The last few episodes, we have talked about the responsibility of parents to get their own spiritual life on track. That’s a great thing and an admonition we can all use from time to time.
But we are concerned that you not take that as a big checklist that you’ve got to perform every day, one that has no life or heart in it. Instead, as we pursue the Lord each day we need to keep in mind the WHAT and the WHY of what it is we’re building in our homes, and how GOD has promised to help us do it. That provides a ton more motivation for our daily time with Him. Let’s talk about it on this episode.
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WHAT’S THE POINT OF A DAILY TIME WITH GOD, REALLY?
When you’re seeking after a regular quiet time, what is it you’re going for? What’s your goal? What are you seeking?
We really need to have a clear answer to that question to keep it from becoming a religious checkbox that we’re checking off that makes us feel like we’re doing okay, but we’re not.
Proverbs 24:3-4 says this…
By wisdom, a house is built and by understanding it is established. By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
The imagery that Solomon is using here is imagery of a house, a home being built and how it’s being established. In other words, he’s talking about what kind of foundation it has. But he goes on to talk about what fills it, all the good things that you need for a household to run.
Solomon’s prescription is that wisdom is the main tool we should be using to build our homes. Practically, that means that when we are trying to build our spiritual lives through our daily time with the Lord, it’s wisdom that we’re seeking in that endeavor. It’s the main thing we should be seeking from God to help us then lead our children down that same path. Wisdom is one of the primary things that we’re seeking. It’s one of those things that God promises us as well.
A BROAD PICTURE: WISDOM AS THE FOUNDATION OF YOUR HOME
A broad illustration may be helpful, especially for those parents out there who find themselves with young ones or newborns, or maybe haven’t even had a child born yet.
When you are seeking the Lord to build your home in wisdom, you are establishing a solid foundation for your children to grow on. That way, their foundation will be strong when they leave the home. They will have the right tools because you have guided them through wisdom and the knowledge of God. Then, thinking quite a bit further down the line, they will be able to build their home on a solid wise foundation and do the same for their children. That’s what you’re aiming for.
The second part of the verse says the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Again, we’re talking about spiritual riches and the experiences that flow out of them. Our testimony is that this is indeed what happens when you see God’s wisdom in your parenting. Our home was one of joy. Our children loved us and they loved each other. We didn’t have a whole lot of arguing or bickering or sibling rivalry. We still don’t as they are all now adults.
That’s the kind of fruit you should see as you build your home with wisdom, which the fear of the Lord brings.
THIS IS NOT A JOB FOR THOSE LOOKING FOR AN EASY BUTTON
Let’s get clear on the reality of that daily time with the Lord. When you make it a disciplined part of your life, it can very easily feel like a checkbox…like it’s just something you’ve committed to, something God expects of you, like an obligation. All those things are true on a certain level, but those are not the heart of why you’re doing what you’re doing.
What you’re doing is you are seeking wisdom from God for a much grander purpose than just checking a box.
You are seeking wisdom that is going to fuel you, not just in your own life, but it’s gonna fuel you as a parent for guiding your kids to become children who fear the Lord, children who love Him with all their heart, all their mind, all their soul, all their strength, who look to Him in wonder and awe rather than with skepticism and doubt when they hit their teenage years. It can happen because they’ve seen Him prove His wisdom to be true over and over and over in their lives. That’s why you’re doing this. That’s the end goal you’re aiming for.
We can’t stress it enough. Resist that very human tendency to think of your time with the Lord as an obligation and as a checkbox. It isn’t that. It’s your very lifeblood as a parent. It truly is. This is what it takes to make use of God’s wisdom in life adn in parenting. It’s what you MUST do if you’re going to raise spiritually healthy kids.
If the obligation and the checkbox mentality is an issue for you, if it makes you begrudge or resist a disciplined daily time with the Lord, take a moment to compare this to the things you do to keep your child healthy physically.
You never begrudge having to feed your children a meal because you know they need healthy meals to grow up as they should physically. You do your meal plans because you want your family to be healthy. You think about having the proteins and the vegetables and the fruits and all that kind of stuff. You teach them to brush their teeth, to take baths, things like that, because you want them to be physically healthy.
So if you are taking it seriously to feed them healthy foods because you want them to be healthy physically, then you need to, and you have to take it seriously to feed them healthy, spiritual food. And if you’re not eating that healthy spiritual food first, you need to do that first. And so if you’re feeling a little bit of a pressure there or an obligation or that it’s just checking off the box, well, the reality is is it is you have to do that to have a healthy life spiritually and to be able to guide your kids spiritually. Just like you have to feed your children a healthy meal for them to be healthy physically. Quit fighting against it and just see that this is just the way that life is.
We all have got to face up to the facts that life is hard. There are responsibilities involved. But at the heart of those responsibilities, we all need to remind ourselves that we want the outcome the responsibilities require.
It’s for our children, it’s for our home, and it’s about a legacy of faith that goes beyond you, goes beyond your kids, goes beyond your grandkids, goes for generations of faithfulness to God. Can you imagine that 5, 6, 7 generations from now, or a hundred, 200, 500 years down the road, all of your descendants walking with the Lord?
That’s such a captivating vision when you get it. And that’s where it starts. It starts with you building your home on wisdom, which starts with you building your life on wisdom.
Episode Transcript (click to open)
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INTRO AUDIO:
Hey friends. Welcome back. The last few episodes, we have talked about the responsibility of parents to get their own spiritual life on track, but I’m concerned that you not take that as a big checklist. You’ve got to perform every day, but instead, keep in mind the what and the why of what it is you’re building in your home. This is God-fearing kids and the parents who raise them welcome back to God-fearing kids and the parents who raised them. I’m Carey green
MINDI:
And I’m Mindi.
CAREY:
And we are here to talk to you about Christian parenting. And in our last episode, we gave you a challenge, right at the end related to the reality that godly parenting begins with you. And our challenge was that you began developing a regular consistent time of seeking the Lord. Mindi challenged you every day, get in the word of God, get into prayer. And today we want to follow that up by talking about really kind of the mindset behind that. When you’re seeking after a regular quiet time, what is it you’re going for? What’s your goal? What are you seeking? We really need to understand that. So it doesn’t just become a religious checkbox that we’re checking off and feeling like we’re doing okay. When’s really not having any effect on our own soul. Let’s start with Proverbs 24 versus three and four. And it says by wisdom, a house is built and by understanding it is established by knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
CAREY:
So this imagery that Solomon is using here is imagery of a house, a home being built and how it’s being established, what kind of foundation it has. And how is it being filled up with all the good things that you need for a household to run Solomon’s prescription is by wisdom is how the house is built. And so when we are trying to build our lives through our daily time with the Lord into a mature, godly life so that we can then lead our children down that same path wisdom is one of the primary things that we’re seeking. It’s one of those things that God promises us as well. I mean, did you want to read James one for us,
MINDI:
James? One five, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach and will be given to him.
CAREY:
Wow. Wow. That is just an incredible promise. I mean, if you didn’t catch it, let me reiterate what James said. He said, if you lack wisdom, which we all can raise our hand at a certain time in our lives where we’re, we’re lacking wisdom for given circumstance, he says, let that person ask of God who gives generously. Okay. So he gives so much wisdom when we ask for wisdom and it says, and without re approach. So that means he doesn’t ch you for not having wisdom. He’s not going to scold you because you should know this by now. He’s just going to give it to you. Is what James says. That is an incredible promise. We have the God of the universe who in wisdom created all that exists, promising us that if we ask for wisdom, he will give it so friends. That’s what your daily time with the Lord is about. You are putting that promise into action.
MINDI:
And that just makes me so excited hearing Carey, talk about that because I would say that is the testimony of our life, of our married life and raising our children. That’s the exciting story we want to pass on to you because just like you, we found ourselves lacking wisdom.
CAREY:
Oh, so many times
MINDI:
In our marriage with our parenting relationships, friends, family in every area of life. And we were constantly asking for wisdom. That’s one thing that drove me to have a regular time with the Lord every day, because I needed help. I needed to bring my troubles to Him. How do I handle this Lord? What do I do in this situation? And here we are, years later down the road, our children raised raising their own children. We’re looking back and we are just wanting to pass on the good news that God gave us. That wisdom. God was faithful and he is looking goods. We have every reason to praise Him and rejoice in what he has done.
CAREY:
Yeah. And this goes back to that issue of what we’re going to lean on as we pursue the Lord ourselves. And as we seek to guide our kids down a path that honors the Lord, what are we going to lean on? Is it going to be secular articles on parenting? Is it going to be a book that we picked up at the Barnes and noble? Is it going to be a podcast that we’re listening to that is all trendy right now? Or is it going to be the wisdom that the God of the universe promises he will supply to anybody? Who’s humble enough to ask. That is just an incredible, incredible promise that he gives us and the follow up verse right after it says, we have to ask in a certain way, if we’re going to see Him provide for us, you want to read that to us?
MINDI:
Yes. It’s James one six, but let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
CAREY:
Yeah. So we’ve got to ask God for wisdom in faith. Now, what does that mean?
MINDI:
That means believing he’s going to do it. Yeah. And it makes me remember the verse that talks about without faith. It’s impossible to please God. So we need to believe that God will answer our prayer. And that makes Him happy that pleases Him.
CAREY:
Yeah. And
MINDI:
That’s, and you can’t wait to answer.
CAREY:
Right? And that’s a demonstration of how we are fearing the Lord. In that moment. We are believing Him when he says, I will give you wisdom. All you have to do is ask. And so we believe we go confidently. And then here’s where I think the rubber meets the road. We ask Him, that’s a prayer of sorts. We’re just speaking to the God of heaven. We’re asking Him, give us wisdom. Then we take a deep breath. We assess the situation and we start acting. We start moving forward. Assuming he’s giving us wisdom. And that the course that we’re taking is one. He will fill up with wisdom as we go. You don’t have to have all the answers to get started. You don’t have to have every step lined out. You just have to start moving forward, trusting Him to fill you with wisdom as you go. And the holy spirit is so faithful. He guides us through the production of the fruit of the spirit as we go. So he, he causes love to come out of us. He causes peace and patience and joy and all those things to come out of us as we are applying the wisdom that God gives us.
MINDI:
Yes. And I just want to paint kind of a broad picture, especially those parents who find themselves with young ones or newborns, or maybe not even having children yet, but when you are seeking the Lord to build your home in wisdom, and then you are establishing a solid foundation for your children to grow on. So their foundation will be strong when they leave the home, they will have the right tools because you have guided them through wisdom and knowledge of God. So they will have the right tools and they will already have the wise foundation that you laid for them so that they will be able to build their home on a solid wise foundation and do the same for their children. That’s what you’re aiming for. You’re aiming for a solid wise foundation based on wisdom, which proverb says it will be established and you will have pleasantness and joy and riches. Like the second part of the verse says the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. I would tell you that is what we experienced. Our home was one of joy. Our children loved us, their parents, they loved each other. We didn’t have a whole lot of arguing or bickering or sibling rivalry. We, we still don’t have that. Even as adult kids. That’s just the fruit that you’re going to see as you build your home with wisdom, which the fear of the Lord brings.
CAREY:
Yeah. And so bringing this all full circle, let’s just be really clear about what we’re talking about. When you do that daily time with the Lord, it can very easily feel like a checkbox like this. Just something I’ve committed to. It’s something God expects at me. I need to do this. It’s an obligation. All those things are true on a certain level, but those are not the heart of why you’re doing what you’re doing. What you’re doing is you are seeking wisdom from God for a much grander purpose than just checking a box. Every day. This wisdom is what’s going to fuel you, not just in your own life, but it’s going to fuel you as a parent for guiding your kids to become children who fear the Lord. Children who love Him with all their heart, all their mind, all their soul, all their strength, who look to Him in wonder and awe rather than with skepticism and doubt when they hit their teenage years, because they’ve seen Him prove His wisdom true over and over and over in their lives. That’s why you’re doing this. That’s the end goal you’re aiming for. And I can’t stress it enough, resist that very human tendency to think of your time with the Lord as an obligation and as a checkbox, it isn’t that it’s your very lifeblood as a parent.
MINDI:
It truly is. And what Carey’s talking about is raising your children to be healthy spiritually. And I think if the obligation and the checkbox is an issue for you, maybe if you think of raising your children to be healthy, physically is kind of the same thing. You never begrudge having to feed your children a meal because you know, they need healthy meals to grow up as they should physically, and to be healthy. And for you moms, you do your meal plans. You want your family to be healthy. So you think about having the proteins and the vegetables and the fruits and all that kind of stuff. You don’t complain about that because you know, you want that you teach them to brush their teeth, to take baths, things like that, cuz you want them to be physically healthy. There’s so much support in that in the, this world, even today in every area regarding the physical outward appearance.
MINDI:
So if you are taking it seriously to feed them healthy foods, because you want them to be healthy physically, then you need to, and you have to take it seriously to feed them healthy, spiritual food. And if you’re not eating that healthy spiritual food first, you need to do that first. And so if you’re feeling a little bit of a pressure there or an obligation or that it’s just checking off the box, well, the reality is is it is you have to do that to have a healthy life spiritually, just like you have to feed your children a healthy meal for them to be healthy physically. So I would encourage you to quit fighting against it and just see that this is just the way that life is.
CAREY:
That is a great word. We all have just got to face up to the facts that life is hard. There are responsibilities involved, but at the heart of those responsibilities, I think we all need to remind ourselves that we want the outcome. The responsibility is going to provide it’s the outcome where we have to put our eyes and it’s for us. It’s for our children, it’s for our home. And eventually we’ll talk about this in one of our episodes, but it’s about a legacy of faith that goes beyond you, goes beyond your kids, goes beyond your grandkids, goes for generations of faithfulness to God. Can you even imagine that that 5, 6, 7 generations a hundred, 200, 500 years down the road, all of your descendants walking with the Lord, that’s just such a captivating vision when you get it. And that’s where it starts. It starts with you building your home on wisdom, which starts with you building your life on wisdom. So before we wrap up today, I wanted to mention that we hope at some point to do some Q and a episodes where you can send in your question and we can answer it on one of these podcast episodes. So if you’re interested in recording in your own voice, your question for us, you can go to God, fearing kids.com and click the appropriate button that says, ask your question.
MINDI:
So thanks for listening today. We’ll talk to you again soon.
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