Family-A Mission Field
I wrote this devotional a week ago, knowing we would have a house full. We've had the snake bite and tonight a dog visiting our neighbor walked into our yard. I daughter asked the owners to come get it. They didn't budge out of the water. The dog walked to our dock and attacked the same little grandchild who has just been able to stand today after the snake. He's in surgery now. His ear, eye and mouth mauled.
Five children were apart of this traumatic tragedy. The devil is nasty and I'm struggling right now.
If I don't post for awhile it's because I'm tired.
A great number of our herd is grazing here at Shiloh this summer. My prayer is that it is a place of restoration from the storm that 2020 has brought into our lives. I know of numerous families who are hunkering down together and hopefully building one another up! As I read the beginning of Ruth's devotional today I chuckled. It's so true.
"Find me a woman headed to a family gathering, and I'll show you a sister who's conflicted-both eager to know and be known, and paralyzed in the midst of the messy relationships that shouldn't affect her as much as they do. Or show me a mom beginning a new day with littles demanding attention from the moment she awakes, and I'll show you that joy and disappointment, hope and desperation can coexist when it comes to family."
I've told our children and our grandchildren over the years, I don't know what God is thinking, but I do know he purposefully chose to make us family. His plan is for us to love one another and encourage one another through life!
Whether our families are what we want them to be or not, we do have the family of God to embrace. That can become a cop out though, just wanted to stay in the calm waters.
Ruth says, "Recognizing that my home is a mission field-equal to a remote land or culture-changes the way I think about people right before me and my reasoning about why God has placed me there...God went to great lengths to instruct His children about instructing their children. He helped the Israelites make the connection we need as well:
"Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only true God! So love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. Memorize his laws and tell them to your children over and over again. Talk about them all the time, whether you’re at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning. Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and foreheads to help you obey them. Write these laws on the door frames of your homes and on your town gates." Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Our goal this summer is to learn to pray more deeply, to pour scripture into our hearts and minds and to become more like Jesus in the way we live and love others.
