As I Was Saying…
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So, as I was saying earlier, God has been showing me lots of things. I started, a few weeks ago, trying to make sure that I have a “God sandwich” every day. I start and end the day with God.
In the mornings, it’s Bible reading/study and prayer. In the evenings, I’ve been reading faith-based books. Currently, I’m reading The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian and A Woman’s Walk With God by Elizabeth George. What a great way to start and end each day!
When you pray God’s word, it’s a powerful thing. In reading The Power of a Praying Wife, I had been skipping around a bit to some things that were areas of concern with me regarding my husband.
One of the areas was anger. Now, let me be quick to point out that my husband is a kind and generous man. However, he can be quick-tempered. I recognize that so easily in him because, well, it’s fairly easy to recognize in others traits that you yourself possess.
The author pointed out one of our favorite verses, Proverbs 22:24-25, which states, “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man. Do not associate with one easily angered or you will learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.”
Hmmmm…wonder why my kids are so short-tempered with each other? Wherever could they be learning this trait?
So, this morning, when we shared our prayer requests with each other before opening our day in prayer, I told the kids that I wanted them to pray that Dad and I would be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” (James 1:19)
I told them that they could also pray the same for themselves and each other, but that I wanted them to pray that specifically for Brian and I because I know that we are the “hot-tempered man” whose ways our kids are learning.
Every day, we use the scripture memory system from Simply Charlotte Mason. Would you care to hazard a guess as to what our review verse for today’s date was? If you guessed Proverbs 22:24-25 you’d be right. I stopped right there and reminded the kids what a really cool, loving God we have. He loves us enough to let us know that He hears us and knows the desires of our hearts.
I won’t say that I wasn’t quick to anger or quick to speak today, but each time it happened – and I do mean each time – God checked me, reined in my temper and helped me to speak to my kids without anger. And, let me tell you, it was well-received with the kids. There was more than one moment today where allowing the Holy Spirit to keep my tongue and anger in check allowed the kids to do the same. It was awesome to see God working in my family!
Then, there’s the other book, A Woman’s Walk With God. It’s a study on the Fruit of the Spirit. The first fruit it’s discussing is love. I’ve had some issues lately with a relative. This person and the situation has been on my mind a lot lately. Last night, I was reading about love and Ms. George was pointing out that we’re supposed to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Now, this person is not someone that I would consider my enemy, but I would say that our relationship has involved some mutual persecution.
I immediately felt God nudging me to pray for this person, but I thought, how can I pray for her, God, without praying what I want – you know, that she’d see things my way, that she’d be kind to me. Things that would basically constitute me pointing out all her faults, as I see them, to God and taking away any personal blame that I might have for the deficiencies in our relationship. The Bible says that I should pray for her, not about her.
In the course of my wrestling that around in my mind, I was pointing out to God that this relative always seems to assume the worst about me and I do the same to her. If there are two ways that a situation can be seen, she’s going to see it in the light of me trying to be hateful to her.
Light bulb moment! My first prayer for this person is that God would help me to assume the best about her. I also prayed that God would bless and encourage her and other things of that nature, but I’m thinking that the pivotal thing in our relationship right now will be me assuming the best about her.
Want to guess what my personal Scripture reading was about today? Um, yeah, that’d be love. It’s just so cool to me to see God weaving together the various aspects of our lives. See, I began, a long time ago, reading through the Psalms and the New Testament. I say a long time ago, because there was a long period of time between when I started and now that my Bible sat around gathering dust. Literally. I was really ashamed one day when I realized how dusty it was.
However, on the day that I began reading (long before then, actually), God knew that I would need to be reminded about my tongue and His forgiveness on that certain Monday a few weeks ago. He knew that I would need to have my reading about love reinforced by my personal Bible reading. He knew what an affirmation it would be to my prayer request to my children about their parents temper to find Proverbs 22:24-25 in our daily Scripture review.
My God has been orchestrating every area of my life since He knit me together in my mother’s womb. I just need to rest in Him and allow Him to guide me. If I pray His word and seek His will, He will give me the desires of my heart. Why wouldn’t He? When my desires for my life mirror His desires for my life, God is happy to answer my prayers.
Does that mean my life will be peaches and cream? Nope, it just means that I know the one who can guide me through the beautiful spring days and the storms. Have I mentioned how much I love spring and God’s faithfulness?
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:4
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
Great day full of posts! I love how the things we need to work on keep coming up in our lives. It really gives us a chance to practice what we preach, huh?
I am convinced that nurture wins over nature when I watch the kids and see and hear the things they do that are a mirror image of the things I say and do. It hurts sometimes too.
I’ll be interested to see how you incorporate quiet time with the kiddos and how that works for you guys.
Very good, thought-provoking post, Kris.
I know that Preston and I have talked often about the tricky part of raising children is that, as we ourselves are learning to surrender our lives to the Lord, we are at the same time instructing little ones. Sometimes, it can be difficult when our children see us behaving in ways contrary to what Scripture asks of us. However, it is so crucial, I think, to show them that their parents fall and get up and continue on and sometimes trip along the faith journey, but that it’s so important to stay true to the path and let the Lord continue leading us on. And I think it was wonderful for you to share your struggle with your children and to let them know about perseverance in the faith.
As a family, we’ve some quick-tempered folks, too, and I think that this shared struggle is made more able to be conquered *because* it is shared.
One of the problems that non-Christians often have with Christians is that they say Christians say one thing and do another. Sometimes, it is true, but I think most of us say one thing and *try so very hard* to live it, but we fail. And unlike our fellow man, our Father in Heaven is so endlessly forgiving. How good He is to His children.
Holy smokes. What a long comment. I wish we could have coffee together and share more stories of our faith journey, but alas, Georgia is so far away. Or maybe California is …
Blessings,
Maria
OK, let me explain real fast what I meant by this:
“Sometimes, it is true, but I think most of us say one thing and *try so very hard* to live it, but we fail.”
I mean that we are fallible and sometimes struggle to be exactly as the Lord commanded us to be. We all stumble. We all fall. But as Christians, we get up and keep walking in the light. : ) And though the world may not understand our hearts, it is so awesome to know that we have a Lord who knows that we fall and still loves us.
For example, I struggle with one relative in particular, and sometimes, I come off a bit cold. And I know that folks might think, “Wow, she’s cold to so and so.” But I try so hard NOT to be cold. Praise God that He is the one who judges me because He knows that I try.
That’s what I meant. ;D
Kris,
I just wanted to tell you what a blessing these posts have been to me today. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the idea! I do the “God Sandwich” too, all though I’ve always thought of it as a “Scripture Sandwich”, because I was reading Scripture both times, and then finding 5 minutes here and there during the day to read Christian fiction or other faith based books. Making them the other half of the sandwich is a great idea. I’m currently reading Francine Rivers 5 short novels on the women named in the Bible in the lineage of Jesus~Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Mary. I’ve finished Rahab, and really liked it!
Thanks for sharing what God is doing in your life.
Vicki