cannot see all that God is doing…Trust Him!
Our Faithful God Wants to Be Known by His Children
The second thing that I am absolutely, unequivocally certain of, is that we walked with our precious ones, (sometimes they thought too much) and we did our best to talk with them and to teach them about their amazing God, and the Pillar of His Promises. You see, His Promises reveal who He is…they reveal His character, His personality, His truth, His purpose, the faithfulness of our Sovereign God…the ONE who REIGNS!
In and through our mistakes and our successes, we as parents, stood on the TRUTH of God’s Word…telling and teaching our children that God’s Way works. It is the only Way that truly works in this world and for eternity. Truly, in our weakness, HE was and is strong!
And then faithful friends, the choice rests in your child’s heart…and you have done your best!
SO THEY WILL KNOW
“We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about His power and His mighty wonders”. Psalm 78:4
God’s Word in Deuteronomy 6 instructs us, the parents and the grandparents, to do our best to teach our children. We know that in spite of, in the face of, our miserable failures, we do our best…We give our very best to the LORD, trusting our children to His faithfulness. Because, dear friends, our precious ones are His anyway…and He, in His love and generosity, entrusts His children to us. And we lay it all at His feet and trust Him to cover our imperfect, flawed, messy best with His Divine, Holy, and Perfect BEST.
Pray to your Heavenly Father for your Precious Ones, and pursue them…no matter what age…no matter what stage.
Guard the margins of your Family Time…So your precious ones will know you Love them…
Guard the margins of your Family Time…So your precious ones will know their God loves them.
“I, (the LORD) will teach all your children, and they will enjoy great peace.” Isaiah 54:13
Faithful friends, over the next summer Sundays, we invite you to enjoy…
Messages of Truth for Summer Sundays
And for
Everyday with your Precious Ones!
Blessings and Joy,
