Their number one complaint? "Stop preaching!"
When Hormone got married he and Rayray had a brief meeting about how she would now bear the brunt of all my sermonizing by her lonesome. Boo hoo!
You know what I say? "It's my job!"
More than once I have said that if someone has an issue with my "turning everything into a life lesson," then they should file a complaint with God Almighty.
Deuteronomy 6:5-8 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates."
Not only are we to keep God front and center in our own lives, but we have the awesome and amazing responsibility to "impress" God's ways on our kids. I like to think of it as God's permission to nag.
If He is saying to talk about it at home, on the road, when you go to bed and when you get up...then it's a daily responsibility.
Why every day? Because all the other junk out there doesn't take a break, so we should not either.
There is so much garbage out there competing for our kids' attention, and the majority of it will hurt their souls. We fight that constant barrage with a barrage of our own. Sometimes--OK--a lot of the times--our kids are going to get annoyed by it. But notice how these verses do not say to only talk about God if the children are receptive. Please! If I had to wait for my kids to be receptive I might have forgotten how to talk altogether.
Let us not shy away from engaging our kids in the types of conversations that matter. No one else has a problem strutting their point of view.
Back in 1992 I was taking a class, and someone I made friends with brought in a very popular book by a very popular singer that dealt with the topic of sex.
Everyone in the room gathered around her desk to look at the provocative pictures except me--the nerd.
Here I was a 27-year-old mother of two and all I could think about was a song my mother sang to me a million times, "Cuidadito tus ojitos lo que ven..."
"Be careful little eyes what you see..."
You never know when something you have taught your kids will pop up and have a positive impact. It might not have been a big deal that I didn't look at the book except that, for whatever reason, it kind of made an impression on the girl who brought it in. She and I became friends after that and were able to pray together a few times for some struggles in her marriage. Glory:)
Let us ask God for the strength and perseverance we need to engage our families every single day.
PRAYER: Dear Lord, Sometimes we get tired. Tired of all the bad stuff out there and tired of having to shield ourselves and our families from it. Strengthen us today for the struggles of this day, and thank You that we are promised the blessings of peace and joy when we do the hard work of "nagging." In Jesus' name, AMEN~
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