Living Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go,

Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

~Proverbs 22:6

It feels really good to get back into the swing of things after the Holiday's! I was blessed to have two straight weeks with our children during their CHRISTmas/New Year break! It was great to just hang out and do whatever we wanted that day!! But after two weeks of little structure and schedule, I think we all needed and looked forward to our daily routine because things were getting a little crazy!! =)

Getting back on track with our morning Bible and prayer time is awesome! If you don't do this with your children *I really encourage you to start!! If your faith is important to you...you'll choose to put it FIRST in your lives! There is no better way to start each day than to open God's word and dig in IT along with your breakfast!! I need this just as much as our children do!

It's a choice and a commitment...just as everything else that is important to us.

Now, I feel on my heart to mention that some days there is one obstacle in front of another to do this. I don't want to give you the impression that the Thompson family is holier than thou, perfect, never struggle and open their Bibles everyday. That is not near the truth. Living out our faith is hard and sometimes ugly due to the areas of sin we/I still struggle with. Sometimes I look at another family and think...wow, they have it all together. But the truth is that if you peek in their windows they deal with the same issues you and I deal with! I feel that the enemy fills our heads with defeated lies so that we don't push through the valley to get to the beautiful mountain side!

To be honest...it's those days that I don't choose to spend quality time in my Bible that I struggle more! Now I can honestly say that I open my Bible everyday, but that doesn't count. I'm talking about REALLY digging in and absorbing the Word in it's fullness, not just a scripture here and there. It's our daily bread, our strength, our armor, instruction and encouragement to get through each day in a Godly manner. When we don't equip ourselves DAILY...things go quickly down into the pooper!

In our Bible time this morning the Holy Spirit gave me an example to share...

We have a little yellow strainer that the kids play with in the bath tub. I asked them to think of themselves as that little strainer. I asked what happened when they reached up and turned on the water over that strainer. It pours down into the strainer right?? And we have the control on how hard we turn on the water. If we turn it on just a little bit...a little bit trickles down through the strainer and might dribble out a few holes. If we turn it on full force...WOW...(the kids faces LIT up) how it is overflowing over every side, BURSTING through all the little holes out the bottom, streaming down in every direction!!!!

Isn't that an example of our faith? God is always there waiting on us. He gives us free will and the choice to reach up and grab hold of that faucet....but how far are you turning on the water?? You know that the facet is their right? But how much water are you allowing to yourself? Is it only allow a dribble to flowing down to you? Maybe a little more when there is a difficult time going on in your life...but when it passes, you slow the stream back down again??

This was my life for many years...I believed in God. I prayed to Him. But honestly, it was only during a crisis or tough time that I needed Him to get me through. I describe myself now, as a crisis prayer...and I only had a small trickle or sometimes thin stream of water flowing down. I didn't have much of God to fill me let alone flow down to my children.

Most of my issues were about control. I wanted to control my own life...I wasn't really taught about who God REALLY is...sure, I prayed the sinner's prayer (a few times over), but did not completely surrender my life to Him. Hmmm, maybe I thought my life would be boring or I'd have to give up too much....

But what would happen if we all would turn that water on all the way!! WOW!! My face lights up just as my kids faces this morning!! We would be so full!! So full that we flow down to everyone around us...and Christ could use us to help fill them up to!! That we would pour into them the joy, hope and peace that we can only receive through Christ!!

WOW!!

I pray that we would draw closer to the Lord in 2010!! That we make the choice DAILY to reach up and grab that faucet...that we would pour the Living Word into ourselves and watch how God will faithfully fill and overflow us!!

Let me tell you...we will not give up anything, but gain! And life will absolutely not be boring but more adventurous than ever before!!

Much love~Tina