What is a positive tradition or godly character trait that you learned from your extended family that you hope to pass down to your own family
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Wow! This is the first Saturday, I’ve been able to participate since the “Cafe Chat” meme started and I’m so thrilled to finally be able to participate.
Something that is a very vital part of my extended family is well…just the importance of family no matter what the circumstances, either good or bad are and that the ultimate goal is to be the family that God would want us to be and being the “first” witnesses to our family members about the grace and love of Jesus Christ.
Starting at a very early age and not only with Sunday School, we make it a point with having the kids saying prayers at night and not just prayers repeated by memory, but personal prayers that we teach the kids to say on their own and from their heart.
As much as we would like to eventually have a night, where one of us, would be ranked before that of the family dogs (and I can’t tell you HOW humbling it is to hear our child ask Jesus to bless each and everyone of the dogs and I don’t mean just our one and only dog, but my mother in law’s dog, my sister in law’s dog and if our child knew their names, every dog in the neighborhood as well before the names of the children played with then the aunts and eventually we ranked somewhere around 10 or 12), it gives us a sense of reassurance that we are teaching the children that Jesus is about having a personal relationship, like you and I would have with our best friend, and not a just from memory to be repeated, relationship.
Deuteronomy 6:6,7-These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
It was an amazing day, the day my child asked to have Jesus Christ to come into their heart and it’s equally heart-warming to hear them yell from the backseat, “Mommy I wanna see Jesus now,” although it’s usually followed by “Mommy, make them stop touching me!”.
The most important witnessing that we can do as a follower of Christ, isn’t just outside our homes, in our neighborhoods and community or half a world away in some exotic land, but in our very own home, to the people we call family, to the next generation that look up to us and depend on us to be their guiding light.
Psalm 78:4-We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
It can be unbelievably daunting and nerve-wracking to know that they are depending on us to lead them to Christ and to help them understand the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but it is also a blessing and a praise to God, that we are blessed with the teaching and leading of our children to Him.
Yes, maybe the family dog may get that extra little glow knowing that our little one is praying to Jesus to bless them (and for mommy to not see that puppy found out that purse straps make great chew sticks), but we get to see not only the face of God in their eyes and heart, but be able to know just a little bit what God must feel when we remember to come to Him in openness, humilty and reverance.
It’s a lesson of what is really important in life and it’s a lesson of how to pray without the grandeur that we sometimes attached to prayer.
Hebrews 12:9-Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
Recently, my husband and I both have felt led by the Lord and by conviction of looking at the local school curriculum to home school our children at home and it’s made me even more aware of the importance in our family, not only about our own walk with God, but the importance and the responsibility God lays on us, to teach our children about Him.
Matthew 18:6-But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
A dear friend had recommended to me to read to our kids, a children’s book that her pastor had written
Lola Mazola’s Happyland Adventure: My John 3:16 Book
and I regretted I hadn’t started sooner.
This is a family tradition that I deeply cherish and thank God for the awesome responsibility He has laid upon us as parents, and I pray that I will be worthy with this role He calls us to play.
Father, May I serve You well by being the mother, You call me to be, the wife You call me to be, and the in-law, I am called to be. Lord, may I teach these children well, Your way, not mine, and that they are blessed with a personal relationship with You as I have been, Lord.
“May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.”
He continues in His patient and endearing ways, to clear the path ahead of us, probably wishing that in the midst of our tears, we understand that He is patient where we are not and that is actually a good thing.
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