Author: valuesdr

What is Discipleship, anyway?!

valuesdr

I went to bed at a decent time but found myself up and unable to sleep at about 3 AM. So of course, I went downstairs to download some MP3 audios that I’ve been waiting to listen to. (My ISP has download limits and if we exceed them, our connection is basically shot for 24 hours–yuck!–but we have “free download time”/no limits from 3AM to 6AM. That usually doesn’t mean anything to me, but since I was up anyway…)

Also checked my email and heard from a friend, which was nice. I was glad to have the time to email a lengthy response (there finally being few distractions in the middle of the night, after all…) And the email REQUIRED a lengthy response, because my friend was basically looking for “my” take on DISCIPLESHIP…asking, basically, “What is discipleship, anyway?” Oh, that’s a loaded question! Thought some of you might wonder the same thing…so I figured that since I did the work of putting together my thoughts, I might as well post them here, for what it’s worth. 🙂

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Basically, the word “disciple” (as a verb) means to teach or train. Jesus had twelve disciples that he taught/trained, and His goal was that they would be like Him. Our goal in discipling our children is for them to be like JESUS! However, our biggest problem is our concept of teaching and training. For Jesus, discipleship was a “do as I do” model. In the Hebrew culture, students “lived with” their teachers/”masters” so that they would SEE them live…speak…and put their “teachings” into practice. This model takes time…Jesus was with His disciples for three years, and we know that Paul spent some time in various cities—mostly to invest in this “discipleship” process. I like how the apostle Paul described the process: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

HOWEVER, we have been indoctrinated with a Greek philosophy of education, which replaces the hands-on, “doing life together” model with a knowledge-based model of “teaching”—i.e., lessons of words, readings, etc. These are pretty good at imparting “head knowledge,” but the DOING is difficult because there is not much encouragement for application by example.

When we consider what it means to disciple our children, our goal is to return to the model that Jesus gave us…to keep our children near to us so that they can see our example. To be authentic with our children when we fall short…to teach them about repentance and perseverance in our faith. Essentially, to fulfill the command of Deuteronomy 6:6-7: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon 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.” The idea, though, is not just to “talk,” but to talk about what we’re LIVING and how God wants our children to live.

Training in obedience usually results from being consistent with discipline (I have to admit that, unlike you, we have shown more inconsistency than I’d like in this area!) Training in Christlike character (which is the heart of discipleship, really) is more difficult because it targets the heart, not just outward behavior. While we like to look at behaviors because they’re easier to “correct” and we can see faster results, God cares about the HEART, and that’s the target of this discipleship process…the process of living what we believe and showing our children how THEY can do the same. It takes more time to see results this way, but the results are at the heart-level and so are longer-lasting. Children’s obedience to God’s commands (and our Biblical instruction) doesn’t just come from their conformity due to negative consequences, but it comes from the heart because they desire to live a life that is pleasing to God.

Where I have probably fallen down with discipleship lately (in my “muddling” season!) is in that I have come “disconnected” with my kids. Because Biblical discipleship is a “do as I do” process, we have to invest TIME with our kids…and it’s all too easy to shuffle them off to one place or another, put in a video to get some quiet time for ourselves, or just fill the days with “meaningless” activity just to keep everyone occupied. Likewise, easier to discipline behaviors than to disciple them…that means, instead of “just” providing a consequence for negative behaviors (which often is necessary), we have to invest sometime in talking about things and encourage the children with what God’s Word has to say. Going back to Deuteronomy 6:6-7, this means that WE (parents) have to have God’s “commandments” UPON OUR HEARTS so that we can impart them to our children.

So what does discipleship “look” like? Well, for me it means “explaining” to my children WHAT I’m doing and WHY…not just “being” an example, but showing them my heart. If I’m frustrated, I try to step back and not just apologize, but tell they WHY I’m sorry—because I know that I’m not showing the “patient and kind” love that God wants me to. I explain to them the importance of repentance…the grace of God…and the power of the Holy Spirit that can help us change direction when we’re getting off-track. If I find myself complaining, I eventually get to the point where I say, “God really wants us to have an attitude of praise, not a complaining spirit. When we grumble against our circumstances, we’re grumbling against God—like the Israelites who complained against Moses in the wilderness!” So I find a way to make each of my complaints a PRAISE, and ask the kids to help me out. They can “see” my thought process and how “I” apply God’s Word to my circumstances, to get from where I am to where God wants me to be. They “see” how to live out their faith.

As far as discipling them through THEIR negative behaviors, I “TRY” to be encouraging with the Word rather than punitive (nobody likes to get beat over the head with a Bible!)…there are verses that they may hear a lot (about loving one another, serving one another in love, encouraging one another with their speech…various verses on how to avoid and/or deal with arguments, etc.) and I just keep bringing them up any time they are needed. I trust that eventually they’ll work into the kids’ hearts. And I love now that they’re getting older, we can TALK about their life circumstances, decisions, etc. and THEY can begin to apply God’s Word. With our guidance to help them see the “whole” of Scripture and understand and God’s truth, THEY can see how it applies to their lives. But we can’t do that unless they’re close to us and we’re aware of what’s going on in their lives. Connectedness is so important to the discipleship process!

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I ended this by reminding my friend that our most-referenced verses–and then some!–are put together in our Values-Driven Discipleship manual…feel free to check it out. 🙂

A Story with a Lesson in Leadership

valuesdr

In preparing for the leadership training I will be doing in Kenya, the Lord gave me a story that has relevance in our body. I shared this with my church. You may wish to do the same. Here it is.

Why are we here and why do we assemble? What is God’s purpose for the church and what is the role of leadership? Well, Jesus taught with stories, and I believe the Lord gave me a word-picture that really spoke to me. It may speak to you as well.

I look outside today and see snow—a stark reminder of the frigid winters in New England where I grew up. Oh, it makes me look forward to Spring all the more as I see the white symbol of coldness covering the landscape.

The snow and accompanying coldness also conjures up images of Narnia under the White Witch’s dominion. The deep freeze holding their world hostage as they awaited Aslan’s coming Kingdom.

The imagery made me think of the role of a shepherd and the response of the church. It made me think of the local body trapped in the wintery storm of this world, under Satan’s dominion. The shepherd eagerly seeks the Kingdom, and leads the church through the snow, carving a path in the frigidness. Yes, he is the one who gets snow in his boots, must expend the most energy, and feels the greatest burden for ensuring that the trajectory is right, the path is safe, and that no one is left behind in the cold. He listens to the vision given him from the Word and the Spirit, and guides with tender care, setting an example where and how to take each step. When he steps on thin ice, his foot gets wet, and he changes the trajectory to keep the others safe. When he approaches a steep incline, he walks around to gentler slopes. He pushes down the snow banks to clear the way ahead of the others.

Yet, a peculiar thing happens along the way. Others become unnerved at the shepherds leading. Some become envious of the presumed glory of walking in front. They fail to count the labor and sacrifice required of it. They assume the role upon themselves, choosing to latch onto the “glory” of position and fail to lead at all. Those who assume the role out of pride, envy or ambition fail to see the Kingdom vision—and lead people in dangerous paths or even in circles—sometimes claiming it is the Spirit’s leading.

Others choose not to walk at all, and build a snow fort, just big enough for the current membership, and with a wall tall enough to keep others that don’t look like them out. Yet others choose to make a snow man and go sledding to just enjoy the coldness of the world, failing to recognize that they are just sojourners in Satan’s wintery dominion. Yet, even others get in a snow ball fight, and decide to leave the path altogether—leaving a wake of disunity and pain.

The shepherd is careful to not carve the path and then double back and push the followers along it, claiming authority from above. Rather, he persuades them—edifying, encouraging, and yes, rebuking—with the Word in love, always putting the vision before them. For there will always be those who want to build a fort, those who want to play, those who leave the path, and aspiring shepherds who have a path of their own. It is an unnecessary burden to blaze the trail along the Lord’s trajectory and look back and see the four camps holding the sojourners on the Kingdom’s path back from the vision, yet, this is the lot of the shepherd.

The moral of the story—the vision—that is the Kingdom, is the destination of His churches. Understand that the church is sojourning together, towards that goal. The Bible admonishes to “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” (Hebrews 13:17) This is not mindless submission, but rather being persuaded by their wisdom, by their example, and by the Kingdom vision.

Shalom,
Marc Carrier
http://www.valuesdrivenlife.com/

Ps. All pastors and ministry leaders are invited to get a FREE e-copy of my new discipleship book at http://www.valuesdrivenlife.com. Here are some testimonials.

New Years’ Resolutions, anyone??

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New Year’s resolutions—do you have any? I suppose it’s all too common to make resolutions and then let them fade away into oblivion, whether because of busyness or laziness—or perhaps a combination of both. Goals met, on the other hand, bring a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, not to mention the intended benefit of the goal itself (such as losing weight or quitting smoking for improved health and energy.)

Let me ask you: what are your spiritual goals for this year? Do you want to be in the same place in your walk with the Lord in January 2010 as you are right now? If not, what is your plan for making progress? If you’re anything like me, you might set up a checklist of “to-do’s” in order to give yourself some sort of measurement of progress. Read so many chapters of your Bible each day, spend so much time in prayer, attend a Women’s Bible study, or read a certain number of Christian books on a given subject. Trouble is, we get focused on the “doing” and forget that God is all about our “being.”

So can I ask you another question? (This one is a little more personal.) How is your “being?” Do you think your character reflects the character of Christ? (That is, after all, the goal—see Romans 8:29, for example.) In what areas would you like to improve?

Personally, during this first trimester of pregnancy I’ve let my constant tiredness make me a little irritable with my children. That’s certainly a bad habit that I’d like to nip in the bud sooner rather than later! I’ve also been doing many things more out of “duty” than out of “love.” While it is good to obey, God also wants our hearts—and I’ll be the first to admit that I could use some work in that area. Trouble is, I can’t really make a checklist out of how many times I snap at the children, or sigh, or just give up on doing something that I know God would want me to do (like get up and discipline one of the children when they need it!). And even if I tried to do that, it probably wouldn’t be effective. Why? Because outward measures don’t necessarily affect the heart—and that’s where lasting change needs to start.

To get the ball rolling on heart-change, Bible reading and prayer are good. I can measure those—even better! But, the danger is that I’d just get caught up in more doing and yet wouldn’t even be “doing” the right thing with all of the information I’d acquire through study. My husband picked up a quote from somewhere (unfortunately I’m not sure the source) that goes something like this: The average Christian is knowledgeable beyond their ability to obey. In other words, I may possess lots of head-knowledge but I’m not able to adequately put it into practice the way God wants me to. Yet it is my obedience that shows my love for God and brings blessing (see Luke 11:28, John 14:15-24).

Knowledge is relatively easy to acquire, so it’s equally easy to feel confident in what we “know.” Infinitely harder to put the Word into practice on a consistent basis! If I had a “New Year’s Resolution” this year, I would want to be more obedient to what I already know in God’s Word. Given what I have already read and studied in my Christian walk, I could probably give up Bible reading entirely and still “know” more than I can successfully “do.” Scary thought, no? How about you?

I have been immensely blessed as I have edited, read, and re-read Marc and Todd Shaw’s upcoming book, The Values-Driven Life. It was actually designed to help us get from where we are to where we want to be in our relationship with God and in our expression of Christ-like character. Jesus used the parable of the soils (see Luke 8) to describe the various responses to the Gospel. The Values-Driven Life focuses on the last two: the seed that springs up among thorns, and the seed that falls on good soil, where it produces an abundant crop. The goal for all of us to be abundantly fruitful for God and His Kingdom! Here’s a brief excerpt from the first chapter—you may pick up the reference to the gardening analogy, but you’ll also get a good idea of the premise behind the book:

Crops need protection, but they also need fertilizer for optimum growth. Yep, Christians need fertilizer, too. Your nourishment comes from God’s Word, the Bible.

There is absolutely no substitute for sitting down during your quiet time in the morning and reading God’s Word. It is always relevant and always timely. Read the same passage ten times, and most certainly you will hear God’s gentle voice whisper new and fresh insight for you each time you read it. It is nourishment for the soul, and an absolute necessity if you are going to bear fruit. You can’t impart nourishment to others until you are personally “filled.” Reading the Bible regularly is an important first step in your spiritual growth.

Another means of learning God’s Word is through Bible study. Spending time alone, or especially with other Christians, dissecting and discussing God’s Word is time well invested. Interaction and discussion will offer the most substantive nourishment. Listening to a sermon can have an impact, but an interactive discourse is guaranteed to go deeper in its effects (see First Corinthians 14:26, for example). Seek active learning over passive learning any day.

Another great source of nourishment is good books, or teaching audios and videos. For example, The Values-Driven Life was written to help you identify weeds in your own life, and to provide some Miracle-Gro® for your accelerated growth. Essentially, we have identified some of the elements that are essential to your growth in Christ-likeness, and have pulled them together into twelve easy-to-understand-and-apply packets so that you can get a jumpstart on your spiritual journey.

Is there any substitute for the organic stuff (i.e., the Bible)? Absolutely not! God’s unadulterated Word will give you all that you will find in this book, and more. But reading the Bible alone also poses a challenge: there is much, much, much more! The Bible is a big book. It will take you years to read it, and even longer to understand and apply it. The Values-Driven Life offers just the highlights of what the Bible has to say specifically concerning what it means to grow in Christ-like character. No history, no prophesy, no poetry; just a focused summary of what God wants from you and me as it pertains to our character. But it will take perseverance on your part to read, meditate on, and apply the teachings herein.

If Christ-likeness is the Goal, What does it Look Like?

The purpose of The Values-Drive Life is to provide a “quick start” or “quick reference” guide for “professing Christians” at all levels of spiritual growth, whose heartfelt desire is to continue to mature in their faith. The question is, since we are attempting to summarize the whole of the Scriptures and the essence of Christ-likeness in twelve easily digestible concepts, what are the values that God most values? What should be your focus as you seek to grow in Christ-like character?

Within the books of the Bible, God’s core values—the principles and ideals that God desires for humanity—are embodied in the character of key men and women who walked closely with God, are specified in the Scriptures, and are ultimately best defined and made manifest in the person of Christ. There is ample scriptural evidence of 12 core values of God, which form the essence of Christ-likeness: Faith, Surrender, Love, Faithfulness, Wisdom, Self-control, Righteousness, Humility, Holiness, Diligence, Generosity and Praise.

These core values are evident throughout the whole of Scripture, either directly stated or seen repeatedly as the traits of those who had intimate relationships with God—and evident in Christ Himself. And we know that God wants us to be like Christ (see Romans 8:29). So, ultimately, these are the essential character traits that God wants to manifest in His people. These are the values that God values.

Subsequent chapters of VDL take an in-depth look at each of the essential “core values” of our faith. If your goal is to grow more like Christ this year, reading VDL is just what you need! It’s packed full of Scriptures (over 1,200 verses!) and—yes, probably plenty of conviction, too. Why? Because none of us have “arrived” at the goal yet, and getting there is sometimes a slow and painful process. So you’ll hopefully find plenty of encouragement, too, to press on in your striving. As you grow closer to God and desire greater obedience to His Word, 2009 may be your most blessed year yet—at least, we hope so! Advance copies of VDL can be purchased now and will ship as soon as they are available—just visit www.ValuesDrivenLife.com. You’ll definitely want to read the advance testimonials here.

Personally, I will be re-reading (and working on) the value of Love, and probably Praise, too. After that, I’m sure it will be something else.

Oh, and on the subject of New Year’s resolutions…some of you may remember our “Family Planner for Character Growth and Development” from last January; others of you are new to Values-Driven. You can access that planner by clicking here, and be sure to read the related blog post. You may find it helpful as you evaluate your family’s progress in character development and set goals for growth in the New Year. As you (and your family) strive to grow in your faith and in Christlike character, remember Jesus’ promise in Luke 11:28: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” This could be your most blessed year yet–we sure hope so!

Thanks for letting us share our “New Year’s” thoughts. You all are a blessing to us, and we pray for wonderful things for your 2009!

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On a personal note, one of our first orders of business this year is to prepare for Marc’s two-week missions trip to Kenya (Jan. 20-Feb.4). He suddenly got a little nervous this week, realizing that he had to be prepared for 40+ hours of teaching and training (16 workshops, services, and revival meetings)—but he’s been in the Word and in prayer all week and we’re sure that God will do amazing things through this time. Please pray with us that this is so!

There are many expenses associated with this trip, of course. Some support has already been contributed, and we’re trusting God for the rest. Although it is a bit out of the scope of our “usual,” we thought you wouldn’t mind if we let you know of this need and asked for financial help from those of you who feel prayerfully led to do so. Given Marc’s recent layoff, every penny that we raise will be used directly for the Kenya trip, as the shortfall is still well in the thousands. Every bit will be a blessing, so if you can give—it is much appreciated. We’ve set up an informational page at: www.valuesdrivenfamily.com/kenya.htm; you can also donate there if you’re interested. Of course, we will keep you posted as Marc is away and with the “results” when he returns!

Awesome table…yes, a table!

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We had officially outgrown our table for six (which, quite frankly, we hung on to long after it looked nice, just because it was still functional.) I PRAYED for a new table…freecycled for a new table…and the best we did to get the family all together for meals was this (in case you can’t tell, it’s our 6-seater rectangular table and a small, round table with some extra chairs):


(Of course, this is a lovely photo that Marc took of us “schooling”…)

Last weekend we were BLESSED to be offered a very nice, 12′ x 4′ “conference table,” which suits us wonderfully as a dining room table! Here it is:

And, just for scale, here we are:

Plenty of room for more! 🙂

I Can’t Believe I did This…

valuesdr

…but yesterday was a l-o-n-g day. I’m in my first trimester, don’t forget (read: TIRED), had NOTHING defrosted for dinner (yeah, I know), and both school and chores with the kids were like pulling teeth (unusual, to say the least). So anyway, while going to the post office during the little ones’ nap time, I stopped by the little store in downtown Paragon and bought each of the children one of THESE for supper:

I totally caved. The kids were beyond excited. It made me feel better to have our oldest (9 year-old), exclaim, “Wow! I’ve never had a frozen dinner!”

Praise God! Hope he enjoyed it. He may not get another…

Not the answer I expected!

valuesdr

I was talking to my 9 year-old son last night…we were looking forward to his 10th birthday (not for a while yet, but HE is looking forward to it!) and so of course (in typical Mommy fashion) I was reminiscing about his babyhood…all the way up to the present day.

I asked him, “Are you happy about your life?” And he said, “Well, I don’t really remember the first part of it…but from what I remember, I’m happy!” OK, that’s good. Next question: “Is there anything you would change about your life?” He thought about that one for several minutes. I started to wonder…maybe I shouldn’t have asked! Then he said,

“I would have more brothers and sisters!”

THAT was a surprise! So I said, “Really?” and he said, “Yeah. I heard about this family that had five babies at the same time and they ALL survived. THAT would be awesome!”

Oh, wow!

Marc and I have been appreciating lately how much the children DO love each other. It is such a blessing. Granted, they have their moments (we all do!) of bickering, bossing, selfishness, and so on…but we really are thankful for the blessing of our children. It is nice to know that they also are thankful for each other. 🙂

“Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one’s youth.

Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them. “

(Psalm 127:3-5, NIV)

Conversations…

valuesdr

All this week I’ve been squirreled away in the office downstairs virtually all day. Marc wants me to edit his new book so that we can get preview copies ready for January, which puts us on a pretty tight timeline. Since I’ve been busy with that project, he has been managing the home and children and doing the homeschooling. Interesting change of events, to say the least. On the one hand, a nice break for me; on the other hand, I miss the usual activity and having all my little ones around me all day. I look for excuses to go upstairs off and on throughout the day. 🙂

I had to relate a conversation I had with Deborah, our three year-old, late yesterday afternoon during one of my impromptu visits upstairs. The children had just finished their afternoon jobs.

We are finally recovering from our annual “ladybug infestation,” which is the result of having a soy field in our front yard. Every year, right after the fields are harvested, the displaced ladybugs start to look for new homes–and our home happens to be nice and warm, as it begins to get chilly outside! They find their way in through cracks in the windows, log walls…who knows? But here they are. We vacuum them, usually. But many just come in and die of natural causes, so there are tons of little ladybug carcasses lying around for a couple of weeks in the late fall.

ANYWAY, I’m making a short story long… Deborah’s job yesterday was to clean up the carcasses that have been littering the stairs going from the main level up to our lofted master bedroom. I have a really hard time using the vacuum on the stairs, so Daddy asked Deborah to use the little broom and dustpan to sweep them up. Unfortunately, the broom thing wasn’t really working for her on the carpeted stairs–so she decided to pick them all up BY HAND! Daddy was impressed with her diligence and complimented her immensely. But here is our afternoon conversation about it all–I do WISH you could have HEARD her. She has soooo much personality!! Try to imagine the inflection (and her passion), OK?:

Deborah: OH! MOM!! I did my HARDEST JOB EVER today!! I picked up ladybugs off of your stairs ONLY WITH MY HANDS. It took me a REAL LONG TIME and I didn’t like it at all!! It was my WORST JOB!

Me: (with a laugh and a smile…she’s so cute!), “Aren’t you supposed to ‘work with all your heart, as working for the Lord’?”

Deborah: OH! I DID!! I actually LOVED my job…I just didn’t really like it. Not at all! But I LOVED it!!

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Then, there was a really nice conversation with my sweetie as we got ready for bed last night. 🙂

I’m in my first trimester…you know, the totally tired weeks…and have been feeling really bad that lately we put the kids to bed and I’m ready to go upstairs and fall right asleep. Usually Marc and I have some good time together before we finally head to bed, but I’ve barely managed to keep my eyes open lately. So last night as we were tooth-brushing, I said, “I’m sorry I’ve been so tired and blah lately!”

His response: “Are you kidding? You’re a blessing! After spending all this time with the kids this week, I’m realizing how much you do around here!”

Awwwwwwww…..

A quote well worth thinking about

valuesdr

I’ll be chewing on this one for a while, I think:

“The more a believer is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the more will he see the pitiful state of the flesh, and the fiercer will his battles against the flesh be, but all the more frequent and evident will his failures become. Whenever he suffers a defeat, the Holy Spirit will further reveal to him the sin and weakness of his flesh and generate in him a deeper sense of self-reproach and a determination to battle against the sin of the flesh. This chain reaction of misery may last a fairly long time, and one will ultimately be delivered only when he comes to understand the deeper works of the cross.”

~ Watchman Nee, “The Spiritual Man” (p. 84)

Practical and Spiritual Preparedness

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As a new month rolls in, we were going to send out a topical newsletter with an informational article (we had yet to choose from a number of possible topics). We also wanted to let you know that we are preparing for winter cold season and have some discount immune products available from Beeyoutiful: Bee Strong, Bee Immune, and Berry Well—all at 15% off of Beeyoutiful prices.

Also, we are excited to have our first “Values-Driven Kids” product available—a 54-page character training coloring book called, Growing to be Like Jesus. This will be regularly priced at $4.95 but is available for a limited time for only $2.95!

However, these things pale in comparison to what we feel we must share with you this month, after all. While not our intended agenda, there are matters far more important.

You may have noticed that there haven’t been any posts to our blog for several weeks. At first, we were regrouping from our vacation and settling in right away to a new homeschooling year. Now, this week, we have made a somewhat monumental decision for the Carrier household—Lord willing, we’re going to sell our homesteading parcel here in Indiana and look for something smaller that we can purchase debt-free. As well, we would like to purchase a travel trailer and take our family, and our ministry, on the road.

We are excited about the potential changes, but also busy getting our house in order. These plans, however, are made with Proverbs 16:9 in mind: “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” It is important to seek God’s wisdom and make plans for the future, but equally important to be led by the Spirit and remember that God is in control of the future—not us.

We have been constantly reminding ourselves of this lesson as we see economic events unfolding here in the US, which have global implications. Whether we are in the “last days” or whether we are just going through the ups and downs that every empire has historically experienced, we cannot say. However, we do know that either way, there may be hard days ahead for many of us.

There’s a lot of information available out there on making preparations for your family in the event of an emergency, and preparedness is wise for any eventuality (recent economic events notwithstanding). For more on that, we’ve put together a brief outline of some of the practical things you can be thinking about as you plan for your own families. You can view it online. While we don’t want to be alarmist, we feel we would be remiss if we did not encourage you to put some thought into these important matters.

Practical preparations aside, it is of utmost importance that your family is emotionally and spiritually ready for whatever may unfold—whether temporary sacrifices due to job loss, emotional and financial upheaval because of home repossession, or even the spiritual battles of persecution because of our faith in Christ. How prepared are you in this area? Even if nothing “major” happens in the future, think about where your children are spiritually, and where you want them to be. Are you doing the things that you need to in order to help them mature with a strong, personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

We recently got an email from a lovely soon-to-be Grandma, which was so heartfelt and so on-target with what we felt compelled to share with you, that we wanted to let you read it, too. Don’t let this woman’s regrets be yours!:

The more I read about your ministry and your family, the more I realize we missed the boat with our family. Although our 3 children have grown into great people who love God, we settled for “good” and not God’s best. It amazes me to think we never really sat down and discussed what and how we wanted to teach our children about the Lord. Even more amazing is how He blessed our misguided efforts to create such terrific people in spite of us. Now as I await the birth of our first grandie, I want to grab the child’s parents and plead with them not to make the mistakes we made. Unfortunately, the parents are only nominal believers–they go to church occasionally but we never really talk about God. Please pray with me that God will open up an opportunity to share with my son and his wife how desperately important it is to have Christ the center of their marriage and parenting. I would love to have them read your Values Driven Family book.
Thank you for your daily walk and faithfulness to meet each challenge head-on and your willingness to share your learning with all of us “out here” on the net. May God continue to use and bless you all.

Please pray with me for the next generation in this family, and now let’s take a realistic look at our own families, and talk about some things we can do to strengthen our families spiritually. We want to be ready for the future and ensure that our faith is strong enough to withstand potentially tough times ahead. Click here to read more online about spiritual readiness.