Deuteronomy 6:4-7 reads ““Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home . . . “

When we began searching for the home to buy when we were transferred here from New England, I learned something wonderful. Just by walking through homes, I could tell which was a Christian home.   All homes are an expression of what the family values and it mattered to me what we would be following.

So I asked myself, “How long would it take for someone to be in our home before our guest knew that the Reilly Bed & Breakfast was a home that valued family, life, and Christ?” What magazines and books were on the shelves, pictures on the walls, DVDs, CDs on the racks, reading material in the 2 ½ libraries.

Psalm 101:2-3 reads, “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.” 1 Corinthians 10:23 states, “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.” Psalm 119:37a shared, “Turn my eyes away from worthless things.” This has been our mantra and the basis for setting media (video and music) standards for the family. This takes lots of love, patience, humor, communication, and prayer. Consistency was the key for us.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reads, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children…”

Another positive routine in sharing your faith with your family is to teach and practice the holy habit of tithing with your kids. In our first worship service at our home church, the pastor shared in his sermon that “tithing is a holy habit.”

When our kids were little, they dropped a quarter we would give them every time the offering plate was passed and they saw us put in our envelope or check. Later, when they began making their own money (Baby Girl babysitting and #1 Son mowing lawns,) we taught them how to divvy up their money before it was earned and church was always first.

I happened to come across a journal entry the other day where I wrote, “’#1 Son’s first true tithe today $1 from $10 earned mowing the Carroll’s lawn yesterday.” He was so excited that when they brought up the baskets, he leaned in to whisper, “My money is in there for God.” When I asked him about it the other day, he shared that it makes him happy and a part of something greater than himself that his money is in there.

Did they always want to do it? Probably not, but they have both seen God do “His thing” for their faithfulness. God makes Himself very real in the eyes and heart of a child when holy habits are begun when they are young.

Baby Girl and #1 Son practiced this holy habit when they were young and as they grew older and made more money, it was very natural to tithe and support their local church first. It’s part of their lifestyle today.

Andy Stanley said, “Being a percentage giver ensures God’s kingdom is funded before mine.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reads, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children…”

Another positive routine to share your faith with your family is to insist on worship with other believers. Some parents get real nervous making their kids go to church, especially if their kids whine, complain, and say they don’t want to go. If Mom and Dad force them to go to church, the kids announce that as soon as they move out on their own, they will never go to church again. I’ve seen many parents then panic. They want their children to choose a life of faith and fear that it will backfire if they force it. Kids often don’t like routines that are good for them. So, will you ignore what they want and give them what they need? You don’t give them a choice to take a bath, brush their teeth, get vaccines, or take algebra, do you? Then worship shouldn’t be up for negotiation. I share from personal experience that my own mother caved with my eldest brother. Although he remains open to matters of faith (as expressed through his son who attends a Christian private school) he is unopen to matters of Jesus. I now wear the bracelet and continue to pray for his salvation.

At the Reilly Bed & Breakfast, if you overslept and didn’t make it to worship, then your week must have been way too busy. So, you would not be going anywhere for the next week. The rule was you had to be BIS beside the family before the pastor took the pulpit for the sermon or discussions would take place about your lifestyle (or lack of it) for the next week.  BIS meant “butt in seat.”  There have been at least 4 times where our son skateboarded in just in time for the sermon and we worshiped at 8:15am.

Something else my kids heard me say that I took from a wise pastor: “Worship on Sunday begins on Saturday.” Bible, clothes, alarm, gas in the car, and tithe. Part of that preparation for me was to intentionally make Sunday mornings really special. That was the one morning during the week when I woke up the earliest of any other day during the week and I prepared and delivered a light breakfast in bed to everyone at the Bed & Breakfast.  It could be juice and a muffin for my man, hot chocolate and a piece of French Vanilla toast for Baby Girl, and hot tea and a muffin for #1 Son.

Impress the importance of “worship as a family” on your children.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reads, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children…”

Before we can impress our faith on our kids, do they even know that we value our faith? When we value our faith, we’ll keep looking for the LORD in all areas of our lives and we’ll celebrate every opportunity to see Him in charge.

Mealtime is an awesome time to share your faith with your family. My kids won’t remember that I got up and made their lunches every day, but they’ll remember the riddles I put in there, the words of encouragement and the occasional dog bone that their Dad would put in (don’t ask). My stepmother used to check me out of school at lunch time once or twice a year to take me out to lunch to give me a chance to share what was going on in my life, my dreams, my troubles, my joys. And this was huge because in my teen years, there were 9 of us kids at home. I had an audience with only her. It wasn’t until she went home to be with the LORD, when I was 25, when we discovered that she did this with each and every one of us.

When my kids were older and the afternoons were filled with practices and music, how was I going to get those loving faith messages to my kids? Lunchbox notes “You are special. I’m glad that God gave me you for my daughter,” or emailed our son, “Thanks for taking out the trash without being told,” we used praise and scripture stickers on a sandwich bag or used a permanent market on a juice box or a banana to write scriptures and words of encouragement. Their Dad regularly sent them postcards from the places he had to travel with his work. Placing a roll of postcard stamps in his briefcase made it super easy. Write a note in their agenda; just flip ahead a few weeks.

When they learn to look forward to the words of their earthly mother and father, they’ll learn to appreciate the words of their Heavenly Father: “For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” from Philippians 4:11 “For nothing is impossible with God” from Luke 1:37. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God” from 1 Corinthians 10:31. One of our family favorites . . . “Be dressed and ready for service” from Luke 12:35.

Just like you’d mark a child’s height on the wall or doorframe as they grow in stature, you can also set spiritual growth markers. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 gives us our marching orders to be intentional in those spiritual growth markers. When Moses proclaimed, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments (reports) that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children,” he was teaching not only the belief in one God, but also how to preserve that belief.

It’s in the home where life’s most crucial curriculum is taught. Children spend 1% of their time at church, 16% in school, but much of the remaining 83% in and around their home.

Do your kids know where your bible is? Do they know which is yours? Let them see your Bible, used, written in. This is your history with God. Do they know the story of your bible? Where did it come from? When did you get it? I asked Baby Girl why she read her bible the way she does and she told me, “Because you read the cool and exciting stories to me when I was a little girl. Now I want it for myself.”

Just as simple as setting your Bible out and letting your family see you engaged in the Holy Book, let your family see you praying. Suzanna Wesley, the mother of the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, had 13 living children. She spent every morning with the LORD and her children knew it. Each morning and several times throughout the day her children would find her with her apron pulled up over her head and they knew it was her time with the LORD. What a sight!

What does your faith look like for your kids? What are the tools they see that build your faith?

I fell in love with Jesus on the flannel board in Sunday school. Praying with our pastor in our living room, I accepted Jesus as my Savior in central Florida a week before my 10th birthday and was baptized the following Sunday. I wore a light lavendar pants suit (it was 1971, you know) and was baptized in the Caloosahatchee River that ran behind the orange grove down our street. The only further instruction I received after my baptism was to “be sure to read your bible every day.” From that time until I had my first child, I was a baby Christian.

Jesus didn’t jump off my flannel board until I was 26 years old, on September 15th, in Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The moment I delivered Baby Girl, I finally got it. He gave up His child for me! At that very moment I confessed by baby-Christian-hood and begged that Jesus would become LORD of my life . . . and LORD of her life at a very young age. 20 months later, I prayed He would become LORD of our son’s life at an early age, as well. God honored those prayers and blessed our intentionality to do all that we could to make that happen.

With the humblest of heart, Baby Girl and #1 Son were more spiritually mature at 14 and 16 than I was at 25. Why? Because they had parents involved in God’s Word daily, they were connected with a body of believers through the local church, they each had regular Sunday school teachers in Children’s Ministry, and small group leaders that were invested in their lives as young adults under the direction of Titus 2 (if you want a good chuckle, read Titus Chapter 2 to see what the church is to teach young women and what the church is to teach young men), and a Mom that had committed their lives to the One she’d been raising them for. We intentionally and purposefully made the LORD the center of our home. And you can, too.

The scriptures tell us in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 that in short…Your family is your first ministry; your children your first mission field. Over the next couple of weeks I will be offering suggestions to help you be intentional and purposeful as you commit your children’s lives to the One you are raising them for.

Check out Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and begin this month with the basics: Worship in church together every Sunday for the next month and offer a prayer of thanksgiving at EVERY meal. I can’t wait to see how God will bless your efforts.

About . . .
Ministry through Mentoring
Empower through Exhorting
Encourage through Educating

A personal board of directors that include:
Five who know me and speak truth into my personal and professional life that includes someone in their 20s and someone in their 60s.
Five who I follow through their writings, their testimony, and their expression of discipleship.

A renewed sense of direction that requires clarity, few specifics, prayer, and a “Spirit of YES.”

Just some thoughts as an “encourage through educating” season begins today with 8 training events over the next 3 weeks.

“They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.” Psalm 88:17

“At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.” Acts 26:13

If June is Kingdom-building month through Vacation Bible School, then July is meant for “Champion Hunting.”

It is my belief and experience that the LORD places within every disciple a desire to make a difference in the world around us. It is also my belief and experience that the local church is a fabulous place to try new things in making that difference. Short-term (mini-camps) or long-term (Sunday School), the local church is the perfect place to get the chance to “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Coming off a high (“ain’t no high like the Most High”) of VBS service, is the best time to invite folks to prayerfully consider what their “do it all for the glory of God” thing may be for the next school year or even through December:  aka “Champions” of local church ministry.

Tools for Champion Hunting:
1. Calendar with holidays, school schedules, local church traditional events (ex: Chili cookoff that follows Thanksgiving).
2. Bible with scriptures claimed for the previous season to re-read (Psalm 143:8 and 1 Corinthians 10:31) for this has been the momentum and the filter of a fruitful season
3. Prayer list of those who have stepped up and permitted the Holy Spirit to show up and show off in the previous season
4. Email
5. Cell phone

Champion qualifications in no particular order:
1. A teachable spirit as evidenced by submitting to Safe Sanctuary training (submitting to the process including the “Sweet Spot Application”)
2. Active in worship (our presence in response to God’s presence – it’s what we do and who we are)
3. Joyful service (serving below their “pay grade” aka committee membership and overheard in the vbs kitchen “you know, I’m just here to serve.”)
4. A Spirit of “Yes!” (a sense of fearlessness to just “do it all for the glory of God” no matter the “what ifs,” or the all the details aren’t ironed out – a champion of a ministry should be able to set those details as an opportunity to take ownership and truly champion the ministry as their own for the next season)
5. Spiritual and Personal Integrity (not perfection, but we all know the “uh-oh” feeling we get when something’s just not right or the servant is just not ready . . . yet.)

July is Champion Hunting month – inviting specific disciples to answer God’s call on their lives to prayerfully consider their committment for the next school year or through December to throw themselves in to a season of “doing it all for the glory of God.”

Then I get to serve these humble servants as cheerleader, investor, resource provider, keeper of the fearless vision, and prayer warrior.  Short skirts aside, I have my pompoms ready.

I’m a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit Power. The dye has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of HIS. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me – my banner will be clear.
(written by a young African pastor and tacked on the wall of his house; sits in a frame on the living room shelf of the Reilly Bed & Breakfast)

Just feeling the need to name it and claim it.

Shaking hands with folks during the “meet and greet your neighbor” minute of a Sunday worship service offers precious face time with people who are faithful to join in worship to a Savior we all share. But it doesn’t hold a candle to seeing the gifts shining on His behalf when people gather for a few short hours to welcome children into the local church.

I have been shaking hands with some fabulous people on Sunday mornings since April. But I have shared life and seen the gifts of others shine on Christ’s behalf so brightly in the last week and a half that I couldn’t have anticipated. These are just a few of my discoveries:

– When people wear panda ear headbands, they begin to raise their hands in worship and praise.
– A soft voice from one who LOVES His Word can captivate the attention of even the most rambunctious of little boys
– A kind word of inclusion will break down the walls of fear
– The environment and decorated space matters for children AND adults
– When 2 or more servants decked out in all their black and white regalia go to dinner afterwards, they can make a table waiter’s night
– Just because someone always has an opinion doesn’t mean that it or they translate into action
– Just because someone doesn’t have an opinion could mean that they are ready for the task, purposeful in their preparation, and completely engaging with every child they meet
– Rain is just weather and will not keep folks from doing what they need to do
– VBS is not a chick thing, but a “called disciple” thing
– Preschoolers just make me happy because they are naturally charismatic
– Men in VBS bring an element of inclusion like nothing else

Seeing the gifts of others poured out onto children are a drink offering as unto the LORD.  May I be found faithful in saying “thank you” to a God who gifts us all differently.  And may I also be found faithful in expressing to each and every servant that their very presence has been the perfect visual that “God is WILD about every child.”