With all your might!

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with you all your soul and with all your strength."

"These commandments that I give to you today are to be upon your hearts."

"Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

"Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Impress them upon your children. Follow the leader all over again. Tie them on my wrists and bind them on my forehead, visible commandments seen in my life. Specifically, commandments my children can see in my life.

These thoughts were running through my head today as I began my first homeschooling session for a young boy in 9th grade English. We started our day by reading Ecclesiastes 9:10.

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."

We talked about the English language, the power of words, and the effort we give to our studies even though they may not be our favorite. Do it with all your might! As we reviewed the syllabus I designed for this class I said to him, "I'll be working right along side you. It will be our toil and not just yours. Our hands will work with all their might."

Practice what you preach, sister, my mind warned me. I put so much effort into planning his curriculum and I also put a lot of effort into the boys' daily schedule. I do this because I want the work of our hands to mean something. My day as a stay at home mother has to mean something every day, contributing to the end goal of raising my children to be compssionate, responsible adults. I don't need to be perfect, but finding value in even the simplest thing is important to me. The verse in Ecclesiastes doesn't say, "All important work your hands find" it says, "Whatever your hands find to do." Well, in my day, my hands find my children. I hold them, care for them, kiss them, guide them, cook for them, clean for them, soothe them...I have busy hands.

My hands have the opportunity, the calling, to impress God's commandments upon my children. I often ask myself how I can do this effectively for a 20 month old and a seven month old. Toddlers do not work with a syllabus and I can't just read commandments to my children at the moment. But I can act in grace and in love. I can impress the attributes of Jesus on my children by extending the mercy and grace He has shown me on them. Christianity is a beautiful thing. Relationship with Christ is a wondrous thing. Especially since I really suck at being a Christian sometimes. Maybe that is why I am already practicing the art of apologizing to my children, and recognizing my faults to them and professing my wrongs out loud. After all, follow the leader is a concept that starts in all things good and bad.

So my day started with two verses that encouraged me to impress God's love upon my children, making it visible on my person and in my actions, and working my hands with purpose. I have a lot of fears when it comes to my children. Surrendering them to God is never easy. Satan knows my weakness, he preys on my mind with fear. Fear is an ugly thing. It is a destroyer of life and freedom in Christ. If I let my fear take over, the doors of our home could very well be bolted shut against life. How terrible for my sons and for me! This fall I am making a personal spiritual effort to work my hands toward removing fear from my life. This is not a resolution! Its a prayer for spiritual guidance in my life, it is a daily act of meditating on binding grace to my thoughts and tying acts of freedom and joy to my hands. Fear has no power over me when the love of Christ is written on my doorway. Fear has no power over my children when I can walk through that doorway and teach them to wander the world beyond with purpose and might!