guest post for Sarah

When Sarah first asked me to write a post about parenting, I inwardly panicked. Not because I didn’t want to help her- because I did. No, it was because it had been a hard week and I felt extremely inadequate to get through the next hour of parenting, much less write advice for others!

Sarah specifically asked me to write about the topic of “bringing the message of Christ to our homes on a daily basis.” As a pastor’s wife, this is something my husband I often talk about, and always wonder if we are doing well in this capacity. How do we measure this exactly, I often wonder.
A few days after Sarah e-mailed me, I felt a little better and had an amazing experience that made me realize that even small things that we do have great impact on our children.
That day, it was raining, storming. The thunder was very loud, and I could tell Landon was scared. Quietly at first, he started singing,
“When I am afraid I will trust in you, I will trust in you. When I am afraid I will trust in you, I will not be afraid.”
This brought tears to my eyes. This scripture (Psalm 56:3) set to music is on a CD that we listen to often in the car. {It’s amazing how much easier scripture memory is when it’s accompanied by music. Anyone want to create an album set to less childish music? 🙂}
The fact that Landon not only remembered this verse, but applied it when he truly was afraid, made my heart soar. Isn’t that why we memorize Scripture, after all? Not so that we can be prideful of our knowledge, but so that God’s word can transform us and help us when we have times of loneliness, or fear, or temptation, and the list goes on.

Landon and I the day he was baptized.

So if I could give one piece of advice for parents, it is teach scripture memory when your children are young. I can still remember my mom driving us to school and having us repeat scriptures over and over. And I also know from experience that is much easier to memorize things as a child, so what better time to teach our start hiding his word in their hearts than when their precious minds are being formed?
I want so bad for my children to love God, obey his commands, memorize Scripture because they want to. But before they’ll want to on their own, we have to teach them. Somewhat like I’ve taught them to brush their teeth, or say thank you. God’s love honestly has to be something talked about every single day.
Do I fail? Oh, yes, miserably at times. But by God’s grace I hope to be raising children that love Him and want to follow Him with their whole hearts.

I’m Kelli

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