Training up my own child

I wanted to share with you our little story from this last weekend. I got an email a few weeks ago about tickets to attend the taping at Life Today with Beth Moore for their Wednesdays with Beth segments for last weekend.  I have been before, but through the series of circumstances that led to me getting the tickets this time, I came to really see the Holy Spirit being in charge and that something great was up. I had no idea, however, what it would be.

I texted a faithful bff and sister in the faith immediately and we were both totally on board to go. I then contacted a couple of other friends in the area. One already had tickets, but the other did not. At this point 3 out of the 4 of my tickets were spoken for.

That last ticket… it was a toughie.  One of my friends had a woman on her heart that has been going through a difficult time and we both tried everything we could think of to convince her to come with us. But it was not to be.

I finally had the idea to invite my 9 year old daughter to come with us for the Friday night session. She was unsure about it, but the clincher was when I told her that dad and brother would just be watching the baseball game (the Rangers) again that night… she was MORE than willing to get out of the house at that news. HA! At the same time I continued to try to get someone to take the ticket for Saturday.

Friday night came and it was just so wonderful. Sarah sat nearly on the edge of her seat the entire time. Bible open, highlighter and pen in hand; taking notes and highlighting important words and phrases in her Bible.

It was the most precious sight for this mother’s eyes to see.

At the end of the evening the Life Today staff began talking about the next day’s schedule. Sarah looked at me and said, “Y’all are doing this tomorrow, too?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I didn’t figure you’d come since you have a soccer game and stuff. Do you want to come back tomorrow?”

“Oh mom, yes! This is SO worth it.”

Well… how can you argue with that, I ask you?

She was up the next morning before I even got the chance to go wake her up. She was ready. Hungry and ready. (I’m about to tear up just writing this.)

It was so clear by mid-way through Saturday’s sessions that the 4^th ticket was intended for her the whole time. God had reserved her a spot and wouldn’t let me give it to anyone else.

You see, the Lord has just been pressing down on me and putting on my heart with such heaviness the urgency concerning the spiritual education of my children. He has just opened my eyes to the need for parents like myself to really model what “Training up [your own] child” looks like for other parents. We can’t put the responsibility on anyone else if we want to take every step possible to turn around the current trend of young adults leaving the church and their faith behind in droves never to return.  We can’t continue to expect that our kids are getting everything they need from a 1 hour Sunday school class once a week.  We can’t continue to  allow someone else to be the model for them.  That is our job as their parents and we need to take it on. 

What an opportunity this was for me to share in some Bible teaching with my daughter and allow her to see the beauty of women gathering together and loving on one another in the name of Christ. It was also an opportunity for obedience and for me to live out what I’ve been saying with my mouth: I will not be held captive by my kids’ sports schedules; it’s not the most important thing. It really felt like this was God saying, “Are you going to walk what you talk?” I think I passed the test.

And the Lord blessed me with being able to see a little of the fruit of our labor over the last 9 years.  It is such an encouragement to me to keep on and even step it up.