During this 21 Day fast unto my family, I have had to put some of my personal goals aside in order to preserve the integrity of the fast. As we are "unpacking" the "Love" in our mission statement, Love, Laugh, and Live Radical, I have been experiencing joy in preferring my husband's goals over my own.
One of the fasting conditions for me was that if the choice of my fast or participating in quality family time was up against each other, I take the 'quality family time'. This also has meant preferring my husband's leading when it comes to many things.
As I have been leaning into "love", and trying to really exemplify God's love in our home, I have found myself allowing God to use me to prefer my husband and children over me, even over my fast.
I'll tell you what, parenting is H-A-R-D work, but with God's love in operation in our home, I am finding so much more grace!
I would love to hear your thoughts on preferring one another in your home. Is that something you talk about with your children? Do your children understand this biblical principal? Have you caught them in the act of loving each other and preferring one another?
- gina
A few months ago during a live set in our prayer room, Nina Landis, one of the worship leaders, began singing this chorus about God filling all the empty places. I can't really express the moment and what the Lord was doing in my heart. Music speaks to us all differently, and to me all the cracks and crevices that only He can fill, can be deposited into in a few different ways. One of those ways is through fellowshipping, or communing with the Spirit.
Since I have been on the topic of family this month, I have been exploring this idea in the relationships with my children. My children also have empty places inside that need to be filled.
Love doesn't wait for someone or something to come and fill the empty places. Love looks for empty places to fill. When I consider each one of my children individually, they each have different "places" in need of being filled.
For example, I have one child in particular who needs to be held daily, as her love language is physical touch. When I can see she is very "empty", my husband and I will both sit with her and hold her, look her in the eyes, and give her that individual attention she is needing.
That's what the Lord does for us. He looks at us and His love knows just how to find us and fill all the empty places inside. He is so good to us. I so love Him and want to be like Him.
I hope this post encourages you to stop and look for places that need filling in each of your family relationships. I truly believe that we were made in God's image, looking to love and be loved. Filling empty places with love is simply finding ways to say, "you are loved".
love.
Recently I wrote a post on making a Family Mission Statement, where our first part of that statement is "Love" above all else. But how do you unpack a mission of "love" in your household?
We are constantly trying to teach our kids to love us and each other by preferring one another over ourselves, sharing our things, and generally showing kindness. This mission, however, is attempting to take things a little deeper.
I want to take a few posts to unpack the mission of love.
It starts with the first commandment.
" “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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 6:4-9
This commandment to love the Lord with all strength and diligence was so important to God that it was emphasized by being intentional about ingraining it deep in the hearts of the children. The more physical things you could do to put the law in front of the children, day and night, when you come and go, keeping it in front of their eyes, etc., the more it would be absorbed and passed to the next generation. It was not just believing in what is right, but keeping it before your eyes at all times.
So as we talk about "love" as a family mission, are number one "love" is to adore God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. When we love one another, then we are loving God. We are asking God, "what does this mean for us?" How do we "teach our children diligently" as described here in the modern day America?
How do you teach your children the first commandment at home? How do you pass down the "law" of the Lord intot the hearts of your children? I'd love to hear from you!
Corporate prayer is a huge family value to us. Tonight I spoke at our house of prayer, Convergence House of Prayer, on corporate intercession. At the end we had a powerful time of "practicing intercession". It was so awesome to see my eight year old jump into the open mic time and pray in front of he whole room. It was so powerful.
My heart was leaping because my children haven't has a lot of opportunity to participate in corporate prayer meetings in a while and that she jumped right in as if she hadn't skipped a beat, it was just in her.
I am purposing to create more opportunities for corporate prayer for my children to participate in.
Do you attend a prayer room? Do you bring your kids? I would love to hear how you incorporate your children into your prayer room!
- Gina
devotional.
Just a short devotional for today on what God is putting in my heart during this 21 day fast.
There are many days in a child's life where from their perspective they may be unseen, unheard, or disconnected from their parents. I am having to balance in my belief system that just because things may look that way to my children some days, does not mean that is the reality.
Today was a very busy day with end of the school year preparations. Even though I missed out on my "quality" time with my kids today, I did some things that I needed to do for their future, that they will never know or understand. There are days like that.
This morning I forgot to grab my Bible and I was in my prayer time without it. I had to use the internet Bible, ugh. But I had my sheet of promises from the Bible and I went down them and prayed and make declarations for my kids. That's the point- everyday not everything works out just right and most days I swing from one improvisation to the next, but I am learning to lean into what I cannot see and trust God for the areas I fall short in.
The same way my kids cannot see the whole behind the scenes picture, I cannot see God's. The same way I desire my kids to listen to me without a "reason why", I need to do the same with God. I'll tell you what, focusing on my family is really teaching me about being God's kid.
What are you learning right now? I'd love to heard from you.
- Gina
What is the difference between spending time with someone watching a movie and sitting at the table having a cup of coffee together? Face time. And I'm not talking about iPhone features...
I "spend" a lot of time with my family, but if I were to be honest, not a lot of quality time. You might be familiar with the book, The Five Love Languages, one of my top two love languages is quality time. Isn't that interesting that the very language that speaks love to my heart I can honestly say I get the least of? You need to understand something about love languages before I go any further.
love languages.
Your love language is the primary way you hear, understand, and receive love. For example, if I was in France and you tried to buy something from me with Peso's I say, "no comprehendo." (Or something like that cause I don't speak Spanish.) So if my love language is quality time, but you keep giving me gifts, I'm like, "me no comprehendo". Make sense?
Another thing is that if your love language, for example, was physical touch, and you undergo physical neglect or abuse, it actually damages your heart worse than should you be neglected or hurt in another way. With that said...
Interesting, since my love language is quality time you can see that it being a neglected area in my closest relationships makes me feel disconnected from my family. I don't want to "do" things with my family, I want to be with them. What's even more interesting, is that is how God feels towards us. He doesn't want us to just "do things for Him" or with Him, He really, really wants us to just sit with Him and have Face Time.
In this fast, one of my "Unto's" is "face time" with those I love. I am fasting unto looking my family in the eyes, talking to them, sitting with them, and having quality time together. Tonight, it was a simple twenty minutes of talking to each other, putting my son in the "encouragement pot" (where we all give a word of encouragement), and praying over my daughter who has Type 1 Diabetes.
One of the coolest things tonight was the two kids that fight the most right now were laying hands on each other (gently!) and praying for each other! My son prayed compassionately for my daughter's healing, with sincerity and tenderness. Face time breaks down walls and builds bridges in our relationships.
I'd love to hear one of your "unto's".
- gina
One of the most difficult and most important goals of this fast is praying daily, specifically, and intentionally for each of my children. I think every parent, even those who would not profess to be "religious" pray for their children. Even those that don't believe in God, have positive "thoughts" of "hope" toward their children and desire them to turn our to be "good people". What is the difference between "praying" for your kids and what I am talking about? I am talking about fighting a war.
There is a war going on for our children, for the next generation, and the war is for the generation of parents and grandparents, whether you have physical children or not, to fight.
It is not a fight that we will win in the natural that our eyes may ever see, but it is a fight we will continue to fight. Some fights are not meant to be "won" and over. Some fights are meant to be fought.
"Fight the good fight of
faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have
confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." 1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV
The war in the spirit over the next generation will continue to be warred over. Just as our parents and grandparents warred for us, we will war, and our children will war. We cannot lay down, take a break, or give up.
As parents, we cannot say, "that's it I'm done praying, they are in God's hands, He'll do what He wants." No, we pray, we plead, we remind God of His promises, we make declarations, and we P-R-A-Y for our children.
"Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit." Luke 18:1 the Message
I'm gonna get a little rowdy for a minute... is that o.k.? I am tired of buying into that mindset that "It's all in God's hands anyway". You know what I am talking about. Yes, it is all in God's hands but God's desires partners, men, like you and me, on the earth. That we would share His heart, His zeal, and passionately pursue justice on the earth; justice for our children.
I want to encourage you to look at your current prayer life, how much and what quality of prayer time are you having right now? Are you going after God's destiny for your children in the place of prayer? Do you believe that God really wants to bless and prosper your children? Here is the challenge I am doing.
I am taking the areas I struggle with in each one of my relationships witch my children and finding specific prayers and Biblical promises to pray for them with.
For example, I have one child in particular, who will remain nameless, who struggles with self control. So I am praying and declaring 2 Timothy 1:7 over this one. I am declaring that God's protection from fear and His abounding love surrounding this one. I am proclaiming His strength in the inner man to keep this one in control of self, full of the fruits of the spirit.
Basically, you take the "problem" area and speak the opposite (the Godly & positive traits) over them.
The hardest part is having time to really go over each child individually each day, and not pray generic prayers. Good stuff, huh? Yep, challenging.
I'd love to hear from you... your turn!
- gina
