Resources for Christian Women, Encouragement for Families
Family Devotions: a Very Important Tradition
Our church denomination’s magazine, called New Horizons, recently had an uplifting article called “Family Devotions: Passing Down a Tradition.” The article gives many examples of families forming the habit of reading Scripture together,memorizing it, praying, singing hymns/songs to the Lord, and discussing the Lord’s work in their lives. What struck me was the evidence of God working in a covenantal way in families, from generation to generation to generation.
That could be a whole study in itself, and entire books have been written about covenant theology. What is important in this brief column today is the importance of family devotions. Deuteronomy 11:18-19 says, “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul…You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house.”
Having family devotions does take discipline. It means keeping children at the table in order to open up the Word. It means saying no to the doorbell ringing, phone ringing, the computer clamoring for attention, a host of activities that could usurp some time to read and pray. Forming the habit takes effort and time. But we need to take advantage of these family eating times to feast also upon our Lord, too.
First Grandchild is Born!
What a wonderful thing bearing children is!! Now, becoming a Grandma is a reality! Our grandson was born after 2 days of labor. The water broke early Monday morning and by 3:13am Wed. the little boy was born. Children are a gift, a blessing, a joy!
Although my grandson lives out of state, I’m determined that I can still be a caring Grandma – even if it’s long-distance. With email, internet, phones, I am able to bridge the communication gap. Plus, I love old-fashioned road trips to Virginia, even done in a long weekend.
God has placed another person in my family to nurture and to reach out to. I can tell this little one about Jesus who came to earth as a babe and died the painful and shameful death on the cross that my sins may be covered over. I can, by His grace and mercy, impact yet another generation for the Gospel of Christ.
I can and do say with the Psalmist, “The Lord has done great things for me and I am filled with joy!”
An Important Phone Call
I haven’t talked to one of my 5 children since mid January. She left for South Africa to volunteer in an orphanage on Jan. 13. She did call us a couple days after she arrived and we have been emailing almost every other day. But I am so excited to be able to talk to her again! I’m thinking of all the things to talk about and I know we won’t be able to cover everything. She has managed to email us regularly and we have emailed back as well, much more often than we thought we would be able to do.
Being in a new and different country grows a person in many ways. Learning about a new culture can be exciting, hard, confusing, interesting, and challenging. Getting along with one’s fellow volunteers affords constant opportunities to grow spiritually. Let’s face it, people are sinful and learning to get along can be a joyful challenge. We need to try to be humble as Jesus was humble. We need to listen to other people’s ideas and not just want our own way. I see much growth in my daughter as I read her emails and see her pictures. I will let all of you know how the phone call goes. God’s riches blessings on each of you.
Missions Fest
We are anticipating a challenging time at our church’s missions fest this weekend. There will be speakers from out of town coming to talk about how God is working in different parts of the world. One will speak about the spread of the Gospel in France; another will talk about local churches sending teams of people out to different parts of the world. We will have times of worship together, and times of prayer together.
This is a time for the whole family to come out and sing, pray, learn, and grow together. We are to go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to do what Jesus taught us. There will be a book table, too. If you know of any books about missions to add to the book table, let us know!