I had the wonderful opportunity of attending the Focus on Parenting Seminar yesterday. I am already a fan of Dr. Kevin Leman and Phil Vischer but had never heard of the other speakers. It is exciting to hear the passion God has placed on these peoples hearts to share with us.
It was an emotional day for me. I love my children very much and more than anything want them to know and love Jesus and serve Him with their lives. As I heard both testimonies and convictions from the different speakers the desire I have for my children, our family, our care group and for the church just grew. The interconnection between them all is so important but the most important place of learning how to have a relationship with Jesus is in the home.
I was especially inspired by Mark Holmen whose message was taken from Duet. 6. Just as we had heard on Wednesday, and we will hear again (that is good - we need the repetition!) there is only ONE true God. Focusing on the order of the scripture passage, we need to acknowledge ONE true God and love Him with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind. It is then that we impress this love for God on our children, and our friends and co-workers and neighbors...
This was such a good reminder of my need to seek to know and love God more through scripture and through prayer. A reminder to remove all hindrances, all other gods that are taking priority thought space and time in my life.
I just want to encourage you to continue to take time each day to bow before God and ask Him to be the Lord of your life, your day, your every situation.
The Labels We Wear
ReplyDeleteGood evening again to you all and thanks so much Nicole for your insightful blogs and the time you take in sharing your heart and your life.
As I was preparing for this morning to go to church the funniest thing happened to me. I went to put on my hospital ID badge. The reason why I probably did this was my small group leaders name tag is on a string as well.
It got me to thinking about the different labels we wear and today I was the small group leader and not the nurse. Kind of funny how we become accustomed to being so many different things to so many different people.
Then I got to be thinking even deeper than that. I don't think that was what Christ intended for us. I don't think we are to wake up every morning and to put on different labels for the different jobs we are called to do.
God reminded me this morning that the only tag I should wear around my neck is that I belong to Christ. Christ alone. I then thought of a Scripture I had read earlier that week and it is so neat how God can tie all these random thoughts together.
In Romans 13:14 we are instructed to "CLOTHE OURSELVES WITH CHRIST."
That is the only thing I should consider putting on before anything else, the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on His attributes, His compassion, His kindness, His mercy, His gentle and tender nature, His love and His grace.
Tommorrow morning when I go to put on my hospital ID tag, I am going to be reminded that before I step out that door to begin my day, I better ask that God would fill me with His Spirit so I give off the fragrance of Christ and not anything less than that.
What about you. What are you putting on tomorrow?