Heavenly Mothers are Armed and Dangerous-Day 29

"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:" Ephesians 6:17

The sword of the spirit. It sounds like a powerful weapon, and it is. Although, it is the Holy Spirit who give us the grace to obey the Word of God and to understand it, it is hard to understand or obey something that you haven't even read.

I am one of the worst offenders in this area. My bible is not well marked because I would often rather read a book about the Bible or the Christian life than to actually open the source myself and soak it in. 

I try to quote verses when counseling with people, and way too often, end up with some off-the-wall paraphrase. I know what I meant, but do the people I am talking to get it?

The word of God is powerful though, and we need to know it to be able to partake of its power. Knowing God's word helps us to stay encouraged when times are tough, it helps us to believe the best about our children when they disappoint us, and it helps us to agape love our husbands when we would rather leave.

Some of the ways that we do put a priority on the Word of God in our home is by assigning monthly chapters to read as a family, memorizing key verses, and reading the Bible aloud as part of our schooling. We also assign Bible copy work with the children, I just need to get more consistent than my kids in this area!

It is a blessing to feel close to God, to go to a church service and be moved by His presence. What, though will keep us faithful during the dry times of our Christian walk? What will keep us pressing in to the pleasure of God that we have experienced in the past? When our feelings fail us, we can stand on the truth of God's word, and use the truth as a powerful weapon against unbelief and discouragement.

For more posts on Heavenly Mothering, click here

Daily Worship-The Best Part of Homeschooling

When my children were all young, our daily Bible time consisted of simple devotionals such as Leading Little Ones to God, memory verse work and simple Sunday School songs mixed in with some classic hymns. 

A few years ago, we found the devotional Long Story Short which was just what we needed. I had been so oblivious to what the Gospel really was, I was placing way too much emphasis on good behavior, and way too little on the finished work of Christ on the cross. Long Story Short was all about the redemptive work of Christ, and it came at a time when we desperately needed hope that our behavior wasn't what got us saved, but that it was what Jesus had done for us that brings salvation.

Fast forward a couple years. We had tried and failed to produce good children by focusing solely on good behavior, and so most of my children who are old enough to remember the intense years when we hit the brick wall of failed human goodness, are very, very thankful for a God who saves, despite our failures. This has brought some big changes to our daily worship time. 

Our morning Bible time still has some memory work, and some coloring pages and simple Bible stories for the little ones, but now the bulk of the time involves pouring our hearts out in worship to our amazing Lord. We are a musically developing family, so we might stream a Bethel Redding worship service to get passionate worship dropped into our living room on a Monday morning, or it might be my teen boys on their guitars or cajon leading us in some songs which they have been working on. 

                                          

Whether it is Jeremy Riddle at Bethel leading our worship, or my boys on their guitars, we are thankful. I still love the hymns, and we still occasionally sing the B-I-B-L-E for the sake of the younger children, but to see my teens seek God because they have tasted and seen how good He is, is the most amazing gift this momma could imagine. 

I have blown it as a mom in a million different ways, but God has been only good, and the joy of worshipping Him with my children is just one of the millions of ways He has shown just how merciful He is.