Your children are a reflection
If you have ever wondered how you are doing in your life on your walk as a Jesus follower, you really don't have farther to look than your children. They reflect your values. They pick up on what is truly important to you and they disregard the fluff. Children have this innate ability to cut through the garbage of what we try to show our lives are about and really understand what is important. With all my problems and my own hang ups, one thing I have been able to teach my children is the idea of service. My son who is 8 understands that true joy comes from serving others. This kid wakes up every Sunday at 0445 to get dressed and ready and come to church so it can be setup in time for everybody else to come and have church. That's just one...he also thinks of others at all sorts of other times. Heck, when we fixed his Heelie wheel with a new aluminum one, I had to sit down and tell him not to offer to all his friends new wheels! Otherwise we'd be in the shop every night spinning more and more wheels!
The other thing he has picked up from me is an understanding of how things work. The other night, we were in the shop and he mentioned he'd like a BB gun and he was wondering if we could make one. So I discussed with him some designs I've seen to shoot the little plastic BBs where it is connected to shop air, there is a plug that serves as a vortex generator that spins the BBs around until they have sufficient velocity to exit the barrel and then they pop out. We discussed how that works and what parts we'd need. Well, last night he was thinking of how that all works and he was going through some of the spare parts we have. He found a length of 1/2" PVC pipe and a cap for it. He found the air nozzle for the compressor fit in the end perfectly, and if he jammed the cap on good it would shoot across the yard! So my 8-year-old built his own potato-type gun and spent the evening shooting it with his siblings. The best part is he understands safety and insisted everybody wore their safety glasses and were out of the line of fire.
Our children are watching us. They are not just watching what we say, but they are watching mostly what we do. They will emulate what they see us do since that is what is really important to us, not just what we say. Let's make sure our actions are appropriate for what we are saying. If we talk about serving others, are we actually serving others? If we talk about stewardship of everything we own, do we live like all our stuff is God's and we're just stewards of it?
The other thing he has picked up from me is an understanding of how things work. The other night, we were in the shop and he mentioned he'd like a BB gun and he was wondering if we could make one. So I discussed with him some designs I've seen to shoot the little plastic BBs where it is connected to shop air, there is a plug that serves as a vortex generator that spins the BBs around until they have sufficient velocity to exit the barrel and then they pop out. We discussed how that works and what parts we'd need. Well, last night he was thinking of how that all works and he was going through some of the spare parts we have. He found a length of 1/2" PVC pipe and a cap for it. He found the air nozzle for the compressor fit in the end perfectly, and if he jammed the cap on good it would shoot across the yard! So my 8-year-old built his own potato-type gun and spent the evening shooting it with his siblings. The best part is he understands safety and insisted everybody wore their safety glasses and were out of the line of fire.
Our children are watching us. They are not just watching what we say, but they are watching mostly what we do. They will emulate what they see us do since that is what is really important to us, not just what we say. Let's make sure our actions are appropriate for what we are saying. If we talk about serving others, are we actually serving others? If we talk about stewardship of everything we own, do we live like all our stuff is God's and we're just stewards of it?
posted by Pastor Tom at 8:34 AM
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