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sidenote: Big thanks to Christina at “To Show Them Jesus” for her kind words and review of my book!!  Be sure to check out her blog on a variety of topics as she journeys through parenting her children toward Jesus!

“The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites.  Say to them:  ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.’  So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” – Numbers 6:22-27

This past Sunday we were reminded of the importance to “Bless” our children.  Not simply saying “bless you!” after they sneeze, although our 2 year old LOVES to fake sneeze about 5 times afterward, simply to continue receiving blessings. 🙂  But this concept of speaking out loud a specific, and biblical blessing over our children on a regular basis.

When we first purchased a small Bible for each of our daughters, we selected specific verses for each one of them.  We pray soo many things for each of our daughters, but wanted them to know this prayer had been specifically chosen for them.  If this sounds like something you’d want to do, I would point you toward Proverbs 3, which is full of great verses to pray for our children.  But there is a difference between a prayer and a blessing.  A prayer lifts your child up to God.  A blessing joins with God in giving something to your child.

The thing that stuck with me from our conversation this past Sunday, was from verse 27 above.  That this speaking a blessing over someone, is connected to how God’s “name” will be put on them.  We don’t think too much about “naming” our children after we’ve filled out all the proper paperwork at the hospital.  We write, with trembling hands, hoping we don’t spell something wrong and leave our child forever scarred with a name like “Rubby”.  But the truth is, throughout scripture the word “Name” is very closely related to the word “Nature”.

There are all sorts of “names” that the world attempts to put on our children.  News reports about the next generation and what “they WILL be like”.  Brands that target our children on every cereal box, toy ad, and commercial around.  Concepts being ingrained in their subconscious even by “names” like Disney and Barbie.

But we are called as parent to not sit passively as our children are labeled with names from all sorts of sources.  We are called to actively speak God’s name (nature) over their lives, and establish their roots firmly as children of God.  It also causes us to recognize what we are allowing to name us as parents.  We are not named by our past, or what we’ve done so far – both in parenting and in life overall.  We are being renamed as “New Creations” in Christ on a daily basis, and called to lead our children humbly and confidently as they receive the name (nature) God is offering to them as well…

I often find myself in the position parents all throughout time have been in, explaining a large word or concept to my 4 year old in ways she can grasp. The word we were discussing was the word “patience”. A word her daddy needs to work on every bit as much as she does. The phrase I came up with to help her understand was simply, “patience means it’s okay to wait”. An appropriate word, as next Sunday begins the season of “Advent”.

In Exodus 24, God calls Moses to the mountain to meet with him. Moses goes, and ends up having to wait 6 days before God reveals himself. As they’re meeting together on the mountain, the people of God find themselves waiting 40 days and 40 nights, and they grow impatient. It seems not only here, but throughout scripture, God’s people should be those who not only “know how” to wait well, but look forward to those times of waiting.

This seems to be appropriately against the normal pace of an instant gratification world. The culture of hurry, and filled schedules. It also seems like a very important/beneficial time to embrace the concept of “waiting”, as we begin the season of Advent this week. We wait, and what we will celebrate together gives us strength and reason to remain faithful today.

The people of God in Exodus 24 lost sight of that. In chapter 32, we read a disappointing scene where God’s people have lost patience in waiting for Moses. In their impatience, they’ve created an idol to give them spiritual gratification immediately. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say, many times we Jesus-loving church goers find ourselves with the same desire for instant spiritual gratification.

But what about the faithfulness of God that comes after a period of waiting? All of creation waited for Christ to come, and oh how things have changed! The people of God wandered in the wilderness, waiting to enter the promised land. Jesus spent his time in the wilderness, being tempted by Satan and spending time apart with God – preparing him for his earthly ministry. Noah and his family waited through the storms, and waited even beyond that for the water to recede, in order to experience the covenant living of God. Abraham and Sarah waited quite longer than they expected, to experience the beginning of God’s faithfulness to His word.

In each of these, the wait was much more than “okay”.

May we be people who are not only experienced in, but filled with anticipation by…waiting on the Lord.

I remember taking “Speech” back in college.  All students were required to participate in an all-day speech tournament, and there were rules/guidelines we each had to follow.  I decided I would do a speech that helped me with a paper I was writing for “Bible”, and so mine was on the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  What I hadn’t thought about was how boring of a topic that would be for a speech competition.  I tried hard to make it entertaining, even making a visual set of “caves” from which I removed each note-card for my speech.  But in the end, I only lasted one round.

But in the process of teaching others about the Dead Sea Scrolls, I became more knowledgeable on the topic myself.  I could answer any question, and would even find ways to tell others about them – because my brain was wrapped around this topic.  I’ll tell you, I was a real hit at parties around this time. (sarcasm)

It’s a natural temptation, sometimes, to think about our role as Spiritual Guides and Bible teachers to our children as completely “for the kids”.  But to do this is to miss out on a huge aspect of God’s desire for our parenting journey…

(to read the rest of this post, check out my guest post at “To Show Them Jesus“)