Doorposts

Good morning,
    
A hearty congratulations to the Wright's who just received another precious blessing from the Lord!  May the wisdom and patience and grace and overflowing love of our Savior be yours as you begin your journey with Joanna Faith.

Our children are gifts indeed, and raising them up for the glory of our God is among the greatest privileges He gives us.  We are unequal to the task, and yet He entrusts us with little ones who we will impact so profoundly that when I think about it much, it overwhelms me.  Parenting moves me to my knees in a way no other job ever has, and there, before my Heavenly Father, clinging to Christ, I find the grace and strength I so desperately need.  We do not know our own hearts entirely, but I do know that it is my prayer regularly that God would unite mine to fear His name.  I know I am "prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love"; daily I am constrained to be a debtor to God's amazing grace...so I pray "let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee."  Parents, join me at His throne of grace...how can any of us raise our children up for the glory of the Lord, if His glory isn't our own consuming passion?

His Word is a lamp unto our feet!  I know this; yet how often do I attempt to stumble around in the dark while forsaking the light He provides?  Ugh!  Let's encourage each other in this arena friends.  Let's ask each other what we've been reading and what God has been teaching us and how it has increased our joy in Him.

God also gives us flesh and blood help along the way too.  He gives us friends who listen and counsel and encourage and correct...how thankful I am to God for the ones He has given to me!  You know who you are and I love you! 

And He often throws in resources to aid our journey as well.  I want to share one that we've found helpful with you. It is a company named Doorposts, owned and operated by a family at our church.  I have been a proofreader for Pam for many years so when I disappear for a week or so, like I did this last month, it just might be because I have locked myself in my office to proof something.  Here is a little video that will give you some idea of what they are about:

Blessing or Burden? Does our life display the truth of God?

I grew up in what is considered by many to be a large family, the youngest of eleven children.  I think it is downright funny when I enter a store with my THREE children and get comments about how I must certainly have my hands full with "all those kids."  Hmmm...

My children, by the grace of God, all have functioning ears and they hear the comments people make.  They all came to me one day recently to ask "Why do people always say you must have your hands full when they see us Mommy?" I told them my guess is that people just know how much work kids are.  And they are!  But my question for them to think about was whether work was a good thing or bad?  We read about how the Lord created everything in six days, and rested the seventh; and how we are to imitate Him.  Then we  looked up verses about how children are arrows in the hands of a warrior, an heritage, a blessing, etc.  I reaffirmed the pleasure and privilege it is for me to do the work of raising these beautiful children up to know and serve the God who made us all.  None of this was new information to my kids, but it was foundational for the discussion which followed.

You see, they had not only repeatedly heard the words, they've discerned the differences in delivery.  Why is it that some people make this statement with a smile, and others speak the very same words but with pity?  These are such teachable moments!  They are learning that communication involves more than spoken words.  The smiling folks send the message that they know or remember the workload of raising little ones, but they have fond memories of the task...children are a blessing and a work to engage in with joy.  The pitying people, communicate via their tone and expression that they feel sorry for me being strapped down by these kids...kids are a burden.  And we all "hear" more than the words, do we not?

My kids are learning that there are worldviews behind what people say and do.  It is true that raising children is hard work, but the communication doesn't just say THAT...it also gives us hints as to what the persons view of work is.  We live in a society of people that generally speaking want freedom, travel, pleasures of every kind, comforts, etc...but they don't want to work.  At best, work is seen as the necessary evil to getting what is wanted.  So those people who believe God, who take hold of whatever He puts into their hand to do and does it for His glory with all their might, SHINE.

Jesus said (Matt 5:14-16): "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

Fellow parents...be encouraged to love on your children, pointing them daily to Jesus and displaying your own delight in walking with Him.  Engage in the good God-given work of raising them up for His glory in such a way that they and all the world know that God is telling the truth when He says they are a blessing.  I have more to say on this next time....

The devotion for Hannah's bridal shower

Someone asked me to put the talk I gave at my friend's bridal shower this weekend on my blog...for those of you who are interested, here it is (at least this is what I took with me...I always ad lib a bit):

Hannah,
     Thank you for giving me the privilege of sharing a few words at your shower.  What an exciting time this is in your life!  Proverbs 14:1 tells us “The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands.”  Building a house is no easy undertaking, but it is what you are signing up to do.  With such a statement concerning a woman’s power to wisely build or foolishly destroy, it shouldn’t surprise us that there is a great deal that could be said to encourage you as you begin your marriage; so many different directions this talk could go.  As I’ve prayed about what to share, a few main ideas kept returning to my mind so I will focus our time today on those.

     You and Zack plan to marry soon.  You’ll begin to walk through this life in the context of a covenant relationship you’ve never experienced before.  There will continue to be many voices bombarding you with ideas of what that should look like, what your experience should be, and how you should be feeling.  My first word of encouragement would be for you to lend your ear with loyalty to the voice of God’s word and the leading of your own husband.  Your friends, neighbors and extended family may offer all kinds of bits of wisdom for you, well intended and very often worthy of your consideration.  BUT if you want unity and contentment in your relationship with Zack (which I am confident you do), make it your practice to run other people’s input by him, maintaining a heart that desires to follow your own husband’s leadership, keeping the truths of God’s Word your united anchor.   Godly people have opinions about everything: budgeting, communication, date nights, family size, diet, and every other topic under the sun; and those opinions are not all the same.  If God adds children to your family, the list of topics begin to include discussions of whether to immunize or not, schooling options, and all kinds of other things you may not even have imagined could be controversial yet (even within your own circle of friends).  It is pretty amazing how quickly you can find yourself drowning in a sea of confusion, and at such times you need to remind yourself that your Father is heaven has told us that He is not the Author of confusion.  He makes it clear that you are to follow Him and to submit yourself to your own husband.  You and Zack together will face many decisions and once you have unity on a matter, and it is in accord with God’s word, walk it out with confidence and in dependence upon God whose grace is always sufficient.  My mom used to say that “every couple needs to learn how to dance with each other.”  I think that’s right.  We serve an amazingly creative God who has filled the earth with variety that pleases Him.  One couple’s dance may be like a God-honoring Waltz while another couple may dance the Christ-exalting Tango together.  That’s part of the fun...enjoy the variety of godly couples you build relationships with.  And learn from them.  But seek your unity with Zack and let your marriage shine for Christ in the dance He’s ordained for you. 

     The next encouragement I would give you comes from the passage 1 Tim 6:6-10 which says: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.  But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”  Money itself isn’t the problem.  Ecclesiastes teaches that money answers everything (10:19).  Greed is the issue, and the remedy for it is repentance and the exercise of godliness with contentment.  Chew on this, especially as a young married woman who will be living in the context of American fog that screams from every nook and cranny: “get it now; you deserve it.”  Remember your Father is the One who gives and withholds, all for your good.  We’re in an impatient McDonald’s culture that wants what it wants immediately and wants it their own way.  So be countercultural for the glory of God.  Practice patience and contentment and live each day with a love for God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  One of my favorite quotes is by Thomas Watson in his book All Things for Good...it is: “If it is good for us, we shall have it; if it is not good for us, then the withholding of it is good.”  This quote, along with the Timothy text, has helped me often to receive what God, in His wisdom, has given with thanksgiving, without throwing what looks very much like a two year olds fit over not getting something I want when I want it.  This is a wonderful way to bless your husband who wants to give you good things, but does not always have the means to give you everything you may want (like a home with acreage right away, and maybe never)...to see you trusting God’s timing and provision, and being content with what you have, can encourage him to do the same, and together this will help transform the sphere of influence God places you in.  God will give you what you need to accomplish all He is calling you to do.  Michael Card sings a song titled “Things we leave behind”...its chorus reminds us that:

Every heart needs to be set free

From possessions that hold it so tight

‘Cause freedom’s not found in the things that we own

It’s the power to do what is right

With Jesus, our only possession

Then giving becomes our delight

And we can’t imagine the freedom we find

From the things we leave behind.

     There is great truth in those words.  Don’t allow yourself to become consumed about “stuff”...be about loving and enjoying Zack and serving the Lord together with him.  Remember Whose you are, that Jesus purchased you with His own blood, that He’s promised to never leave you nor forsake you, that He does not withhold anything that is good for you, and that you have exactly what you need to live a life honoring to Him alongside your husband with joy.  These are good things to think about when discontentment attempts to work itself into your heart. 

     In Titus 2:4-5, part of the sound doctrine Paul tells Titus to speak directs older women to teach “the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”  What a joy it is for me to be married to a man who understands His God-given role of protecting and providing and nurturing what God has given him...I’m so thankful that Zack seeks to be such a man for you.   And you get the joy of loving him and making a home for him (and any children God may add to your family) in a way that honors God.  That sounds so happy and easy, doesn’t it?  In many ways it is, but sin and circumstances will provide challenges along the way.  Hannah, I know from my own relationship with you that you’ve already made friends with at least this semi-older woman.  I encourage you to continue to cultivate relationships with godly women older than yourself, whose lives you note as worthy of imitation, because they can be a great aid to you in this journey of love.  Take initiative to involve yourself in their lives and learn from them how to better love your husband, to love children, to manage the affairs of your home, to make your home (in unity with your husband) a base of ministering life and hope in Christ to as many as God brings across your path.   I’m 44 and still learning from the experience and wisdom of friends older than me...these friendships are gifts from God, but they often require initiative to open them up and enjoy them.  Cultivate such friendships...be teachable, humble, observe, ask questions, offer your help when opportunities present themselves as a way of interacting and serving the body of Christ...then discuss what you glean along the way with Zack, like I mentioned earlier, so the two of you can decide what is useful to graft into your own practices.  

     A few days ago, on my Face-book status, I asked the question: “What one thing would you say to a soon-to-be bride to encourage her to start her marriage well?”  There were quite a few responses; here are some of them (paraphrased):

§         Encourage him

§         Extend grace

§         Always make time to welcome him home from work

§         Tell him how much you appreciate him

§         To remember you are held by the love of God through the good times and the more challenging

§         Don’t go to bed angry at each other

§         Leave thank you notes or appreciation notes for him to find

§         Pray often for yourself and family...the Lord knows better than we do what is needed and in His way He reveals it.

§         Take care of yourself and your home so your husband can dwell in a place of peace, beauty and rest...enjoy your job

§         Laugh together

§         Do not take everything personally...realize that when he is upset, it does not mean he is upset with you.  Listen, and be willing to work it through until the real issue comes to light rather than reacting or automatically getting defensive.

§         Be his cheerleader

§         Try to always think the best of him

§         Keep your bed made (but not when you’re in it)

§         “say I do”

     Most of those could be elaborated on, along with scores of other encouragements, and they will be in the course of your life as each one takes on fuller significance for you via experience.  Theory will very soon become practice for you.  And God will be with you every day.  He will be with you as you set goals with Zack and make plans for working towards those goals.  He will be with you when conflicts arise, giving you both the tools to use to work things through for His glory and your increased joy.  He will be with you in your laughter.  He will be with you in your pain.  He is giving Zack to you and you to Zack.  Enjoy each other in His presence with thankful hearts... enjoy unity and intimacy unlike any you have ever known as a gift from His hand.  Seek the joy of the Lord to be your strength. 

     I asked my kids what they thought I should say to you in this talk, and I’ll end with this... Rebekah answered that I should tell you to love Zack.  Then, I asked her how she thought you could best love him, to which she replied “by loving God most.”  I smiled and told her that is EXACTLY one of the notes I had already written down to share with you.   It’s simple, but important.  One of our common temptations is to love God’s gifts more than God Himself, but when we do we forfeit the joy intended and rob God of the glory He deserves.  Rebekah didn’t pull that idea from thin air...she has heard me say over the years that I love her best by loving God most and she simply connected the dots that the same would be true for you and Zack.   I believe that wholeheartedly.  Hannah, love Zack and love him best by loving God most.  If that, or anything else I’ve said, needs clarifying, you can ask me about it when you come see me before your wedding.

     I love you Hannah, and I love Zack.  I thank God for your friendship, and I look forward to seeing what God will work in and through you two together over the years.  God bless you both! 

My Mom

My mom died Christmas day in the year 2000.  Though she is gone from the earth, I continue to learn from her.  Strangely enough, I’ve been thinking about her funeral.  There was a gigantic picture of her family displayed in the front of the parlor.  My brother Richard officiated the service and drew everyone’s attention to the picture as my mother’s “Magnum Opus,” which translates into Great Work.  This is what she gave her life to!  She was steady in a shifting world.  Richard talked about how she raised 10 children on a single income of a mill worker; how she taught us all that liberty is the freedom to do good, not a license to do evil; she held tightly to the 10 Commandments, the Lord’s prayer and the Apostle’s Creed and tried to teach us all to do likewise; she lived in a complexity of relationships and responsibilities including her husband, 10 living children, the memory of her departed son, her siblings, her parents, her neighbors, and her parishioners; she was amazing at the daily task of stretching pennies into dollars in a frugal but not miserly way; she had the reputation of praying for every child and grandchild by name every day.  I'm the youngest of the eleven children she gave birth to...she was tired by the time I came (go figure!), and I sadly grew up resenting that, but looking back I give thanks to God for my mother who gave everything she had left to give to raise me.  By God's grace, I am a part of my mother's Magnum Opus.   And by God's grace, our relationship in the latter years of her life were very sweet.

God has prepared good works for me to walk in...I do not know in advance all of what that will entail in the time He grants me on earth, but I do know HIM.  I love Jesus and want to follow wherever He leads me.  And whatever the picture of my life will display when loved ones gather to say their good-byes as my body is laid in the ground, I know right now without a doubt WHO I want my life's work to magnify.  I want more than anything to see Jesus face to face and to hear "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your Lord."  THAT goal is foundational to the choices I make...and all those choices will play into what the portrait of my life will be.  


One of the simple chorus type songs we sing as a family has these lyrics:
Fill my cup, let it overflow
Fill my cup, let it overflow
Fill my cup, let it overflow...let it overflow with Love.

I was listening to John Piper this week as he talked about love being an overflow of joy in God.  That is what I want to be about...I want to be a vessel through which the joy of God is overflowing through me in love to others.  

My mom died the day before my first child was born...but sometimes I think she's still around because I hear her voice coming right out of my own mouth.  The fruit of her life carries on...thanks Mom!

Surgeon or Butcher?

A man named William Secker lived in the 17th century.  I know very little about him other than he was  a preacher of the gospel in London and he wrote a book titled "The Nonsuch Professor."  This book came into my hands a couple of years ago and I read it thoughtfully and with delight.  My copy has many marks and underlines throughout because it is filled with pithy lines worth quoting, like this one:

"That is a choice friend, who conceals our faults from the view of others, and yet discovers them to our own…Reprehension is not an act of butchery, but an act of surgery."

I have become more thankful over the years for the surgical friends in my own life.  Friends who wound me in faithfulness (Prov 27:6), that I might become more like Jesus.  I memorized Psalm 141:5 years ago as a reminder to myself to be teachable...it says "let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness."  

Rebuke isn't easy to take...the temptation for me (maybe you're an exception to this) is to become defensive, attempt to justify myself, and self-righteously dig my heals even deeper into my own position.  Oh how I have cried for God's mercy...and He has been a generous Giver!  By His grace He has grown me in the ability to silence my tongue long enough to consider whether the person rebuking me has any validity (which at least in my life's experience, they very often do).  With God's grace upon grace, I end up thanking the friend who has loved me enough to approach me about whatever it is.  Just like God tells us in Hebrews 12:11 "No chastening seems joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

But this morning, the question in my mind is how well am I doing at being a friend to others?  In Proverbs 19:11, God tells us: "The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression."  He has also told us in Proverbs 17:9 that "he who repeats a matter separates friends."  And in James 5:19-20 we read: "Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,  let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins."

The quote by Secker combines those ideas. Not every offense requires surgery (there are many things that happen between people that can and should simply be overlooked).  But with the ones that do require attention, am I acting in love like a surgeon or am I more like a butcher? A surgeon will do what is required for the good of the patient...the patient's well being is the concern.  Whereas a butcher wields the weapons of a slaughter.  Slaughter tools can be seen here by way of analogy as a repeating of matters in a way that separates friends or a refusal to try to turn someone from their error or attacking someone who may indeed be wrong with an aim to destroy rather than restore.  Galatians 6:1a tells us "if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness."

Here's a caution: Hasty surgeons can resemble butchers who just love the thrill of cutting.  We've all heard the stories of organs being removed unnecessarily due to lack of proper investigation or the wrong limbs removed due to inaccurate information.  A good surgeon runs tests BEFORE surgery to make sure the surgery is required, and if so, what tools and plan are needed to have optimal health with minimal scarring.  What a helpful reminder to ask questions, investigate, and be a good listener.  Afterward, the surgeon runs more tests to make sure the tool applied did what was intended...if it hasn't, more repair work needs to be done.  The goal is restoration and life in Christ.  I really appreciated Doug Wilson's sentiment expressed in the movie "Collision"...the goal is not to win the argument, but to win the man.

Lord, make me a good and faithful friend (and parent).  Grant me discernment in knowing what attention and what kind of attention each relationship needs.  Does the offense of  a friend or child need a band-aid (cover it), a knife applied in love, or some other tool?  Please grant me Your love and grace to apply the right remedy.  And Lord, help my friends continue to be good friends to me.  I thank you for them!  They are truly gifts from Your hand.  Help me to not be overly critical of the tools they use in attempts to love me, but rather to be gracious knowing how difficult it is to bring correction correctly.  I pray this in the name of Jesus, for His glory and the joy of His people, amen.

A Sweet and Bitter Providence

My friend Alice bought me a book for my birthday titled A Sweet & Bitter Providence, by John Piper.  In the book, Dr. Piper walks the reader through the book of Ruth and helps us "glean" some very rich and comforting food for our famished souls.  There are too many to share here...just get the book.  But I do want to share one big "helping" because it is so pertinent in light of the devastation in Haiti, as well as other gut-wrenching agonies various friends of mine who will likely read this are experiencing.   May God help us to see His sovereign hand of love even in the most bitter seasons of our lives.

I will string quotes in green, making every attempt to stay true to the gist of Dr. Piper's points, to serve up this meal as concisely as I can (these are all taken from between pages 115-142): 

The painful things that come into our lives are not described by God as accidental or as out of His control.  This would be no comfort.  That God cannot stop a germ or a car or a bullet or a demon is not good news; it is not the news of the Bible.  God can.  And ten thousand times He does.  But when He doesn't, He has His reasons.  And in Christ Jesus they are all loving.

The story of Ruth (along with Joseph and Job and Esther and others) is in the Bible to prepare us for bitter providences by showing us again and again that God is doing a thousand things that we do not know. And they are meant for our good...What I have tried to do in this book is draw out the personal and precious fact that this truth is comforting.  Yes, it is painful.  To know that our Father in heaven has ordained our pain is not a comfortable truth, but it is comforting.  That our pain has a loving and wise and all-powerful purpose behind it is better than any other view -- weak God, cruel God, bumbling God, no God.  To know that in His hands 'this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison' (2 Corinthians 4:17) is profoundly reassuring.  And yes, 'light' and 'momentary' meant, in Paul's case, a lifetime of suffering.  The excruciating 'lightness' of his suffering was light compared to the weight of glory.  And the interminable 'momentariness' of his suffering was momentary compared to the eternality of the glory." 

We ask Can it really be that God governs the sinful acts of men to make them serve His wise purposes without Himself being a sinner?  Yes, He can.  If He cannot, then there is no Christian gospel.

'Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel...that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures' (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).  Notice the repeated phrase 'in accordance with the Scriptures.' That means that God planned it.  God planned that Christ would die.  There would be no gospel without the death of Christ.  All the deeds that brought Him to the cross were planned.  This is explicit in the early church's prayer of praise in Acts 4:27-28: 'Truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place.'  This means that what Herod, Pilate, the soldiers, and the mobs did to Jesus was planned by God.  And all those acts against Jesus were sin. 

God does not sin.  He is holy (Isaiah 6:3).  He 'is light, and in Him is no darkness at all' (1 John 1:5).  He is 'the Father of lights' from whom comes 'every good gift and every perfect gift' (James 1:17).  But He clearly ordained that the murder of His Son happened.

...[quoting Joni Earekson Tada] 'I lean toward the old adage that God draws straight lines with crooked sticks.' In other words, when God ordains something crooked, He Himself is not doing anything crooked. 

If we can keep our eyes on the cross of Christ, where God infallibly certified His love for us...then the pain He ordains for us will not undermine our sense of being loved.  Instead, we will put our hands on our mouths and bow before His all-loving, all-ruling providence.  We will trust Him to only do us good - whether it feels good or not at the moment.  And we will wait for the day when all will be repaid and made plain.

A vision of God as absolutely supreme over all the evil of the world - natural and moral - has set Joni Eareckson Tada free to love others. ...  Ruth took the risks of love -- leaving her homeland, promising never to return, working faithfully for her mother-in-law through the heat of the day, going to Boaz in the middle of the night -- because she lived under the 'wings [of God]' (Ruth 2:12). The sovereign goodness of God is revealed to us not only for our comfort, but also to free us from the fear and selfishness that quashes the radical risks of love.

There is no safer place in all the universe than under the wings of the sovereign, all-wise, all-loving God.  But the shadow of these wings may take us to dangerous places in the cause of love.  You may be martyred in the shadow of the Almighty.  But you will not have wasted your life when you die in the cause of love.  As the martyr Jim Elliot famously said, 'He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.'

The book serves up other meals to chew on relative to gender, race, and the glories of Christ as He works in the bitterest of times in our lives for our good.  Some food "tastes" better than others, but God gives us what we need and I thank Him for it, and pray that He will use the truths Dr. Piper has drawn from His Word to nourish us and strengthen us to live and die in the cause of love for the glory of His name.  

my coach this week: Hudson Taylor

My curl-up-for-15-minutes-at-bedtime-book this week is Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor.  Last night I reached pg 165 out of 251 and came to this quote:

"I am no longer anxious about anything for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine.  It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest position He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient.  It little matters to my servant whether I send him to buy a few cash worth of things or the most expensive articles.  In either case he looks to me for the money and brings me his purchases.  So, if God should place me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength?  No fear that His resources will be unequal to the emergency!  And His resources are mine -- for His is mine, and is with me and dwells in me."

Isn't that worth a good chew?

Hebrews 11:4 tells us "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks."  Hudson Taylor has joined the crowd of witnesses along with Abel and a host of others who loved Jesus, body and soul.  He (though dead) still speaks to me as I read about the unswerving commitment he had to praise and trust the Living God and to make Jesus known to as many as he could actively seek out. 

I want to run the race of faith with endurance, looking unto Jesus the whole way.  How thankful I am for the crowd of witnesses that have run before us who are kind of like coaches, instructing and cheering us on (do I have ears to hear?). 

We went as a family to a basketball game last week and the winners played amazingly well as a team.  We heard more than one person in the stands make the comment that the team was well coached.  This morning I asked my kids what they thought it meant "to be well coached" and we had a fun little discussion about that.  We concluded that it isn't enough to have a knowledgeable coach who sets out to teach his players all he knows about the sport.  A winning team is made up of players who are wise enough to know they don't know it all, who trust they have much to gain from paying close attention to good coaches, and who put into regular practice what they are taught.  A well coached team requires a good coach AND teachable players who will give it their all to taste victory by the rules. 

Of course I helped steer the discussion to how that idea applies in our home school, which it definitely does (as anyone who has children knows, you can attempt to teach until you are blue in the face, but if your children have stopped up ears, you may as well be whistling to the wind).  I used the tail end of our discussion as an opportunity to praise my kids because, by God's grace, they already know and put into practice these "winning team" principles so much of the time. I thank the Lord for this!

I was glad for my chat with my kids.  I love being one of their chief cheerleaders, and count it a privilege to "coach" them along in life.  But all day long the thought that continues to go through my head is my own need to subject myself (in a fashion that goes beyond curiosity about their lives) to the instruction of people like Hudson Taylor who, though dead, still speak.  I'm too comfortable with mental learning...I need to LIVE by faith!

"Father, make me humble and teachable, and eager to put into practice what you teach me through Your Word and the faithful examples and instruction of Your people.  Thank you for so many good "coaches" as I run the race You've set before me.  And this week, thank You in particular for Hudson Taylor who reminds me on nearly every page of the joy of looking unto Jesus with all we are and have."