Let Me Be Found Faithful To The Lord

Dear Ladies,

The older my daughters get, the more I know my time with them is getting shorter.  My mom once said, 'You either are a good example or a horrible warning."  It has stuck in my head ever since.

I was not raised in a Christian Home.  The Bible was not the authority for the meaning of life.  Later in life, at the ripe age of 36, the Lord saved me.   My hubby and I had four children and we were behind the proverbial eight ball.  I wanted our children to be hungry for the word, walk in His ways and love God with all their hearts.  I had to make up for lost time.  I needed to tell them what the Bible said.   And it was a big book!!

Through out the years, God has grown me.   He replaced an anxious heart, with one that is learning to trust Him.  He is replacing an impatience heart, with a strong desire to have a winsome way of waiting on the Lord.  Notice, He is the one who is doing the work within my heart.  He gets all the glory!

So did a cloud angel hit me on the head and I just started to think this way about anxiety and patience.  NO!
Actually it was the word washing over my heart, faithful ladies who loving spoke into my life and lastly I needed to pay attention to the history God was writing in my life...who am I to get in the way of that!

After some time of reflection, I could see what God was using to teach me throughout the years.  The word, faithful ladies, watching for His faithful hand in my life.  Now can I now turn around an apply these things to my daughters.

I have become a student of their hearts.  I bring scripture to bear upon their thinking, some times day after day, until it lives in there.

Remember how you felt when you were studying Algebra.  You would said to yourself, "Why do I need to know this...I'm never going to use it!"  Maybe that's what is goes on in the thought life of our children.  So, lately, I have been connecting the dots.  If I share God's word, I not only apply it to the current situation, but to their future.  How it fits into married relationships, siblings, friendship, and work life.

Discipleship is a daily reality.  When the faithful ladies spoke into my life, they did it with love.  They had to be patient to see it germinate and then bloom, if the Lord willed.   This is were their winsome attitude was helpful.  It beat the heavy handed mouthful of judgement.  I know I have delivered that kind of discipleship with my children.  I certainly wasn't putting my fruits on display.  I was not worth following! 

Our children are so precious to us, I think we become frightened and anxious for them.  I want to see their fruit for the Lord and when I don't it causes despair.  I still need to be like my Lord whose kindness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).  I need to forgive, like Christ has forgiven me (Eph 4:32).  I need to love like my Savior (Romans 5:8).

I must enforce consequences, but without the rage, the disdain and the profane lack of love.  I wonder what we would say if we could see our faces on some cosmic TV screen during one of those times, saw what our children saw.  I know I would not be representing the gospel. I would be sending a different message. Worship me!!  Or our God is not worth following when things get difficult.

When God reveals, comforts and encourages us,  I want to be able to say...Did you notice how God worked that out?  We should not be discouraged or angry lest we miss what God will do!  How great is our God!

Now that is a great opportunity ESPECIALLY if my child have had the opportunity to watch me weather  the not so pleasant sides of life in a  fallen world.  I am not saying I have to be perfect.  I need to be able to recognize my sin and repent right away.  If I have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me, then I will feel the effects of sin.  I can tell when my children are getting my blood boiling.  I need to stop it before it starts.  I need to renew my mind in the scripture Romans 12:1, Col 2:8.  Ask for any forgiveness

When our children leave our home and have families of their own, how do we want to see them nurturing and  admonishing their children.

I hope to be planting a vision for the future. Purposefully living now, so the fruit for the generations to come will be an effective evangelistic tool for a lost and dying world.

Many, faithful saints, of days of old, have proven this reality.  Faithful men and woman whose children and their children's children...All Walked With The Lord.

There is so much at stake.  Let me be found faithful to the Lord.