Saturday, February 23, 2013

Without Excuse

"I have no greater Joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth" (III John 4).

Without Excuse

 
 
Recently, our Sunday School class has been discussing discipleship.  Specifically, how discipleship and parenting go hand in hand.  We, as Christian believers, all desire for our children to know and walk in the Truth.  But I know in my busy life, it's easy to go about my daily tasks without focusing on discipling my children.  If I am not purposeful in planning my day, it seems that devotions and teaching my children about the Bible are the first things to get left out.
 
As we were sharing in Sunday School, my husband shared an example of a "Love Jar" that I had been doing with the children to lead up to Valentine's Day.  I had found a free printable online with 14 verses about God's love, and we read one at breakfast the 14 days before Valentine's Day.  As he shared this, and older lady in our class said, "I never did those kinds of things with my kids."  I was a little embarrassed by the attention, so I told her how different it is these days with the Internet and blogs, and how easy it is to find things like this to do with your kids.
 
And that's when it hit me.... We are without excuse.  There is no way that most mothers today would be able to stand in front of the Lord and give any reasonable excuse for failing to disciple our children on a daily basis.  Our Sunday School material put it this way:
 
"Discipleship and parenting is time consuming, messy, sometimes frustrating, and exhausting; yet it is one of the best investments we can make.  It takes a huge commitment during the prime of our life, which is why we often shy away from this work and leave it to others.  Unfortunately, the work is often left undone or only half-way done..."
 




I know we are faced with many things today that must be done.  Many of you are working moms, some of you are single moms, and others of you have multiple children who are very young.  Being a mom is exhausting.  But if we truly want to lead our children in the way of the Lord, we must take the time to teach them.  We can't leave it up to the church, or their daycare, or their school.  It must come from us.
 
Many moms that I know of today (myself included), spend huge amounts of time on Facebook, or Pinterest, or random blogs.  I leave this challenge for you: The next time you get on the computer, spend the first 5 minutes seeking out a way to teach your children something about Jesus.  Consider the reward those 5 minutes could bring: an investing that will reap blessings for generations to come.
 
Here are some of my favorite blogs/websites that I find helpful:
 
The Dating Divas (mainly ideas for spouses, but some ideas for kids too).
 
If you have any special sites you visit, please leave them in the comments below.  I'd love to check them out!

 

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