Be intentional! (Post #4)

This is such an incredible time. Don't miss out on the opportunities you have right now to lay the foundation for your kids' lives. Lead them with intentionality. Don't sit back while they wonder around in the trampled, baron, common ground. Search out the fields less frequented. Lead them to lush pastures. Feed them fresh, rich nutrients from His Word daily. 

Don't sit idly by while they drink out of muddy puddles. Lead them straight to the source of crisp, cool, clean, fresh Living Water.

 Some of my favorite verses on parenting are found in Deuteronomy 6.

"5 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might.6 And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be [first] in your [own] minds and hearts; [then]7 You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach andimpress them diligently upon the [minds and] hearts of 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 up.8 And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets (forehead bands) between your eyes.9 And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

There are tons of practical ways to apply these scriptures. Some tactics I have used are: 

- Keep a stack of 3 x 5 note cards on hand. Anytime you read a verse you want your kids to learn write it down, and then place that note card on the table during breakfast or tape it up beside the door where you will see it every time you leave.

- Each Monday morning at breakfast pull out a new card to be your verse of the week.

 - Use a dry race marker to write the verse of the week on the bathroom mirror. 

- Write the verse on a piece of paper and stick it in their lunch box so they will find it during school.

There are so many easy and fun ways to keep the Word before them. The point is, be intentional! You will never get these years back. And your little lambs will never be this moldable again. Your home and your life are the absolute greatest influencers on the people they will grow up to be. You're calling is a high one indeed!