Day 12 - First Fruits

Genesis 26:17-27:46, Matthew 9:1-17, Psalm 10:16-18, Proverbs 3:9-10

Today it was my reading from Proverbs that caught my eye:

Honor the Lord with your wealth
With the first fruits of all your crops
Then your barns will be filled to overflowing
And your vats will brim over with new wine
Proverbs 3:9-10

Of course this passage is often used to encourage tithing, and I do believe it applies to monetary "fruit", but today I keep thinking about the word "first". Am I giving God my leftovers? Does he get my leftover time at the end of my day? Do I give Him leftover attention once my circumstance demands I turn to Him as opposed to being firmly rooted in faith all the time? In my bible study today, the teacher referred to this as a glance vs. glare dilemma. Do we glare at the material things in our life while merely glancing at God once in a while instead of glaring at God and just glancing at our lives?
I am completely guilty of this. Sometimes I think I even manufacture drama just to have something to worry and fret over! It would be so much better and easier if I could spend the time glaring at what is truly important in life. Why does it always require a tragedy or a horrible accident for us to wake up and realize this? I think this is an area I will always be working on in my life!

Day 11 - Raising Children for Eternity

Genesis 24:52-26:16, Matthew 8:18-34, Psalm 10:1-15, Proverbs 3:7-8

A lot happened in today's Genesis reading. Rebekah leaves her family to become Isaac's wife, and one of the great love stories of the Bible begins. As a little girl, I was always drawn to the romance of this story. Rebekah's family pleads with Abraham's servant to allow her to remain with them for a few more days before she must leave to be married. Her home is very far from her future husband's and she knows she will likely never see them again. Abraham's servant protests wanting to leave immediately, but Rebekah's family insists on asking her what she want to do. She simply replies, "I will go" (Genesis 24:58). I am always humbled by Rebekah's obedience to follow this servant to marry a man she has not yet met. Then later as she approaches Isaac's home she sees a man in a field. Immediately, she jumps off her horse and says, "who is this man?". When the servant replies, "it is my master", she veils herself knowing she has just seen her fiancé. (Genesis 24:65). Perhaps it was this image which led me to decide to use a veil myself when I was married ten years ago. Many tried to persuade me not to do this as it is not very common these days as everyone wants to see a blushing bride walking down the aisle, but it was something I always envisioned for myself. This scene with Isaac and Rebekah is almost epic, and I can see it in my mind as I read these passages.

Now that I'm married with children though I was more interested in the blessing that Rebekah's brothers say over her before her departure:

Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands; and may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them. Genesis 24:60

Of course, Rebekah's brothers don't literally expect her to have thousands of babies. They are referring to their family lineage. It struck me that back in these days the primary if not sole reason to have children was to preserve the family name and to have a long lineage. In short, the desire to procreate was to approach the infinite-to reach for something greater than oneself, if you will.

What a stark contrast to the reason we have children today! Today, we usually view our children as extensions of ourselves. We primarily have children in order to satisfy our earthly desires to fit in, to nurture something or to satisfy the "maternal clock" we hear so much a out. I'm not saying this is wrong but it does lead us to spend our time raising our children differently than children were raised in the past. You see, in the past children were raised with an eternal goal in mind, and today we raise children with a very finite goal in mind. Write down the goals you have for your child. I guarantee you almost all of them will be things you hope he/she will achieve in this lifetime. I fear that I am starting to sound a bit preachy here, but please know I am speaking more to myself than anyone else. This just started me thinking about the goals I have for my own children. What would happen if I started thinking less about what my child can achieve in this lifetime and more about how my children are an extension of God's eternal family? What if I spent as much time preparing their spirits as I do teaching them proper grammar, manners and other necessary skills for life? I think of how many times a day I answer the same question or patiently correct a verb tense or even dole out a much needed consequence for bad behavior but then find myself at the end of the day with no time or energy to teach my children about God. Just food for thought.

Hiatus

There have been a couple of things that have unfortunately been keeping me from posting. Sam and I had a lapse of Bible reading over the weekend. We celebrated his sixth birthday with 27 boys over at our house (I guess that rule that you should have the child's age plus one extra child went out the window) and my husband went out of town for business. Combined all of these things proved a major setback for us, but not to worry we are continuing on our race thanks to the following episode.

A few nights after our three-day reading lapse, I went in to check on the boys about 30 minutes after putting them down. Sweet Cal, my almost four year old, was awake in the dark sitting up in bed and straining to read one of his books. I crept closer and realized he was in fact looking at his toddler Bible. I was almost moved to tears upon seeing my sweet boy enthralled in the word of God. It was such a sweet and tender moment that I will never forget. So we now have a new runner joining us! My prayer for sweet Cal today is that these nightly Bible readings will teach him that no matter how dark his world becomes, he can always squint in the darkness and find God.

P.S. Little does he know, Cal's devotion to God's word was the impetus for getting me back on track with my daily readings. These kids are more diligent than I am, who knew!

Day 10 - What the First Men Were Like

Back on day 8, I read the following verse in Matthew:

Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. (Matthew 7:1 - 5)

I have to say that though the meaning was clear, the hyperbole used stumped me.  Is Jesus using humor with his audience in this passage?  I mean, I get it, don't judge others or you too will be judged and nobody's perfect.  But is this type of exaggeration really necessary?  Let me tell you about my day yesterday and let you judge for yourself.

Yesterday was one of those rare but awesome days.  The kids woke up happy, dressed themselves, brushed their teeth and went to school.  Baby Sloane was ready for the day and since I was so on top of things I decided to get a workout in at my local Y.  I got one of the coveted spots in the step aerobics class and picked out a space front and center.  If you have ever done step aerobics you know it is a series of often complex moves done around a six inch high step box, and it can be really tricky in terms of choreography.  Well, yesterday that did not stop me.  I mean I was on fire!  I was L-stepping, V-stepping, regular stepping...you name the step move, and I was doing it.  I mean I hadn't taken a step class since my oldest Sam was born, and I had not missed a beat.  I felt great about myself; things were swell.  I even started noticing some of the women behind me.  I was even doing better than them!  In fact, I was wayyy better than them.  Look at that woman to my left, she has missed the moves twice...keep up lady!  When we were doing squats, the woman behind me had a disgusted look on her face like she just couldn't take anymore, and here I was doing the deepest squats ever!  I was on top of the world!

Anyway, I got home still on an aerobics high' feeling like nothing could stop me when I walked by the mirror.  What was that?  A little bleach stain on the back of my black, skin tight running pants?  I looked closer and realized, to my horror, that my pants had a hole in them!  Not only that but my behind was poking through that hole.  And after three kids, let me tell you, we are not talking about a firm and toned derrier.  No step class in the world could fix that!  I mean the skin was bulging out!  It looked like flesh colored bubble wrap that they pack things in for shipping!  All the sudden I had a horrific flash of that woman behind me during step class.  The disgusted look on her face was not because she couldn't keep up during squats but because my bare hiney was staring her straight in the face as I bent over!  I was horrified.  Then all the sudden I thought of the passage above that I had read earlier in the day and burst out laughing.  It made perfect sense to me that Jesus needed to use some mighty humor to get his point across.  I mean some of the people he was speaking to were as dense as me!  I would never forget how I was being judgemental of others only to realize that I myself had a giant hole in my pants.

We can all learn from my little lesson.  Perhaps we are tempted to judge someone's parenting, or decisions they make about money, but do we really know what they are going through.  One time when I had just started working, I told my mom that I had seen a woman sleeping in the dressing area of our bathroom at work.  I said, "I mean how unprofessional is that! To sleep on the bathroom floor!".  In a sweet voice, my mother said, "Yes it was Kelly, but imagine what her life must be like for her to have to catch up on her sleep like that.  Who knows what that poor woman is going through at home."  It's so true.  We never really do know what  goes on in people's lives.  Even if it is something simple like a workout class or someone cutting in front of us in traffic, we don't really know where they are coming from. 

P.S. I shared this story with my three and six year old sons in carpool today.  The five year old especially liked it.  I thought he was going to split his pants laughing so hard.  I took a second to share the verse with them too...who knows maybe it will stick.  The image of their mother with a hole in her workout pants is sure to last a lifetime for sure!

Day 9 - The First Crime

The Genesis reading this morning was the story of Abraham and how God tests him by asking him to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  First of all, let me start by telling you that this story absolutely terrified me as a child.  My mother read it to me a few times, and I remember looking at her with panic and asking her, "Mommy, what if God asks you to kill me?  Would you do it?!".  I was a sensitive and precocious child always asking questions and taking things to the next level.  Of course, I anticipated that my mother would immediately dispel my fears. She said, "Well, Kelly, now I don't think God will ask me something like that." Totally unsatisfied with that answer I asked, "But what if He DOES Mommy!".  I think I probably nagged her with this question all day until she finally said, "well, I am pretty much positive God would not ask me to do something like that, but I would try to be obedient I suppose."  What? This totally rocked my little six year old brain.  Of course, my mother emphasized that in the story God provides a lamb to be sacrificed in Isaac's place and that the point of the story is that if we are obedient God will provide for us in wonderful ways even if they aren't the ways we planned on. However, it led me to another line of questioning.  "Mommy?", I said. "Yes, Kelly.", she replied, always patient with my many questions, and I asked a LOT of questions.  "Mommy, who do you love more, God or me?", I asked.  "I love God more," she said, "we must always love God more than anyone here on Earth.".  That was disappointing but somewhat acceptable to me, but I simply could not stop myself. "What about Daddy?  Do you love him more than me?".  Here I was expecting the same answer that I got when I asked my mother if she loved either me or my sister more than the other...of course she always said she loved us the same.  But here she surprised me.  "I suppose I do love your father more.  I love him differently though.  He is the person that God created for me to raise you with, so I love him very differently from the way I love you.".  Ouch!  Did this mean I wasn't the center of my mother's universe?  She didn't love me more than everything and anything?!  God AND Daddy trump me?!  And yes, this is of course what it meant, and a very valuable lesson for me to learn at a young age I should add. 

It is also what is at the heart of this story about Abraham and Isaac.  One thing that struck me when reading this passage is that though Abraham was obedient to God, he showed remarkable faith as he trusted God to provide for him in a better way than he himself could imagine.  On the beginning of his journey to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham leaves his slaves behind saying, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.  We will worship and then we will come back to you." (Genesis 22:5)  Abraham fully believed that God would spare his son in some way...he says that he and the boy both will come back together.  Later, when the boy asks his father where the lamb is for sacrifice he says, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering son." (Genesis 22:8).  Abraham didn't know how God was going to protect him but he trusted that God would show him the right way.  He put God's request above his own feelings and above his own son, and God did indeed provide in a wonderful way.  A lamb appears in a bush right before the sacrifice.  Of course, there are beautiful parallels in this story to the coming of Christ.  God has provided a Lamb to die in the place of his children in Jesus, thus sparing his children from a painful death.  God himself is able to make the ultimate sacrifice that he does not ask Abraham to follow through with. 

But this story made me think, do I put the needs of my children above the needs of my husband?  Do I put their desires above the desires of God?  Children, too can become idols in our lives.  Especially today where we are encouraged to literally revolve around them.  It is good for children to know and understand that they are not number one on the totem pole. God shows us in this story that if we follow his Word and put Him above our families that he will bless us and protect us in unexpected ways.

Sam and I are still on the story of Cain and Abel, but I will be interested how he will react when we read this story together.  I guess it has been a good thing that my reading is a bit ahead of his.  It will give me some time to think on this and anticipate his many questions.

Day 8 - A Loss and a Promise

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about spiritual boundaries.  In a society which so often contradicts Biblical teaching, how do we maintain our loyalty to God?  Is it possible to be a part of this society and still strive to be righteous?  If we shun this culture then are we removing ourselves from the opportunity to show others about God and the difference He can make in their lives?  The Bible tells us that "bad company corrupts good character" in 1 Corinthians 15:33 and this is certainly true.  It also stresses the importance of living in the world an ministering to those who need us.  The story of Lot could not have come at a better time for me.

Like most of the stories I've read the past few days, this story took on a more robust meaning for me than it has in the past.  Usually, I read this story as a precautionary tale about what can happen when you let your guard down and begin to assimilate into an unbelieving culture.  Certainly this is an issue in our society.  Like Lot, I often find myself explaining away some of the ungodliness around me.  Lot finds himself in an affluent town and in an affluent position.  Though he continues to follow God's law, he also begins to accept some of the cultural norms in Sodom, and it almost results in his complete demise.  He is tempted by the wealth and stature he has achieved and is reluctant to leave Sodom even after God's angels tell him it is going to be destroyed.  He even tries to negotiate with the sinful rapists outside his door, offering his own daughters to appease them so that they will leave God's angels alone.  After Lot offers his daughters for their pleasure, the attackers lunge for Lot himself hissing, "we'll treat you worse than them (meaning the angels they had come after)!" (Genesis 19:9).  This is an excellent reminder that you can not negotiate or placate sin.  It is never satisfied until it consumes all of you.  This part of the story, I am familiar with and it was another good reminder that your spiritual boundaries should be clear not only to others but perhaps most importantly to yourself.  What do you consider ultimate truth?  Are you standing on the sidelines watching something you know is wrong but refusing to speak up?  I know I am often guilty of this, and so this part of Lot's story was good for me to hear.

Which brought me back to my dilemma.  Am I to simply shun society, turn off the TV, pull my kids out of school and put my head under the covers?  Then I came to the end of Lot's story which is equally devastating but not as widely told.  After Sodom's destruction, Lot moved to a smaller town called Zoar.  He stresses twice that Zoar was small, and I am assuming that it was not corrupt like Sodom was.  For some reason, which is not mentioned, Lot decides to flee to the mountains.  He does exactly what I was wondering if I should do!  He shuns society completely and lives in secluded caves with his two adult daughters.  As you may already know, Lot's story does not end well.  Distraught that they have no prospect of marriage, his daughters scheme to get Lot drunk and sleep with him while he is passed out.  Each bears a child in incest with her father.  Their offspring would forever be the enemy of Israel, God's chosen people.  This story has always perplexed me so I studied my notations.  Here, it says that in this society it was the father's role to find a suitable husband for his daughters.  By fleeing to the mountains, Lot shirked this very important cultural duty and as a result his daughters committed a grievous sin not out of lust but out of sheer desperation to continue their family lineage. 

This beautifully illustrates that we are neither to assimilate into a sinful society nor to completely separate ourselves from it.  Instead, we should do the best we can using God's Word to guide us as we find ourselves faced with difficult obstacles.  Sometimes I find myself wanting all the answers, feeling anxious about how I am supposed to live my life in a world rife with temptation.  My reading in Matthew provided me with comfort however. It says, "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of it's own" Matthew 6:34, and with that I am going to sleep.

Day 7 - The Terrible Result of Sin

Today was one of those hectic Mondays, but Sam and I managed to complete our readings. This morning I listened to the Daily Audio Bible because I was afraid I wasn't going to get the chance to sit down and read.  I am really starting to enjoy listening to the Bible in the car it turns out.  My three year old Cal is usually with me when I listen, and he seems to like it too. It is a very calming way to drive to school even if he isn't able to understand everything that is being said.  I also got a chance to sit down tonight and re-read my passages and take some notes which was nice.  I can't quit thinking about two verses in Matthew which I read. The first, Matthew 6:8 instructs us not to pray outloud in order to make ourselves seem holy and righteous to others, "for your Father knows what you need before you ask him".  I've always found this verse comforting.  The thought that God knows what we need before we do just really takes a load off.  We don't have to figure out next steps all on our own, we can just rest in God, be with him in prayer and put one foot in front of the other knowing that everything is going to be okay even if it isn't going to be comfortable all the time. 

The second verse that I keep coming back to is Matthew 6:14, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."  Whoa!  That is not something I usually go around thinking.  I never realized there was some reciprocity here.  All the more reason to work on forgiveness. We all have someone we probably need to forgive right this instant!  I think saying you forgive somone is so different from actually feeling forgiveness in your heart.  For me, the hard part, is wiping the slate clean for our friends when they do something that hurts us.

Remember last week when I was worrying that these nightly readings would become a chore for Sam and that he may start to reject them?  Not to worry! Tonight, Sam got in a little trouble before bedtime.  When he was in the bath he looked up at me with puppy dog eyes and said, "can I still read the Bible with you Mommy?"  I am not kidding you, he really said that!  Of course, we did the readings together, and I supplemented our daily reading with a healthy dose of  "honor your father and mother" (the jury is still out on whether or not this worked).  The audio files are now posted for today and yesterday.  I am so happy and thankful that Sam is looking forward to these moments each night.  Come to think of it, though I did ask God to bless this endeavor in my prayers, I didn't specifically ask him to make these readings enjoyable for Sam. I guess, it is true that He knows what we need even before we ask!

Day 6 - Adam and Eve Disobey God

Tonight is the first night Sam and I did not do the children's reading.  On a whim, my husband and I decided to get a sitter and go see a movie tonight, and I totally forgot about reading with Sam before I left.  We'll do a double reading tomorrow night and post it.  I did do a quick, late night reading on my own though.  My passage was about Abram and Lot separating.  Their herdsman started to fight amongst each other and Abram wisely suggested that they part ways allowing Lot to choose which direction he would go.  Lot chose the best land for himself and his flocks which took him towards the sinful city of Sodom.  Reading this passage I wondered how Abram must have felt.  Here he was letting Lot make the choice of which direction to go, and Lot chose the best land leaving Abram with the worst.  I wonder if Abram felt like it wasn't fair.  Here he was doing the right thing, and he got stuck with inferior land.  God is quick to tell Abram that he will be taken care of and that he will have many descendants.  Later, we will read that Lot gets sucked into an inferior society in Sodom and pays some pretty severe consequences.  It made me think that God's plan for us is always better than what we can come up with on our own.  In this passage, God protects Abram from the tempting though sinful land in Sodom and blesses him with something so much greater than he could even imagine.  Sometimes, we don't get what we want, but it's often because God has something even better in store for us.

Day 5 - The First Woman, Eve

Today, I did my reading in the morning.  Acutally, since I only listened to yesterday's passage, I decided to re-read it today as well.  I tend to be a little bit of an over achiever at the start of things.  I have to remember that 'slow and steady wins the race'. 

Today's reading was about Abram and yesterday's was about Noah.  Reading them side by side was interesting though because both of these men give us a great recipe for obedience.  When reading these stories I tried to put myself in these men's positions.  Would I do the same thing?  Was what God was asking of them easy or difficult?

Noah and Abram's recipe for obedience consits of four key steps:

1) God Makes a Promise - to Noah in Genesis 6:13, 17-19 and to Abram in Genesis 12:2
In both instances, God's promise is clear to these men. He doesn't mince words, and he lays it out crystal clear.  Has God made a promise to us?  Of course!  He has promised us that we can be with him forever though his Son.

2) God Tells them What to Do - to Noah in Genesis 7:1 and to Abram in Genesis 12:1
God is specifc, especially with Noah.  We still know exactly how big this ark was!  Has God told us what to do? Again, yes!  Each day, I'm realizing that His Word really gives us some pretty specific instruction that is surprisingly applicable to modern life.  Every day so far, I've found at least one thing that has "clicked" for me.

3) Both Men Thank God Before He Fulfills His Promise - Noah in Genesis 8:20 and Abram in Genesis 12:7
How hard is this?  First of all, these men's lives are turned upside down and here they are giving thanks to God before they get what they want!  They have no idea what is going to happen. For Noah, there is a devastating flood.  I have seen first hand what flood waters can do, and let me tell you, it is horrific.  So for Noah to thank God in the midst of this is really something.  Not only that but Noah remains in the ark for a few months after the waters receed.  I always thought he got out when the dove brought back the olive branch because this meant it was dry outside.  But no, Noah waited until God said he could come out.  I know there is no way if I had been on that boat that I would have been able to stay inside after I knew it was dry. 

Abram is asked to leave everything and go to Canaan.  Travel in these days could not have been easy.  It wasn't as if Abram could just pack his suitcase and set an out of office message...this was a HUGE undertaking and he knew he or his loved ones could quite easily have died on the journey.  But yet, both of these obedient men thank God in the midst of great turmoil in their lives. 

What a huge amount of faith this requires! It made me wonder if I am thankful to God even if what is going on in my life is not my desire or a comfortable place for me to be.  I mean, it is easy to say a prayer of thanks when you buy a new house or eat a meal, but am I thankful for the obstacles God is placing in my life in order to change my path as well?

4)  Lastly, both Abram and Noah do what God says - Noah in Genesis 6:22, 7:5 and Abram in Genesis 12:4
This may seem like a no brainer but what God is asking them to do is really difficult.  In both cases their actions could lead them to ridicule by their peers, death of themselves or their loved ones or basically a loss of everything in their lives. Often, what is written in the Bible is not popular or easy to do in our society.  Just because it is layed out for us doesn't mean it is going to be easy.  I need to do a better job at not taking the easy way out and caring more about how God sees me rather than how the rest of the world sees me.

Day 4 - The First Man, Adam

Tonight, Sam kept me on track.  It was just one of those very busy days.  I had several carpools to run and "read" my Bible passage using the Daily Audio Bible podcast.  I am just making a habit to download these podcasts once a week and have them on my phone so that I can listen to them on the go.  Today, I'm really glad I did because I would have missed a reading if I hadn't. 

Tonight, my husband Simms, put the boys to bed.  Sam ran out of bed in a panic saying he wanted  to read his Bible first.  Both boys crawled in bed with me and read the story of Adam in all three Bibles.  It just took a little over 15 minutes and was some really good time between the three of us.  Cal, my three year old, was mostly jumping on the bed but we just kept plodding along and all went well.  Bottom line is there would likely not have been a children's reading tonight if Sam hadn't insisted.  I couldn't have asked for a better reading buddy.

Day 3 - How the World Began

Today, Sam and I read the creation story in his Bible.  In my reading, I read Adam's geneology and the story of Noah.  Again, I am a little ahead of Sam chronologically but I think that will work itself out.  One of the things I've been thinking about is a way to make this journey really fun for Sam. I definitely don't want these nightly readings to feel like a chore for him or something that he dreads each night.  In my Bible study, I heard about some amazing children's Bibles and resources and ordered them on Amazon.  They came today, and Sam did not want to put them down tonight! 

The first book is called "The Jesus Storybook Bible". The version I bought came with a companion CD set which I'm uploading to my iTunes right now so we can listen on the run if we get behind.  We are sort of using it as a devotional after our Bible reading because it has a lot of good commentary.  The other resouce we got was "The Comic Book Bible" by Rob Suggs.  It has tons of awesome pictures incorporated with actual scripture and is an excellent way to introduce a six year old boy to regular readings of scripture. Boys are visiual and this book is beautifully illustrated. I like this comic book because even though it makes the Bible look cool to Sam, it is all scriptural.  Tonight, we read his regular Bible and then also read the same creation story in the Storybook Bible and the comic book.  Sam did not want to stop, and I had to pry the books out of his little hands.  It's definitely something he's looking forward to and enjoying, so I'm glad I ordered these books.

Today, in my reading I was reminded of the fact that we were created in the likeness of God ("When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God", Genesis 5:1-2).  This is a fact I so often gloss over in the creation story but it really resonated with me this time around.  I thought a lot today about what it means to be created in God's likeness.  In Sam's storybook bible, it made the analogy to the way babies are born and look like their parents which I thought was very sweet.  However, since God does not have a physical body, that I'm aware of at least, we must be like Him in some other way.  Perhaps it is our reasoning capabilities or capacity to love which makes us less like animals and more like Him?  I'm not really sure exactly what the answer is, but it did make me stop and think how very special that makes each of us if we are like God in some way. It made me think of myself as a literal child of God, and I haven't really done that in a long time. 

Often, I feel that God gave us the ability to have children here on earth so that we could come to experience an unexplainable and bottomless love for these little ones.  When I think of how much I love my three children it really brings me to my knees, and to think that this love is only one tiny spec compared to God's love for me...well that is another thing entirely.  Today, I am deeply grateful for my children and how, each day, they teach me more about how much God loves me.

Day 2 - The Angels, Good and Bad

So today I got up early and did my reading in the morning.  I had lots of dishes to do, laundry to sort but decided it could just wait.  I had to stop my busy work about three times before I got myself on the couch and reading.  I read January 2nds passages today as found on the reading plan here http://www.oneyearbibleimages.com/Bibleln365Days-PrintableSchedule.pdf.  I decided to start with January readings even thought it's October because Sam's children's bible is chronological and I was hoping that our readings would sort of match up.  It isn't exactly working that way but I think I will "beat" him to a lot of stories which will benefit me as I try to answer his many questions.  I'm trying to read the commentary in my Bible as much as I can too so that I can find interesting tidbits to mention to him.  He really likes geography so I'm thinking some of the maps in my Bible may be interesting to him.

My reading today was about Adam and Eve and the Fall.  I've read this story maybe 100 times but today I was reading it from a parenting perspective.  I heard a speaker say once that if she could change one thing about how she parented her children it would be that she would read fewer parenting books and more of the Bible.  I think this is great advice.  What stuck me today was how God "parented" Adam and Eve as their ultimate Father. 

First, he set them up in an environment in which they could succeed.  I mean, they had the Garden of Eden, the closest thing to Heaven that there has ever been here on earth.  There was no death, no work, plentiful foods, immense beauty, constant communion with God - it was a literal paradise.

Second, he set some clear and simple boundaries.  He told them what their job was going to be - to take care of everything on the earth.  He told them what they could eat (pretty much anything they could see) and what they could not eat (fruit from only one tree - that of the knowlege of good and evil).  Doesn't get much clearer or simpler than that.

Thirdly, he issued a warning.  He told them if they did eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they would die.

That was how God set his earthly children up and I'm wondering if I should be doing more of this with my own children.  Set them up to succeed, make our boundaries crystal clear and warn them of the consequences for disoberying.  Pretty simple stuff but in the thick of things I am often not doing this I realize.

Now for the discipline.  God does a few interesting things here as well.

First, he asks them if they disobeyed him.  He isn't asking them because he wants to know the answer mind you.  He is asking them to give them an opportunity to tell him the truth and appologize.  As so often happens with my children, Adam and Eve don't necessarily cooperate.

Second, he manifests some pretty incredible mercy with them.  He had told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate the fruit but he does not end their lives.  This was a good reminder to be merciful with my children as well during discipline.  They are just kids and they are learning with God's grace.

Thirdly, he doles out the punishment.  Everyone involved in the crime is punished.  Even the weasly snake gets a punishment.  This reminded me to look a little harder at the situation when I am disciplining my boys.  As my mother always said, "it takes two to tango" and I want to make sure that it is not always the loudest offender who is reprimanded.

Lastly, I was struck by how God's punishment was so well suited for Adam and Eve in particular.  I realized that before this time, it is not clear if people were created with the ability to procreate.  By allowing Eve to bear children, He created an eternal purpose for her and womankind.  The pain she would feel would forever remind her of her sinfulness but the life that would come from her would give her a reason to live and to seek God so that she could train her children (much the same reason I am finding myself reading the Bible in one year with my own son).  We want the best for our children and we can not give this to them unless we are our best selves. 

Adam was forced to work hard but also given a gift and responsibility to be a great provider. Though this was a burden placed on Adam and all of mankind, it is probably the greatest driving force for men even today.  The desire to provide for and protect one's family is innate in men and it empowers them in a truly singular way above all other desires.

So these punishments were so well suited for Adam and Eve. No longer could they think only of themselves but they must care for God's eternal family.  These children would come from their own union and would be almost an extension of themselves.  Perhaps, God knew the truly selfish desires of our hearts and decided that the only way for us to truly dedicate oursevles to his creation was if our children were our own "offspring"?

That may be a stretch but it got me thinking about my own children.  Have my desires for them been the desires of God or have they been my own desires?  Sometimes, I feel God saying to me about my oldest son, "He is not here to please you.  He is here to please ME! Give this child to me." Am I best preparing my children for this life or for an eternal life with God?  Wow!  That is a big question and one that I feel like I must do some big work on.  I am so glad I am doing this.  I don't want to stop short this time!

Sam and I read the passage "The Angels, Good and Bad" in his Bible tonight.  I'll post the audio file when we are done.

Day 1- God Is and Was

Today, on the way to school, Sam's carpool buddy asked me why we wanted to read the Bible every day. I sort of stumbled through my answer saying that the Bible is full of great wisdom from God and that I wanted to try and start each day by focusing on God's word in the hope that it would provide me with some guidance. 

While all this is true, my little six year old friend got me thinking.  Why do I want to do this?  Is it because it feels like the "right thing to do" or is it because I am truly open to hearing what the Lord has to say to me?  I'll admit that in the past, when I have started to read the Bible cover to cover (and failed), it felt more like a spiritual "to do".  Usually, the impetus for such an endeavor was a rocky time in my life.  A dramatic breakup with a highschool boyfriend, one of many too late party nights in college or even just a time of lonliness like when my family moved from Georgia to Texas when I was twelve.  Now don't get me wrong, scripture has gotten me through some very tough times in my life.  The problem for me occrus when times are not so tough and sleeping in sounds so much better than getting up early to read through that dreaded geneology.  A day goes by, then a week, then a month....until my next slump occurs and I start back literally 'in the beginning'. 

This time I really do hope and pray that my experience will be different.  This time I am reading for a different reason.  As my six year old begins to ask questions that I can not answer, I am realizing quickly that all of my false starts in reading the Bible were not sufficient in preparing me for my greatest task which is to teach him to love the Lord.  For the first time, I am experiencing an urgency to turn to God's words with fervor and I believe with all my heart that this desire comes straight from God Himself.  Today, before we read the passage above, I prayed with Sam that God would bless our journey this year and that he would hold us fast to this committment.  I do not know what the next 364 days will bring, but I am certain God will bless us in many ways.

Introduction to the Bible Marathon

In a nutshell, my 6 year old son, Sam and I are going to embark on a challenge to read the entire Bible in one year.  I have tried maybe ten times in my life to do this and am always fizzling out around Leviticus.  Sam and I are pretty good about doing a bible reading about three times a week but generally just flip through and pick something that seems interesting - or in his case has the best pictures.  Mostly, I think it's a chance for the kids to stall during bedtime - but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Today, in carpool I mentioned that I wanted to read the WHOLE thing in a year and that this time I was going to do it.  Sam did not seem the least bit interested in what I had to say and continued staring out the minivan window.  But, as it so often happens, a thought must have been brewing in that little 6 year old mind.

Tonight we picked a random story, it was the one about Moses and the manna.  After we read it, Sam asked, "After Moses, did Joshua become the leader?".  Embarassingly, I did not know the answer and said we'd find out tomorrow night and read the next story in his Bible.  Then he asked, "Mommy, can I do the Bible thing with you?"  I mean, what self-respecting mother can say no to this?

So, I told Sam I'd print out my reading chart which I found at http://www.oneyearbibleimages.com/Bibleln365Days-PrintableSchedule.pdf and that I'd print one out for him too.  He has "The Child's Story Bible" by Catherine F. Vos  which we just bought used on Amazon for about $8.  It doesn't have a lot of pictures but the stories are longer and more detailed, and he's sort of grown out of his preschool Bible.  It reminds me of the Bibles my mother used to read to me and it really brings the best stories to life.  He seems to like it even without the pictures.  I photocopied the table of contents in his Bible and found that there are little over 300 stories in it.  Not quite the 365 I had hoped for but maybe God knows we need a little wiggle room here.

I figure that I may as well document our progress online.  Who knows, maybe this blog will provide us some much needed encouragement.  At the least, it will be a way to see what can happen in one year with a little discipline, openess to what God needs to tell us and a slightly later bed time.  Tonight before going to bed, Sam asked me if he had to do this.  I said no, that I am perfectly fine doing this by myself and if he wants to join me at any time he can.  I'll admit this is a little bit of reverse psychology on my part - we'll see if it works tomorrow night.

In the meantime, does anyone know if Joshua was indeed Moses' replacement?!