If you could only teach three lessons???

Recent Facebook post:

"If you could pick just three lessons to teach your children what would they be?"

Today's family lesson. I know there's a lot to learn in life, but these were the three things we focused in on today.:) 

• Love God passionately. 
• Work hard and always try your best. 
• Be polite/respectful to everyone. 

Here's the responses I receieved: 

• Love, forgive and don't judge!!!;))
• Follow the laws (God's and the land's), Rise Above, Stay True.
• Always have faith, never lose hope,and to always share God's love with everyone.
• Fear the Lord, fear the Lord , fear the Lord.
• Always run to God. Respect others.  Be kind.
• To love God with all their heart, mind and spirit. To love one another and yourself. Biblical diligence.
• 1.To have a realtionship with God not a religion. 2. the order of the family: God (Him first and your relationship with Him); Hubby (your marriage according the the Word); children (raising them as servants of the Lord so when they get older they will not depart from it, hopefully raising them to be stroinger spiritually when they leave the home than I was) and then everything else comes into play, but if you mess the first three up then everything gets messed up. 3. To live the Word of the Lord in all you say and do is the greatest ministery anyone can have and to do that you have to know the Word of God and prayer.

I thought all of these were great answers! 

What would your three lessons be if that's all you could teach your children?

Fresh cut flowers

"What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. 

We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow." Martin Luther

"Today, even in Christian circles, a homemaker's vocation is viewed as optional, replaceable, and more like a hobby to fulfill her own needs than as a vital asset to the family."

 Stacy McDonald - Passionate Housewives Desperate for God

Dorothy Patterson, a homemaker and  faculty member of the Criswell College says, 

"Of course, much of the world would agree that being a housekeeper is acceptable as long as you are not caring for your own home; treating men with attentive devotion would also be right as long as the man is the boss in the office and not your husband; caring for children would even be deemed heroic service for which presidential awards could be given as long as the children are someone else's and not your own." 

Today, my daughter wanted to put on the "pretty" tablecloth. 

It was time for another Home Group and she was eagerly cleaning up things. 

Not only was she helping me tidy up the house, she was enjoying it. 

What?! A 7 year old little girl...enjoying housework. 

I truly believe that God places inside of each of us a desire for the beautiful. 

A desire for order. 

A desire to share what we have with others. 

Do we always do it? 

I don't. 

She wanted to go and cut fresh flowers from our yard. 

They were beautiful and fragrant and special because she handcut each one and placed it in the vase. 

Did the young adults that come over notice them or care that she had done it? 

Probably not. 

And that's ok, because they were blessed just being in our home 

AND we were blessed by having them

AND my daughter was blessed by making it "pretty" for them. 

Win, win, win!

I want to foster her love for helping out around the house, 

loving on others, 

serving her family well, 

and knowing that loving others well matthers. 

Pure

pure

 

adjective, pur·er, pur·est.

1. free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind;

 free from extraneous matter: pure gold; pure water.

2. free from foreign or inappropriate elements

3. clear; free from blemishes: pure skin.

It's 3 AM and I'm eating "pure" yogurt while sitting on my couch with a case of insomia. 

It got me thinking about being "pure". 

I love looking up the definition of a word and then trying to apply it to the situation. 

• What in my life needs freed from something that is in contridiction to the Word?
• Do I have anything that is inferior in my life that is causing me to not walk close to the Lord?
• What do I have in my heart and life that is contaminating me?!
• Am I free from foreign (to the Biblical standard) thoughts?
• Am I free from all inappropriate elements in my life?
• Do I daily allow the Holy Spirit to clean my spirit and ask forgivess from any blemishes that are in me? 

Wow, that's a thought provoking list of items.

 However, when I scrap away all the impure junk

life becomes SO much simpler.

 Cleaner.

 Healthier. 

How much "clutter" have I allowed in my life? 

Not just in general, but more specifically - over this weekend, today, right now? 

Help me Lord to live a pure life before You -

one that is not contaminated with all the stuff of this life. 

Pure in heart. 

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Pure religion. 

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Pure in spirit.

2 Timothy 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Pure love. 

1 Timothy 1:5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Pure from the worldliness around me.

2 Timothy 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

I believe that being PURE helps us to fully experience the life that God has planned for us. 

We don't need all the chemicals (media, statis, clothes, food, things) that we think we do. 

We need "less" to have "more". 

The Bible very clearly says that over and over.

Why is it so difficult to grasp and live out? 

Luke 9:23-24 Then he [Jesus] said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it."