Last week I was reminded that sometimes my actions speak louder than words.
I try my best to wake up early every day and spent some time in God’s Word. In the mornings when Mackenzie wakes up, I am normally sitting in my keeping room reading my Bible.
The other night she made the comment that she wanted to start doing her quiet time before school and asked if I could wake her up at 5:30 am.
I told her that was too early and that she needed her sleep.
At 5:45 am the next day, I heard footsteps and there she was. She sat with me and read her devotional book and filled it out. I helped her find verses in the Bible that she had to read. It was a special morning.
When I picked her up from school that afternoon, she mentioned that a girl was mean to her that day. But she also told me that she chose to be nice to her because in her devotional she read that we should love and pray for our enemies.
“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Matthew 5:44
She had no idea that I needed to hear this message that day.
I’ve never really forced my kids to have a quiet time. I will read a devotional to them in the mornings here and there, but nothing consistently. Mackenzie is my child who loves to read her devotional book and is very disciplined about it.
But the fact that she does it just based on what she sees in me, reminds me that our children are watching. Our actions speak louder than our words sometimes and this was a perfect example of that.
I was also challenged to do better about encouraging them out loud to have a daily quiet time and to go back to reading a daily devotional with them each day.
I know how much better my day goes after I spend time in God’s Word and I want them to experience the same.
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
If you don’t have a daily quiet time, I encourage and challenge you to start. Just five minutes a day, sit and talk to Jesus and read His Word. You can read a chapter in Proverbs a day or read a Psalm a day. Fill your soul, heart and mind with His truth. As you begin to practice this, it will spill over into your family.
As you love the Lord with all your heart soul and mind, you will see that you will use every opportunity to share it with your kids. Use learning opportunities to share God’s truths with them. Remind them of who they are in Christ and encourage them by using God’s Word.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:5-9
We don’t have to be perfect. We just have to be consistent. Children are great imitators so let’s give them something great to imitate!
Have a great day, friends!
XO