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“Mama, you know that all four of us kids can look back and see the imperfections of our family, the ups and downs, but there were anchors that kept us from being caught up in the storms of life. What has carried us through all these years is that we saw you and Daddy seeking God, praying every morning. Then out of that we saw you earnestly seeking to live out through your actions what you learned every day and talked about in our devotions together.”
“We never thought our faith was based on mere rules but on the stories and the impressions that Christ left when he walked on this earth. He. was really alive in our home and He has followed. us everywhere. We still hear those messages woven in and through our thoughts and remember the ways we lived them out together in our family culture.”
Our children are always watching, learning, hearing and following. We feed their imaginations with the beautiful stories of Christ so that they will always have His love and wisdom to guide them. I was remembering how much like a treasure scripture was to me when I was newly a believer and lived on every word I read. Today, I will share my story.
Feeling desperately alone amidst a sea of people, and typical myriad constant activities of a collegiate life, I knew that there had to be. something more. From the. outside, I appeared as a. typical college sophomore, holding my life together with smiles, quips and staying as cool as I knew how. But through tears and the darkness of my lost soul, I knelt down on my. knees. in my tenth. floor dormitory room on hard linoleum gray floors, and prayed:
“God, if you are out there somewhere, please find me. I feel so alone and desperate and lost. Please do something to let me know you hear me, please.”
And so it was a few weeks later, a very shy woman knocked on my door, started a conversation with me and told me that God loved me. It transformed my life. I could not get enough. the Bible was my treasure chest. I had never known how I had longed for life to make sense and that when I read scripture, I found my heart filled, comforted, and for the first time in my life I felt known and still loved.
Fast forward, my Bible became worn, underlined, memorized and it was the light I lived by. Over many years, it gave me all that I needed: wisdom, comfort, love, understanding, direction and purpose.
And so in every point of life, every drama, every issue, the Word of God informed my decisions, my trajectory, my steps, my way forward. And. so it was. my “bread of life”, my manna, last week, the the week before that and the weeks yet to come. But for 48 years, my times in the Word have guided the decisions, actions, moments of my life, one day at a time.
When I had my children, I wanted them to know the word as something that lived in their hearts, every day, all the time. I wanted them to imagine Jesus right there with them, preparing them for all that they would face in life by giving them His stories, HIs model, His love and wisdom. This life of Christ came through every day, little by little, as we cherished the stories together in our family culture.
I knew they would face challenges, stress, pressures in their life time as I had, but I wanted them to have the voice of God whispering to them to show them how to make the kinds of decisions that would honor Christ, that would follow the integrity of God’s word.
As I was praying about what to share with you today, God brought to mind this story of how we are to respond to and love and serve our neighbors. And this story was one that captured the wonder and imagination of all of my children, a story they each remember and. use to guide the relationships of their own lives. We give our children the best gift when we provide them with the voice of God in their own hearts because of growing up in HIs life over all the years in our homes.
Today, as I was reading and praying for our world, my friends and all that is going on, I was reminded of a profound question that an educated, earnest student of the law of God asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor.” The following is the passage. I hope that this story encourages you as it has me. More in the podcast.
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Go, do likewise, have compassion, show mercy, help the one who needs help, give generously as Jesus has given to us. It was His story. It is what He requires and desires for us to do because of our love for Him. I take it to heart. May it bless you today.
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