Tag: knowing God

What Do We Desire For Our Kids to Know?

Today’s reading is Judges 1-3, Psalm 16, and Luke 20.

We read in the book of Joshua where the Israelites reached the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. As he lead them he stated these famous words in Joshua 24:15, “..But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” When we read of Joshua’s death in Judges 2:6-10, we learn his generation and his children did serve the Lord, but we read in Judges 2:10 where the following generation “did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”

We then read on in Judges 2-3 where the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord in the following generations and under the next leaders (Judges 2:11, Judges 2:19, Judges 3:7, Judges 3:12). We also read in Judges 2:20 where this angered the Lord and Israel lost His favor and then as a result the protection of God because they turned against Him (Judges 2:21-23). For all those reading this who live in America, this probably brings us concern as we see our nation and its people turning further and further from God and what the Bible teaches.

We recalled earlier Joshua’s promise in Joshua 24:15 to serve the Lord and it seems as though he and his children’s generation did, but then what went wrong and why? The Bible doesn’t tell us, but I’m confident it’s not because the Israelites were always on their iPhone browsing Facebook and Instagram instead of spending time with and teaching their children or taking their kids to travel sports games instead of church (guilty here on both accounts). However, there must have been other distractions or reasons why they fell away from teaching their kids about God and all he’d done for them. Maybe they were too busy working to run the home or too busy battling other people for ground or maybe they just stopped focusing on the good God had done for them and focused only on their problems falling out of love with Him. We can only guess.

This is a good reminder and wake up call to us on how we must teach our children about God, what His Word teaches, and our love for Him (and His love for us), so that when our children are out of our house they will continue to stay close to Him, His Word, and live the way He desires us to.

Here are a list of things we can do to help lay a strong foundation with our children in their formative years with us so they will stay close to Him when they leave our home and so they someday can lead their children to God as well.

  • Attend Church Regularly – We are tired. We want to rest and relax the one day we can which is usually Sunday. We have kids’ sports and activities or when we don’t this is our one day off. But, we need fed God’s Word and time to worship Him. Studies show when we go to church, our kids are significantly more likely to when they are out of the house, too. When we are traveling, we can still try to watch or listen online together.
  • Join a Small Group/Bible Study – This is important for us to stay in God’s Word and close fellowship with other believers and will also show by example our kids how God is a priority and important amongst our busy schedules and lives.
  • Read a Daily Devotional and Your Bible (and let your kids see you doing it) – Staying close to God’s Word will pay dividends and improve our parenting as it speaks to us (Hebrews 4:12) each day. Quiet time alone with God in prayer reading is important as Jesus modeled (Luke 5:15, Mark 1:35), and I also think our kids knowing we do this and even seeing us reading from our Bible firsthand with their own eyes and how we make this a priority is also very valuable.
  • Listen to Worship Music – While our family loves many genres and time periods of music and listens to them frequently, I believe it’s also valuable to listen to Christian music and for our kids to see us singing and praising God while we’re in the car, making dinner, or during fellowship time. While our kids go to their own church service, we also try to attend a few worship music nights our church has with the entire family where we can all sing and praise God together.
  • Talk About What You Are Seeing and What God’s Word Teaches– We are now seeing on the news, in commercials, in TV shows and movies, and even things taught and/or allowed in our grade schools things that go against God’s Word. We must help our kids know at a young age what God and His Word says. The different sins of others are no worse than our own sins in God’s eyes and our kids must know this. We must teach our kids it’s ok to disapprove of sins that just may be different than our own (which we also disapprove of), and we can still love others in their sin the same way God loves us in ours. In the end, what’s most important is that they know what God’s Word says is right and wrong.
  • Discuss and Share Being in Awe of God – For those with younger children (and even older), discuss the beauty of His Creation around us..it could be as simple as the sunrise and sunset. Share what God is doing and has done in your life and the lives of others…even through challenging times. Remind them that, “God is great..all the time!”
  • Family Devotional Time – Consider taking time weekly to do a devotional together as a family and discuss. This is a great time to bond and model being in His Word and doing it together. I know for our family this is one we must improve on!

In between writing this, one of our small group members sent to our group a social media video of a pastor who said we should ask our children what they think the #1 thing is their parents desire for them to know. He said if they don’t answer, “to know God,” then that is a major problem. He commented that if they get great grades, but don’t know God..what does it matter? If they have a beautiful wedding, but don’t know God..what does it matter? I would add knowing God’s love and where our kids will spend eternity is what does matter.

In closing, when getting to know a potential new financial planning client, I ask them what’s important for the 5 Capitals they have in their life – Relational, Physical (time), Intellectual, Financial, and Spiritual. More than a few recently whose kids have just grown up and are now out of the house have commented that they are believers and pray but regrettably had not gone to church while their kids were growing up and now realize the not so favorable impact. I admire their awareness and have encouraged them their kids are still watching and following their lead..even if their kids are out of the house. And at the same time this is a good wake up call for those of us who still have kids living under our roof.

I’m asking myself what 1 thing from my list above is that I can improve on, and I would encourage you to do the same.

Need For Speed

Numbers 16; Psalms 52–54; Isaiah 6; Hebrews 13

The idea of authority is a double edge sword. We like believing there is justice in the world, some ultimate authority establishing order; but we also want to live lives of our choosing — making our own rules.

I just returned from spending most of this week in Las Vegas at a convention for the Manufactured Housing Industry (MHI). This event is really a big annual reunion for a diverse community of friends, fellow investors, home manufacturers, brokers and other service providers for an industry that provides affordable housing for approximately twenty million Americans. At an event sponsored by my incredible brokerage team, we offered clients an opportunity to drive ten of the most expensive sports cars in the world on a racing track with a personal professional driving coach; Ferarri’s, Lamborghini’s and others, you get the idea. This was sort of a drivers education for car racing. The driving coaches shared the rules of the track, the laws of physics and just in case we lost our minds, they had a brake pedal on the floor of the passenger side. We were instructed in the art of racing, when to go fast, how to go faster and how to negotiate curves at the highest possible speeds. Trust me when I say that I payed very close attention to my professional driving coach!

After five laps I was at the food truck talking with a friend about wealth and privilege. I asked him a question that popped into my head. “If you could design the perfect life for yourself — would it really be perfect?” He wasn’t sure he knew the answer. I believe we all desire the “perfect life”. The desire to find perfection is written on our hearts. But how do we find it? what are the rules, and who makes them?

If we make our own rules, aren’t we missing the opportunity to follow something better? Where do we find the rules for driving the best cars on the fast track of our lives?

I knew that in the absence of the belief in a personal God (one that’s still involved in the world He created) people often gravitate to the ideas like karma. But somehow karmic “authority” seems too vague for me even though I liked the concept. In theory, following this simple principle might even make life a little easier. If we believe that by being generally good, the universe will generally be good back to us, then we can then operate with a general, perhaps even self justified, sense of what the rules are. In this model, justice becomes more vague. The notion that someone is in charge, or that there are specific rules to follow, is more specific, more personal and more challenging. “Who said so?” and “why should I?” were my typical responses.

At times we accept the authority of science. We don’t seem to have much of a problem discovering and responding to the laws of nature as we understand them. You can choose to ignore gravity if you want, but the consequences always turn out the same.

Authority is also accepted when we want to learn a critical skill from someone who knows. If I want to learn to drive fast and safe, the importance of good instruction and understanding the rules is easy to grasp. So if we can respect the laws of physics; and advanced drivers education can be embraced by confidant adults, is it so hard to imagine that the creator of the universe might have laws for us to follow? Is it hard to grasp the possibility that there is a divine authority on how to live our lives? Might there be a more elevated definition of what it means to prosper, higher than those that the world offers us or that we can invent for ourselves?

God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. -Psalm 53:2

As I have come to have a personal relationship with God, I have come to understand the power and authority of God and how important it is in guiding my life. But the crazy thing is this; it was by experiencing God’s incredible love, through His amazing grace, that I was able to discover His awesome power and authority. God is the fairest of judges and the ultimate authority over heaven and earth. He does not condemn His children by grace. He loves and empowers and encourages and directs our steps along paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. He has made a way for all of us to return to Him, to return to our rightful place, to fulfill our destiny. God offers redemption to all. And through Jesus Christ  by grace we are given the power to live extraordinary lives, by receiving God’s Holy Spirit. Faith in God offers us lives in the spiritual fast lane. Lives of adventure and challenge and of the greater fulfillment than we could ever imagine. Will we listen and learn?

Ladies and gentlemen it’s time to start your spiritual engines! Amen.