Fire

  You know, I have always heard about how we are like a fire and it is better to be in community as believers so you don't fizzle out, but yesterday a new fire analogy came to me.
  The kids and I were at my mother-in-laws house and were enjoying a campfire.  The kids were being very good with the fire and were throwing just about everything in that they were allowed to.  After a while they got in to throwing dead grass and pine needles in.  After a whoosh of flame from some dead grass I asked Josh which he would rather be in his Christian walk: grass that burns quick and hot but than dies quickly away, or coals which burn good, long and strong?
  Than I realized I needed to ask myself the same thing.  Do I jump up and burn bold and strong for a minute only to fizzle and be used up like grass on a fire?  Or, do I keep the embers glowing so that when the wind of the Spirit blows I am able to light others for Him. 
  Which are you?

Trees and kids

  I took a trip with the kids and my mother-in-law out to visit some family in western Minnesota last week.  On part of our 4 hour ride I saw some trees.  Maybe ten trees all in a line, which is not unusual for this part of the state, and all staked.  What I noticed about them is that they were fairly new trees.  As I thought about it I realized that it was very important to stake trees when they are young.  When they are young and able to be changed in their direction is when you would stake a tree. No one would try to make a crooked full grown tree straight, it's too late.
  Than I thought about my kids.  I need to train them, to stake their character when they are young.  I must pull on them and mold them while they are malleable enough to do so.  It is very difficult to change the direction of an adult, but much easier to change a child.  "Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it", now has a very new, very real meaning to me.

My own responsibility

    I have been trying to teach my kids lately to focus on their own responsibilities.  I have heard a lot lately "Why do I have to do this?  He's not working!" or "Why can't I do that?".  I have heard a lot about the other kid.  I am trying to teach them that they need to be responsible for their own actions, not the actions of anyone else. I say "What did I tell you to do?  Than worry about that, not about your brother or sister."
   As I was thinking about this training for my children I thought about what an important lesson this is for adults as well.  Often we are so concerned with other people that we don't take care of our own responsibilities.  We worry so much  about what they are doing, how much work they have, how much fun they have, that we aren't listening to our Father about what we ought to be doing.  If we would just listen and obey many things would go better. 
  I also tell my kids "You are not responsible for your brother's/sister's actions".  I need to remember that as well.  I am not responsible for others actions, not even my children's actions.  That doesn't mean I have no responsibility towards them at all.  I am responsible for my actions of influence.  Am I influencing my children for God or not?  I will answer to God for that.  Have my children followed God well?  That is their responsibility, they will each answer to God for their own walk.  
  This is the same thing with my kids.  Is Josh influencing  Caleb by being cheerfully and promptly obedient or by throwing a fit when asked to obey?  Is Hannah influencing Josh by responding quickly and cheerfully or by grumbling and complaining?  And again am I influencing my children by doing my work cheerfully and willingly or do I procrastinate and complain?
  We each need to listen to God and follow through on our own responsibilities. How are you doing?