Who do your kids see when they see you?

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6 NIV

‘Do as I say, not as I do’ seems to be the norm anymore.  We’ve forgotten that our kids learn how to behave from mimicking those they spend the most time around. Who do your children see when they look at you? Do they see Jesus or do they see someone who is busy, always helping others, never having time for family dinners, football games and scrabble? Do they see the hands and feet of Jesus in your life or do they see the back of your car as you drop them off at church?

Kids are {far} smarter than we give them credit. They know when something is important to us and when we’re just going through the motions. They know when our heart isn’t in it.

Is your heart in it?

What do you want your kids to see when they look at you? Are you serving with them, along side them? Are you encouraging them to be bold, be different, to stand up for God in school?

Hurt yet? This post kicks me in the gut and I thought I did pretty well, but let’s kick it up a notch, shall we? A friend of mine posted something on Facebook that made me pause and think, “Wow, I never, ever thought of that.”

Do you pray for the man or woman that will {eventually} marry your child? If not, you should.

Praying for the eventual spouse of your 3, 6, and 9 year olds may sound silly, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. In her post, she commented on the fact that she already loves the wife her son will pick because she prays for this girl every day. How amazingly awesome is that?!? (see, Facebook IS good for some things. *grins*)

The bottom line is that our kids need us to be real, to be authentic, or to not bother at all. They know fake, they see it everyday. We need to genuinely carry them along so that they can choose Christ for themselves. They’ll have a really hard time if they never see Jesus in us.

LORD, I pray for my children and for the eventual spouses of my children. God I pray that you embolden them, cut them from thick cloth so that they may stand up against the trials they will face. God, I don’t pray for easy, for only laziness and commonplace comes from easy, but I pray for strength