What God Has Done

What God Has Done

Psalm 44:1 "Oh God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old."

I really love this verse because it challenges us to keep alive all of the things we know about God. We can do this by discussing what we discover as we read His Word. We can also show God's greatness and His good plan and protection as we share our own family stories.

Recently some of our family were going through some very old family pictures and sharing memories. Most of the people in the pictures were unknown to our grandchildren. Immediately I was led to share stories, values, failures and blessings related to those ancestors. With each story we could see God working, blessing and preserving to get us to where we are today.

Challenge: Use family stories to show that God has a plan and He achieves it with love for us.

Instructions Help

"Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life." Proverbs 4:13

As I read this recently, I thought of our children and our desire for them to choose God's way. Then I thought, "WOW! God wanted that, too. Therefore He wrote and preserved instructions for how to encourage them in choosing His way."

Challenge: Ask God to give you (me) hunger for God's Word. Ask Him to give you (me) understanding when we read, so that we can be obedient to the instructions.

Let's praise Him together as we savor day after day the truths in His Word.

Security

"If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes, and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with a rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from them my steadfast love, or be false to my faithfulness, I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips." (Psalm 89:30-34)

Read this several times and let the promise settle into your heart. Use this as a pattern for your relationship with your children. God affirms:

“Nothing makes me stop loving you.”

“I will always be faithful.”

“Nothing breaks my covenant”

“My word is sure. I mean it.”

Challenge: Make sure that this picture of God is painted. See Him as the only ONE worthy of worship. When facing failure, keep these promises before you to assure your hope and security.

School Renewal

"And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:9-10)

After the exercise of reading these verses and perhaps rereading them, school may be more exciting, more fun, more challenging, more rewarding.

Challenge: Evaluate your assignment by "filled with the knowledge of his will." Evaluate the child's reaction to the school work by the

phrase: "so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord." Evaluate student work by: "bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." Both teacher and student could be measured by each of each of these evaluations.

Rejoice that the WORD of GOD has a plan for renewing your school.

Building Together

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." (1Thessalonians 5:11)

Even before time began, God could reach out through the ages and be fully aware of how rushed or confusing school has been going for your family on THIS VERY day. His WORD prepared you for this day. His thoughts are complete and include relationships that you are involved in right now. Thank Him; Praise Him!

Challenge: Go over this verse and talk about how those in your school might be helped if you practiced it. Recognize the value that God places on encouragement as he practices it here by ending the verse "just as you are doing."

Love, Becky