peas, peas, peas

Last week I, along with the rest of America, sat on the floor glued to the television watching a helium balloon floating through the air that we all believed contained a little 6 year old boy. I listened to the news reporters giving out all sorts of details about how this scenario would not end well if there the little boy truly was in the balloon. Certainly he has passed out by now from all the helium fumes, they said; there is only a plywood board holding him in the balloon so when it lands, there is no way the plywood will keep him safe. On & on they went describing tragedy. And so I sat there staring at the television, silently praying for a miracle. Hannah & the little boy I babysit were playing around me. Once we saw the balloon descending to the ground, my prayers became audible. I sat there with 2 babies crawling over and around me, with my hands clasped together saying, "Please, Jesus, keep him safe; please keep him safe, please keep him safe". I heard Hannah saying something repeatedly and so I stopped my prayers and looked over at her. There she stood with her hands clasped saying, "Peas, peas, peas" (translated: please, please, please) over and over.
Thankfully, as we all now know, there was no little boy in the balloon. He was safe in his home.
But later in the day as I was retelling the story to a group of ladies from my church, my heart was struck. I suddenly became so aware of my responsibilities to my children and even to the little one I babysit. My actions are going to impact their lives. And as I am raising a little girl, she will become what she sees in me; she will imitate me.
And so the Lord began to show me that I need to pay more attention to my actions in order to display my faith and trust in Jesus. I need to be actively, daily, constantly teaching her about the goodness of God (Deut. 6:7-9). I need to pray out loud more often to display to her what it means to pray and why we pray. I need to read the Bible daily to her in order for her to know that I truly do believe that the "word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit..."
I need to allow God to control our days together, because we all need to learn"to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psalm 90:12) I refuse to raise my children with the mind set of "do as I say and not as I do". The Lord has placed these children in my watch care & I better make sure, with the Lord guiding me and controlling me, that they are raised to fear the Lord and to know His goodness and His justness, to know His wrath & His never-ending mercy, to know the love of the Lord, "to taste and see that the Lord is good".

Psalm 78:1-8
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, 3 things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. 5 He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, 7 so that they should set their hope in Godand not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; 8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.