Dear Young Mother...

I have been invited to a baby blessing for my grandson... Basically, it is a group of ladies that gather around the baby and pray for him at different stages of his life.  The church we are attending has had them for decades but I am new to the whole business.  Personally, I am not so sure of how I feel about it either.  I am all for praying for children and pray for my children and grandchildren daily but I'm not so sure about this once for all approach.  At any rate, I was asked to give a short devotion and these are my thoughts...

Dear Sarah,

One of my favorite quotes from Tozer reads "Our prayers will become effective when we stop using them as a substitution for obedience."

Prayer is good.  Prayer is vital.  Prayer is not the totality of our work as a Christian. All the prayers we offer up here today will be of none effect if we ignore the plain precepts that our Lord lays down in scripture.  You, sweet momma, and your man are the feet of the Lord's plan.  You are His mouthpiece, His arms, His enforcer.


let's read from Deut 6 verse 2

That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; that thy days may be prolonged.

As I watch you raise and love my son's sons.  I seek to encourage you that the time is short.  As a woman of God, you do not have the luxury of living for today... none of us do.  Living for today is a lie that Satan feeds our world to lull us to sleep.  It is imperative that we catch God's vision and to see down the telescope of time so that we not only raise godly children but  that we also raise godly children that will raise godly children.  What a waste if our work dies in the next generation.

Let's skip down to Deut 6: 4- 9

Hear O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord:  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.  And thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates.

Our Lord then repeats this entire message again in Chapter 11...

The Bible gives a very clear picture of raising a child for God and the picture it paints is that of a child underfoot...so beautiful and so contrary to what society teaches us about child rearing.  Satan hopes to cause us to run from our children. Let the pastor, youth leader, coach, school teacher or group peers be responsible for the training of your child.  And yet, God, lovingly in his word encourages us to run towards our families.  To work beside them, to dive headlong into their messy, chaotic, vibrant world and to teach them that they are a valued and important part within their family and within the family of God. 

By keeping them underfoot we are constantly available to point them to Christ, to remind them that they live in the presence of a holy God,  we serve as the frontlets between their eyes. 

I am reminded of a story that Christ told in Luke 11.  A man ended up with an unexpected visitor late at night and had no bread to give him so he ran to his neighbor and beat on the door asking for bread.  The neighbor answered, "trouble me not the door is shut and my children are with me in bed.."  If that isn't a picture of a child underfoot then I don't know what is.... and if you have ever had one of those little buggers turn sideways and take up all the room turning your spine into a pretzel then you know what I am talking about. When thou risest up and when thou liest down....cherish every moment and use it... even pretzel time... to teach Christ.

It is not enough to keep our children from evil.. to simply remove "bad" from their lives.  Further down in this same chapter we find a man that was healed from an evil spirit and he wandered around finding no rest for his soul.  His rooms were clean and swept but he had nothing wholesome to fill them with and so he went out and took to himself seven more spirits that were worse than the first.

A mother's duty is to fill her children's days by speaking words of light. Fill their lives with the presence of a Holy God.  Remind them that they are ambassadors for Christ and that they must serve Him with love, honor, and respect.  She must infuse every part of their being with Him.  Be watchful of their souls, sweep out the evil and replace it with good.  Examining their hearts and allowing them to see hers. 

We must walk with our children underfoot and constantly be leading them back to the feet of Christ because before you know it their feet will bring them to a path beside ours instead of under ours and that footing must be secure.