Out of the mouth of Covenant Kids
My children did not appear to be paying attention to the sermon today. Adam and I were busy exchanging knowing looks as Pastor Wade preached on exactly what we had been discussing the day before, and going even farther in the comforting us during our family's difficult times right now. He was preaching on God's will-both His secret will, and His revealed will (His Word). I'm not going to even try to recap - go to www.wpcbryan.org to hear the sermon in it's entirety. REALLY good message.
Anyway, on the way home we hadn't even started our discussion of the day's message when Mom hit a curb and we blew the tire. (Yeah, learning humility is an obvious part of God's will for me lately. Not so fun.) Shoveled out the car to find the spare, etc. and while Daddy fixed the tire the older girls played "Thankfulness Ping-Pong", going back and forth thanking God for things instead of grumbling and complaining. After specific answered prayer over the stuck lug nut we headed home. THEN we talked about the sermon and lo and behold at least Fiona was actually listening! She repeated the gist of what was shared and then we looked at how that looked right now in our lives. 1) Secret will: our tire would blow 2) Secret will: On Valentine's Day Adam got an unexpected gig that should pay for the new tire (we'll find out tomorrow at Sam's). 3) Revealed will: our memory verse last month "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving" (Col.4:2), also several of the verses Wade touched on in the sermon on giving thanks no matter what. Cool, huh?! I love instant gratification faith lessons, much easier to bear than the loooooong lesson of which we're still in the middle.
The first humility/revealed will lesson of the day came from Fiona. As we were getting ready for church she had some spare time on her hands so I told her to vacuum hers and my room. As she was obeying she inquired weren't we supposed to remember the Sabbath and rest, not work. My pride at being questioned (though she did it in the respectful, correct way we had instructed her) flared and I told her to just finish, though my conscience was tearing at me. Long story short, had to ask her forgiveness, explain that our family does necessary work (i.e. making food, feeding pets) on Sun. but I should have had her spend that time reading a Bible story to Lily or something along those lines to prepare her heart for worship and honor God on His day. What's interesting is that she either came up with her application just from reading the 10 Commandments, or from something taught sometime at church (which I don't remember) or just by observing our Sunday behavior. We never (I'm ashamed to say) sat down and said, this is what we understand God's Word to be saying and this is how we are obeying it. I love that we belong to a church family that is constantly teaching God's Word and encouraged that my kiddos are paying attention to not only our family but our extended family in Christ.
