On Sunday at Bedford, we had the opportunity to hear from Allen, and he spoke a lot about choices, both parental and personal. We see many examples of how parental choices affected the lives of the children, even in Biblical times.
Making a choice as a parent can have a lasting impact on your child. Sometimes I struggle with simple choices like which type of yogurt to buy, how to dress on those cold-in-the-morning, warm-by-afternoon days, or which activity fits into our schedule each week. Those are all real choices I have to make. However, sometimes choosing either option, such as in these cases, will be fine. Either way, based on those choices, the week will go on somewhat normally.
The choices that do matter exponentially, that truly affect the lives of our children and other children we may have influence on, are those of faith. How do I respond to a moment of fear? What’s my first response to tornado sirens, like we experienced this past weekend? Do I react with fear and trembling or faith and peace? Don’t misread me here; I am not saying we don’t respond with safety measures and precautions. BUT what are the words coming out of my mouth? What is my child seeing me do and hearing me say in these moments? Am I speaking the name of Jesus over everything in our lives?
Don’t miss this most important choice to show your kids (and other kids, for that matter) Jesus’ way whenever you can.
Proverbs 22:6 tells us: Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.