Building a Fire

On this past Mother's Day, Bruce Wesley with Clear Creek Community Church (our church home) delivered a message titled, "Building a Fire." It struck a chord with me and resulted in me keeping my notes which I stumbled upon the other day. Now that I look over them as a mother and not a mother to be, everything takes on so much more immediacy and looking at my little girl makes it so much more imperative that I remember my responsibility in giving her a head start in her faith.

The message was centered around scripture found in 2 Timothy 1:4-7 "As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."

The main point was that as mother's (and essentially all parents) we give the faith we live to our children and that we can give them a "head start" by offering a sincere faith. By focusing on building the fire in your own heart you can give your kids a greater start in their faith/life. I have been blessed to have a mother and grand mother that both demonstrated a sincere and real faith to me and that in good times and bad were honest about their emotions and their relationship with the Lord. Their actions mirrored their words. I am part of a legacy of strong women of the Lord, women who strive to be and often emulate Proverbs 31 women and I don't want that legacy to stop with me.

Bruce gave us three questions that help you determine where you are in offering a sincere life and sincere faith to your children:

1. If your child's spiritual life became exactly like yours, would you feel like you succeeded as a parent?
2. If God only did in your child's life what you specifically asked in prayer, what would the spiritual life of your child be like?
3. If your child were asked to write out all that he or she learned about God from you, what would they write?

In the end, we are to take responsibility for you own spiritual like and "fan it into flame" for our kids. Make your spiritual life personal and accessible. As for me, those questions have not left my mind since I found my note sheet the other day. Honestly, I am struggling with the first question and need to take the time to develop my actions to match my words. I will be writing out those three questions and posting them in various places so I am constantly reminded of what a pivotal role my actions, non actions and prayer play in Peyton's future.

The message is no longer available online but if you would like to learn more about Clear Creek Community Church, listen to more recent messages you can visit their website at, www.clearcreek.org.