Saturday, January 05, 2008

What are the Stones in My Life

In my morning Bible reading, I've gotten to the part of the book of
Joshua where God stops the Jordan River so the people can cross over
into the land He's promised them. He tells Joshua to tell each tribe
to pick out a stone, which will be used to recount this miracle to
their children when they ask.

It got me thinking: what are the stones in my life? What are the
windows of opportunity to express God's past faithfulness to me to my
kids, so as to strengthen our faith in His future faithfulness? How
can my kids benefit from the good things God has done for me, things
that happened before they were born but that they can still consider
part of their understanding of God's goodness?

We do pray with our kids, read them the Bible, and tell them what
communion is when it's being served. Sometimes we'll show them
pictures of meaningful Christian people in our lives and recount ways
those people have portrayed for us a little of what it means to follow
Jesus, or share about our scars (literal or figurative) and how God
was faithful through hard times.

But God has done much, much more for us that we have not yet passed on
to our kids. I have a feeling this was also true of God's people in
Joshua's days. And so just as God thought it a good idea for them to
pick up some stones and use them as markers of past faithfulness, so
might it be good for us to consider some markers of our own.

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