YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN

Part 3 - The Struggle

Leaving a legacy requires time and intention. It also requires some active planning in the area of family Bible studies, mission projects, and other activities, but before I go over some of those things let me begin with saying that as a family we struggle with doing this on a consistent basis. Sure it would be nice if every morning the birds were chirping while all six of us piled around the kitchen table, gently opened up the Bible and read 2 or 3 chapters. This of course would be followed up by a 4-part harmony rendition of “Come Thou Fount” and the kids urging me to “read more scripture papa!” We would then bow our heads in prayer for world hunger and determine how we each will spend the next few minutes in journaling and prayer.

But that isn’t happening!

It’s never happened and frankly I’m alright if it never does. Truth is many mornings the scene is quite the opposite. I’m usually yelling at my kids saying, “Shut up so we can read about the love AND PATIENCE of God for goodness sakes!” Instead of chirping birds, we get one kid singing the Barney song and another one screaming for more milk.

In addition to the struggle of situation, is frequency. Often when I get the chance to talk to other parents about how they spend time together as a family worshipping I get this reply, “Well we don’t do it every day.” May I please take the pressure off of you? We don’t do it every day either. Would we love to? Sure... but the truth is we just can’t make it happen every day. Schedules are different from day to day. The kids wake up early one morning and late the next. Carley is up all night some nights and Shelly is zapped from time to time. I’ve got to run out early and prepare for this or that. There’s always something that comes up. The hard part is not only doing it but also making it a priority. But even when you make it a priority it is still difficult to pull off (besides... doing it everyday is not the goal, more on that later). Some of you, because of your schedules, simply cannot do a family devotion every day. You’ve got one kid in dance, another in soccer, and you have to go shopping, get the tire fixed, mow the grass, wash the dog, etc. (and that’s just Monday). My suggestion to you is if you can only find one day a week or even month to get together and do some kind of family activity where you read the Bible together and worship together then do it that one day. Make that moment great. Spice it up with fun activities and out of the ordinary opportunities. Then try and squeeze in another day if possible. What happens often is parents get so beat down because they think they have to do something every day and then they give up when it doesn’t happen. Don’t give up. Do what you can do and then look for ways to expand from there. If that is once a week, then hey you’ve got 6 days to plan it well.

Like I said before, the goal here is not simply to do a bible study every day. You don’t “win” simply because you get to that point. That line of thinking is dangerously close to legalism and religious repetition. The goal however, is to glorify God and to show your kids that your life is based in something bigger than yourself. So don’t get discouraged when it gets difficult. If you read my last post then you understand that anything that is Spirit-filled wars against our very non-spirit-filled nature because of sin. It’s not hard simply because we are busy, it is difficult because on some level our natures fight against each other to put forth any effort.

Press on!

(next time: Things you can do at home to help build a kingdom mindset within your kids)

Read More:
Part 1 - The Importance of a Legacy
Part 2 - Preparation