A Teachable Moment For Our Children
I have a crazy wonderful family. My husband and I are blessed to parent 5 great kids.
They are each so vastly different and yet we have one main priority as their parents that is steadfast:
We want them to come to know Jesus as their personal Savior and to follow Him with their lives.
It is pretty easy to focus on this priority on the way home from church when I am asking them what they learned about. It is pretty easy to focus on this priority before bed as we are reading or praying together. When it becomes difficult to focus on this priority is every other minute of the day! So many things, even good things, are vying for our attention and focus.
Yesterday was the first day of summer vacation for us. I was just sitting at this computer “working” and a Hope Grafted In friend helped to remind me about using teachable moments with our children. The story they shared is simple, yet full of the Spirit of God working in a family and that is what makes it so amazing. Thank you James family for sharing this with us and for the lesson!
Our family has been doing a family devotion over the last five weeks. It is a book and study guide called “Tales of the Not Forgotten” by Beth Guckenberger. Beth is the co-founder of the organization we are going to Mexico with, so we thought it would be a good study to do as a family to prep for our trip. It is mostly about orphans and missionaries and how God weaves their stories together. It refers to God as the Storyweaver. It has been very eye opening for Rob and I. I had been wondering if the kids have been understanding and making connections…until last night.
Our story last night was about orphans in India and how only 3 out of 5 boys get to go to school and 2 out of 5 girls. We were talking about ways our family could help kids that can’t go to school. Broderick said, “I mean, I have $4, but what can $4 do?” And Carys said, “I have $6. I will give it.” Rob and I did not ask them if they had money or if they wanted to give it. We were just discussing ways we could help.
The “ironic” thing is…we got an email that Ebeneezer Children’s home (the orphanage Rob went to in Uganda) needs money to buy school supplies. It had a broken down list of how much each thing cost. So we pulled it up and told the kids what their $10 could do. They said, “We want to give it!” I could not believe it. Broderick said, “I was going to buy 4 hot wheels, but I already have a million. I don’t need anymore.” I thought, “Thank you Lord. They are getting it.”
We got to talk about how God is using them in the lives of the kids at Ebeneezer. He is weaving their stories together.
I am thankful for the simple reminder today that God uses each moment of our day to teach us if we are paying attention. As a parent, I can do that too. I DO need to be intentional, but I can also just be listening for HIM and use our daily life to teach these 5 little blessings about the God we serve.
The James Family has committed to covering all of the school supply needs for Ebenezer. What a faithful God we serve.
- See more at: http://hopegraftedin.org/a-teachable-moment-for-our-children/#sthash.Km4J2RkT.dpuf