Lately I have been reading the Bible cover to cover as one continuous story to see what stands out. (I have successfully made it through Leviticus and Numbers…..yeah for me!) Today I’m in Deuteronomy 4 and verses 32-33 caught my attention. “Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?” Then verse 35 says, “You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.”
Orphan or Child?
These verses cause me to take a look at myself and then my gaze falls on my kids. What does their future hold? Am I encouraging them to see God as their Source, find their identity in Christ alone? Do they know that they are a part of God’s grand narrative, His story? Do they know they are created in His image to show what He is like to those around them? If my kids know who they are, then they are free from the worries of this world. They are free to trust God for their needs, and then free to look around them and be ministers to others. Like me, in some ways they are living as children and then in some ways they are living as orphans. It is the struggle of trusting that God is who He says He is.
I see my teens and others in our church and school community living as children of the King. This past year over 40 kids at our high school led prayer at “See You at the Pole.” A group of 20+ high schoolers meet every Monday morning at 7 am in the Biology teacher’s classroom to pray for each other and their school. This small band of kids is living in the world but not of the world. They know they are a part of a bigger picture. These kids are in band, orchestra, choir and theater. They are scattered throughout the cross-country, track, basketball, swimming, and volleyball teams. They sit at different lunch tables and are friends with Muslims, adopted orphans, atheists, and bored church attenders. Some of their friends are becoming curious so they end up at The Mills Church's Wednesday night youth group. One friend told my daughter recently, “I didn’t know church could be this way!”
Yet, as I, they still struggle with the tendency to live as orphans. We know that we know that we know who God says we are, but sometimes the voices of this world are so loud and overwhelming. The world tells us we must do more to be more to get more. The result is disillusionment and frustration with a keen sense of “lostness.” Our only hope and our kids’ only hope is to be continually reminded of who God is and who He says we are. Deuteronomy 4 reminded me today that the “Lord is God; besides him there is no other.”
Identity Crisis
How do we help ourselves and our kids with the real tension to either live like children or orphans? I can’t think of any other way to win this identity crisis than immersing ourselves in God’s Word, telling and re-telling His story, remembering who God is and who He says we are. We can’t do the transforming work in our kids’ hearts and lives. That is God’s job. But we can tell His story, give our kids to Him, and trust Him. This is our work, and it is hard.
Just One Thing
I usually do not make New Year’s resolutions. For me, they are a sure plan to feel like a failure. As a parent, I really don’t need more of that feeling! But as I read this passage of scripture today from Deuteronomy 4, I am motivated. I want more than anything for my kids to know God’s story, not so they look like super-Christians who can perform a recited scripture passage, but so that they know who they are! I just feel that God keeps trying to get this message across, over and over again. If my kids know that they are God’s child and that He is with them, looking out for them day in and day out, they are free to live the way He created them to live. In Deuteronomy 4, God tells us to “ask now about the former days, long before our time, from the day God created man on the earth.” He wants us and our kids to hear about His marvelous works so that we might know and never forget that the Lord is God.
So, in 2011 I am going to keep telling my kids God’s story. Will you join me? I want to read the Bible as a story to my kids out loud three times a week. I know I will fail at times. The schedules will cramp it out, the homework will pile up, but that doesn’t matter. God is not keeping score. I wonder what would happen if families joined together and committed to read His Word just three times a week. The key is to read it out loud so that we hear and are reminded too. Somehow, I think God will amaze us. He tends to be that way.
Finally, Deuteronomy 4:39-40 says, “Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.”
Orphan or Child?
These verses cause me to take a look at myself and then my gaze falls on my kids. What does their future hold? Am I encouraging them to see God as their Source, find their identity in Christ alone? Do they know that they are a part of God’s grand narrative, His story? Do they know they are created in His image to show what He is like to those around them? If my kids know who they are, then they are free from the worries of this world. They are free to trust God for their needs, and then free to look around them and be ministers to others. Like me, in some ways they are living as children and then in some ways they are living as orphans. It is the struggle of trusting that God is who He says He is.
I see my teens and others in our church and school community living as children of the King. This past year over 40 kids at our high school led prayer at “See You at the Pole.” A group of 20+ high schoolers meet every Monday morning at 7 am in the Biology teacher’s classroom to pray for each other and their school. This small band of kids is living in the world but not of the world. They know they are a part of a bigger picture. These kids are in band, orchestra, choir and theater. They are scattered throughout the cross-country, track, basketball, swimming, and volleyball teams. They sit at different lunch tables and are friends with Muslims, adopted orphans, atheists, and bored church attenders. Some of their friends are becoming curious so they end up at The Mills Church's Wednesday night youth group. One friend told my daughter recently, “I didn’t know church could be this way!”
Yet, as I, they still struggle with the tendency to live as orphans. We know that we know that we know who God says we are, but sometimes the voices of this world are so loud and overwhelming. The world tells us we must do more to be more to get more. The result is disillusionment and frustration with a keen sense of “lostness.” Our only hope and our kids’ only hope is to be continually reminded of who God is and who He says we are. Deuteronomy 4 reminded me today that the “Lord is God; besides him there is no other.”
Identity Crisis
How do we help ourselves and our kids with the real tension to either live like children or orphans? I can’t think of any other way to win this identity crisis than immersing ourselves in God’s Word, telling and re-telling His story, remembering who God is and who He says we are. We can’t do the transforming work in our kids’ hearts and lives. That is God’s job. But we can tell His story, give our kids to Him, and trust Him. This is our work, and it is hard.
Just One Thing
I usually do not make New Year’s resolutions. For me, they are a sure plan to feel like a failure. As a parent, I really don’t need more of that feeling! But as I read this passage of scripture today from Deuteronomy 4, I am motivated. I want more than anything for my kids to know God’s story, not so they look like super-Christians who can perform a recited scripture passage, but so that they know who they are! I just feel that God keeps trying to get this message across, over and over again. If my kids know that they are God’s child and that He is with them, looking out for them day in and day out, they are free to live the way He created them to live. In Deuteronomy 4, God tells us to “ask now about the former days, long before our time, from the day God created man on the earth.” He wants us and our kids to hear about His marvelous works so that we might know and never forget that the Lord is God.
So, in 2011 I am going to keep telling my kids God’s story. Will you join me? I want to read the Bible as a story to my kids out loud three times a week. I know I will fail at times. The schedules will cramp it out, the homework will pile up, but that doesn’t matter. God is not keeping score. I wonder what would happen if families joined together and committed to read His Word just three times a week. The key is to read it out loud so that we hear and are reminded too. Somehow, I think God will amaze us. He tends to be that way.
Finally, Deuteronomy 4:39-40 says, “Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.”
Jana Hoober
MillsKIDS Director
