The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity from Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children's children! Peace be upon Israel! (Verses 5-6)
Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. Proverbs 17
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6
High school is a difficult microcosm for most kids. I know. Not only was I a high schooler once, I also taught English to high school students for years. Struggling to become adults, trapped in bodies that surge with hormones but with minds that still don't quite understand the full consequences of giving in to their constant urges, teenagers need a guide. A plumb line that informs their behavior and speaks to their hopes and dreams. One of the reasons I love that age so much is that they are starting to think like adults. Wanting to understand good and evil. Reaching for purpose. Trying to cut the emotional umbilical cord with childhood as they are ever nearer to life as an adult in a difficult world.
Vanessa was no exception when it came to the high school experience. I remember being on my face in my closet praying for her life, her choice of friends and a way to communicate with her the things that were on my heart and hear the things pressing in on hers. How do I reach her, Lord? The answer was all about talking with her in the way...we ran together. Up at five in the morning, tying on my jogging shoes, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and stepping out into early morning cool of southern California pre-dawn with my middle child was a challenge. Not because of the three to four miles we ran but because of the questions and doubts that streamed from her heart as our feet pounded the pavement. "How can God be sovereign and we still have free will?" This before sun-up. But God was on her mind. Wanting to discern Him, know Him. Piece together a theology that made sense. So we talked of Him "by the way." My heart wanting her heart to love the Lord of my life.
There was the late-night conversation I had with Will about Romans 9. God, the Potter; we, the clay. Parsing our sovereign choice. Duking out with God together that we respond to His wooing us, loving us first, instead of our thinking we decide to choose Him without His first loving us. Predestining and foreordaining us, in love, before the foundation of the world for adoption into God's family (Ephesians 1). It went against Will's idea that it was he who chose God. It actually made him mad. Because if we choose God first, we become the powerful one in the relationship. It was two in the morning when we prayed together, his spirit calmed and encouraged by a Father Who would reach down to Will in mercy.
Heather was the earliest to grasp this love for Jesus. We used to have nightly Bible study lessons with her and Vanessa using a flannel board and characters we'd purchased from the local Christian bookstore. Sunday School materials. Each night we'd take a story from the Bible, tell it, and often the girls would wind up acting it out. They were fascinated by the demon possessed man Jesus freed. The story of the encounter Peter and John had with the crippled beggar to whom they spoke: "Silver and gold have we none, but in the name of Jesus, get up and walk!" In their play about this man, Vanessa always was the beggar. "Gimme money! Gimme money!" she'd cry. And Heather would heal her legs. From her earliest diaries, which Heather let me see, her heart pleaded with God to keep her from sin. His Word swirling in her spirit, conscious of how much it would hurt Him for her to transgress His design for her.
And now I have grandsons. Oh, my, don't get me started! But here I am to tell you they are the best of the best! Heather actually has a catechism she teaches them every day. They read together the stories of great Christians. Both have asked Jesus into their hearts. One has been baptized. And that, oh, that, makes my heart sing. I was able to be in Virginia the day Nicholas was baptized. We'd talked about it, he and I, the day before. What it meant. How proud I was of his commitment to Jesus. His desire to tell others (it's even gotten him in trouble). Watching the preacher dip his little head into the water and feeling the surge of the Spirit when he came up out of the baptismal, made my heart quake a little. But then...then...when Nicholas took his seat in the congregation, slipping by his father and mother to embrace me, hold onto me in a unity of experience and joy, well...no words. And Alexander so full of enthusiasm for the Word. Reading it like a pro at the age of seven. Wanting to understand the Bible stories on a deeper level. Both boys really wanting Bibles of their own.
We can pass on our faith. We can't believe in Christ for our children. They will have to make their own way to Him. But we can live before them, talk about Him, be real with them in our own struggles and heartbreaks, in the morning, in the evening, when we sit down to dinner, or walk with them in their way. Give them every advantage to leave the grip of our earthly hand as we gently transfer their clasping hand to His. Ultimately we hope that our children can find the peace and joy we have as a family. Duplicate and surpass it. Blessed and prosperous not only in their physical lives, but also in their spiritual journey. And from their prosperity, their sharing, that the world be blessed. That from Zion God multiplies their joyous unity in Him to the whole, wide world.
Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. Proverbs 17
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6
High school is a difficult microcosm for most kids. I know. Not only was I a high schooler once, I also taught English to high school students for years. Struggling to become adults, trapped in bodies that surge with hormones but with minds that still don't quite understand the full consequences of giving in to their constant urges, teenagers need a guide. A plumb line that informs their behavior and speaks to their hopes and dreams. One of the reasons I love that age so much is that they are starting to think like adults. Wanting to understand good and evil. Reaching for purpose. Trying to cut the emotional umbilical cord with childhood as they are ever nearer to life as an adult in a difficult world.
Vanessa was no exception when it came to the high school experience. I remember being on my face in my closet praying for her life, her choice of friends and a way to communicate with her the things that were on my heart and hear the things pressing in on hers. How do I reach her, Lord? The answer was all about talking with her in the way...we ran together. Up at five in the morning, tying on my jogging shoes, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and stepping out into early morning cool of southern California pre-dawn with my middle child was a challenge. Not because of the three to four miles we ran but because of the questions and doubts that streamed from her heart as our feet pounded the pavement. "How can God be sovereign and we still have free will?" This before sun-up. But God was on her mind. Wanting to discern Him, know Him. Piece together a theology that made sense. So we talked of Him "by the way." My heart wanting her heart to love the Lord of my life.
There was the late-night conversation I had with Will about Romans 9. God, the Potter; we, the clay. Parsing our sovereign choice. Duking out with God together that we respond to His wooing us, loving us first, instead of our thinking we decide to choose Him without His first loving us. Predestining and foreordaining us, in love, before the foundation of the world for adoption into God's family (Ephesians 1). It went against Will's idea that it was he who chose God. It actually made him mad. Because if we choose God first, we become the powerful one in the relationship. It was two in the morning when we prayed together, his spirit calmed and encouraged by a Father Who would reach down to Will in mercy.
Heather was the earliest to grasp this love for Jesus. We used to have nightly Bible study lessons with her and Vanessa using a flannel board and characters we'd purchased from the local Christian bookstore. Sunday School materials. Each night we'd take a story from the Bible, tell it, and often the girls would wind up acting it out. They were fascinated by the demon possessed man Jesus freed. The story of the encounter Peter and John had with the crippled beggar to whom they spoke: "Silver and gold have we none, but in the name of Jesus, get up and walk!" In their play about this man, Vanessa always was the beggar. "Gimme money! Gimme money!" she'd cry. And Heather would heal her legs. From her earliest diaries, which Heather let me see, her heart pleaded with God to keep her from sin. His Word swirling in her spirit, conscious of how much it would hurt Him for her to transgress His design for her.
And now I have grandsons. Oh, my, don't get me started! But here I am to tell you they are the best of the best! Heather actually has a catechism she teaches them every day. They read together the stories of great Christians. Both have asked Jesus into their hearts. One has been baptized. And that, oh, that, makes my heart sing. I was able to be in Virginia the day Nicholas was baptized. We'd talked about it, he and I, the day before. What it meant. How proud I was of his commitment to Jesus. His desire to tell others (it's even gotten him in trouble). Watching the preacher dip his little head into the water and feeling the surge of the Spirit when he came up out of the baptismal, made my heart quake a little. But then...then...when Nicholas took his seat in the congregation, slipping by his father and mother to embrace me, hold onto me in a unity of experience and joy, well...no words. And Alexander so full of enthusiasm for the Word. Reading it like a pro at the age of seven. Wanting to understand the Bible stories on a deeper level. Both boys really wanting Bibles of their own.
We can pass on our faith. We can't believe in Christ for our children. They will have to make their own way to Him. But we can live before them, talk about Him, be real with them in our own struggles and heartbreaks, in the morning, in the evening, when we sit down to dinner, or walk with them in their way. Give them every advantage to leave the grip of our earthly hand as we gently transfer their clasping hand to His. Ultimately we hope that our children can find the peace and joy we have as a family. Duplicate and surpass it. Blessed and prosperous not only in their physical lives, but also in their spiritual journey. And from their prosperity, their sharing, that the world be blessed. That from Zion God multiplies their joyous unity in Him to the whole, wide world.
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