Intentions, Part Three

Even if I succeed as an intentional mom and do all sorts of great activities, keep a clean and organized house, cook fabulous meals or fancy cupcakes like my friend who made the ones in the picture in part one. I may as well just lock the kids in their rooms if I'm not intentional about teaching them about Christ. Outings and relational activities are crucial stepping stones to being able to talk about Jesus, not just an end in themselves.

That's the whole point of parenting for me, but it's probably the part I'm least intentional about. I mean who has the time or energy to talk about spiritual things in the midst of daily life? A dear friend always shared this verse with me when I became a mom. And she lived it with her kids. I always think of her when I hear Deuteronomy 6:5-9.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. these commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and gates."

Part of my problem with not being intentional about talking to my kids more about Jesus is hit hard in the first line of those verses. Am I intentional about my own relationship with Christ? Do I spend time reading and studying his word? Do I only pray when I am in crisis?

Obviously, if I am not intentional in spending time with my Savior, how can I be deliberately talk to my kids about Him? The easy answer is I can't. That's when we become legalistic about faith. I can say I love God and do all the "christian" things but if I don't pursue Him and live differently because of it, it's empty. That seems like a place where kids are going to get resentful.

Somewhere in finding the right balance, the priority needs to be on Jesus. Talk about Him all the time; at home, driving, at night. A few summer's ago I was taking off to do some shopping while Mike and the kids were weeding the garden. I know, life's not fair! When I went out there one of the kids said, we were just talking about what heaven is going to be like! I think that's the point of Deuteronomy 6. You don't necessarily have to set aside table time or have a curriculum, just talk about and live Jesus.

One area we are trying to work on is prayer. I love this idea that I've heard from various people. When we hear sirens, we pray for the hurt people and the rescuers. When we hear of a need, we just stop and pray for a few minutes making prayer a more conversational, continual part of the day.

There are many days I won't do a good job and I'll fail. But if I trust Christ to help me stay purposeful in my journey with Him, He'll be faithful to keep us moving in the right direction. That's the thing I want most as a mother. I want to help my kids grow into thriving followers of Christ. So why do I give it the least amount of time?