Pray Against The Cultural Wave

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having to done all, to stand firm. Ephesians 6:13

The first time you hold that little life so much goes through your heart and mind.

Take a second to remember that moment that you learned of that little one.

Sometimes life goes by so fast that you feel like you are barely hanging on to it. You don’t seem to have the time to stop and think ahead. You ride this wave of culture that is carrying you, and your children, and everyone else with it.

Does life, your life, your children’s life, really have to be like this? Do you really have to live in the now? In this culture that pushes you to live in a way that is so mindless and God-less the way things have to be? Or can you take charge? After all haven’t you been put in charge? Isn’t that beautiful little life in your charge? Your keeping? Did it not come from your body? Or perhaps you went through the work and sacrifices necessary to adopt your child? Legally or as a step child.

How deep is your love? Is it strong enough to hold your head above the cultural wave?

No matter how fast they go by, or how hard they hit you, life is full of choices. Your choices not only impact your life, but they impact your spouse’s and your children’s. And because of the impact on your children it has impact on the future culture. Are you being carried along by a wave or are you the wave?

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.” Joshua 24:14a

If you are feeling overwhelmed take a moment, no matter how small, to thank the Lord for your life and the lives you have been given charge of. Sometimes that is enough to bring you sanity again. Better yet, take 5 minutes in the morning and/or at bed time and pray thinking over the day that has been or the day to come thanking God for it. No matter how good or how bad things are for you right now thank the Lord for what you have and that he is there for you and your family. Gratitude plays a big part in bringing you through your troubles and giving you the strength to stand.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonian 5:16-18

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Stirred by the Air

I set the table lamp on the floor, and then turned it on. Although it was day time the day was simply too dark to see clearly my task at hand. Even with the curtains opened. A week ago, the beginning of November, I was determined to have a clean and well organized home by Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah, I know having a full house meant I was going to have plenty more cleaning afterward. I started with the living room, because it would be the easiest and it was. But it only took a week and everything was covered in dust, again.

Dust it floats through the air. It’s forced around the room every time someone walks through or the furnace kicks on. Just like the messes that come with a family living in the house. It’s always happening. A never ending parade of untidiness of dust and dirt settling itself on every thing. So everyday there is cleaning to be done. Life is messy. Both physically and spiritually messy.

Moral values are not dust. Something that is just here floating around settling on you or your family. They are more like the furniture. Those pieces that are old, solid, and beautiful. A treasured item you regularly clean, dust, and polish. Sharing them with others. They are loved and cared for and promised to the next generation.

If you had a beautiful treasured item and hid it. Never spoke of it. Never shared your love for it with your children. How would they know of it. Your love for it. How would they know how to use it. Or how it might benefit them. Would they see have any value in it, for their life.

This world is dusty with ideas of what is right and wrong. In a country like the United States the people come from hundreds of different religions and philosophies. They float through the air of education, of entertainment, of government and your neighborhood. Even in your church.

The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thoughts to his steps Proverbs 14:15

What steps would you take to preserve a stable society for yourself and your children? Have you given thought to where you are in life and where you are going? How maybe the busyness of life keeps you from talking with you kids. To really converse with them. About your day? About their day? About the effects current events or of the government? What does what they are being taught in school really means?

So that you may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, Ephesians 4:14, 15

If we do not know, or share with our children our moral values our society will not be like a solid stable piece of furniture to pass down to the generations that follow. We will and they will be like dust blown about every time the air of society is stirred.

Why Diligence

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:7

Oh, look at me, I’m still shaking. I – I had my kids all around me and I was looking for the best way to get through the crowd when I spotted him. He was standing over to the left. He was a healthy looking, college age. Dressed in a blue jeans and a tee shirt. Then our eyes met. He pulled up a gun and pointed it straight at me. (She took a shaky calming breath.)

I yelled gun and stated pulling my kids to the ground.

It is unfortunate, but this scenario is all too possible. Thankfully, this mother saw what was coming and reacted quickly. She made two quick actions. One was to yell and warn others she couldn’t physically help right away. Two was to help her children to get down into a position of greater possible survival.

Isn’t that what parents want for their kids, the greatest chance of survival? Better yet, to succeed. Take a look at our world’s governments, our entertainment industries, and our educational systems. Through their constant input we can see the incessant breaking down of society. Just as the evil in this world is diligent in its efforts to destroy, so too must we be diligent in teaching our children what the world and its institution will not and cannot do. Be our salvation. You are in a daily fight for your children’s moral, mental, emotional, and spiritual well being.

When you walk by the way

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6: 6-7

Communication is vital to knowing ourselves, our children, the world around us, and our God. It can warn of danger, it can increase one’s knowledge, it helps us know one another better, it brings hope, and it expresses love.

Whether you home school or send your children to an institution much of what they learn concerning life, what is freedom, who is God, how do they succeed in life, comes from your heart through your actions/example and your conversations with them.

Beautiful Traditions

My grandmother’s hope chest has a gouge in it’s lid. My grandmother died young. While 43 isn’t a child it’s certainly early. And it wasn’t something my grandfather was ready for. He felt so much hurt and anger that he had to move her hope chest from where it had sat for decades in the corner of their bedroom. The gouge was made as the chest was forced though the attic trapdoor in the ceiling. A nail was sticking out. The gouge circles on itself as if it had perhaps almost slipped from his grasp and he had to catch his breath, and then give it’s rope a final pull up into a place where it would not be seen again for 18 years.

I was told when I was 14 that it was mine. I didn’t receive in time to use it as hope chest. It wasn’t until after his death 14 years later, and I had been married 8 years.

When I had a daughter another decade later it gave me joy knowing that I would pass it down to her. While my mother didn’t use it and I didn’t use it as a hope chest my daughter did.

Grandma’s hope chest lid is also covered in little scratches. My mother told me that she put them there when she was five. She liked to dance on it. The chest itself despite the damage to it is still not only a solidly constructed piece of furniture that will last for the passing down to many more generations. It’s beautiful in physical appearance, but it’s also a very beautiful tradition. The tradition of passing down hope.

What parent doesn’t want to leave something beautiful for there children to pass down to their children. Something solid. Something made to last. Sharing with our children the things God has done. The things he has said and love he has taught us by example. In a world filled with hate, and the despicable things that people do to each other there are some beautiful traditions whose purpose is to pass down hope.

How do we leave the world a better place for our children? It is in how raise them for the future, for world. The Christian faith calls us to; 1) Love God with everything we have, 2) Love our neighbors as ourselves, 3) Love one another, and 4) Love our enemies.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:5,6, & 7

Think about traditions. There are so many. Some are useless, Some are beautiful. But the ones that daily bring the actions of love and hope to yourself, and your children, are the ones that make the world a better place for generations to come.